Carlwen negative carrier

**MrDen** · 29-Sep-2021, 15:49

Hi,
Do you use Carlwen rapid negative carrier.
It permits to change films on a carrier quickly.
Don't know how you fix the plate, if this is mountable on an Omega for example?
Is it worth it? How much would it cost, regarding this is rare.
Best regards

**Greg** · 30-Sep-2021, 15:34

I have used them since the early 1980s. Back then my favorite one was one that printed several rows of 35mm negative frames to make an enlarged proof sheet. Carlwen claimed that their carriers "stressed" the film to keep it from sagging. Always questioned that claim. But then once compared their 120 & 4x5 carriers to common Durst simple metal carriers and their claim was valid. Negatives in simple metal DURST carriers sagged after being "heated up" by the enlarger's lamp. Negatives in Carlwen carriers didn't seem to sag 95% of the time. Once took a workshop under George Tice. He demonstrated enlarging 35mm negatives with a Leitz enlarger with no glass carrier. He would turn on the enlarger's light for a minute with the lens covered. Then he would subsequently make the exposure with the negative already being "popped".

Currently I use Carlwen carriers in my 4x5 Durst. 35mm up to 4x5. Good examples of them are getting harder and harder to find and acquire. I have come across many that had been abused or maybe just used an awful lot by a professional printer.

**Drew Wiley** · 30-Sep-2021, 16:12

For serious work Carlwen made fluid carriers, slow and messy, but a real glass sandwich, which is the only way to keep film truly flat and consistently in focus. Any "popped" negative isn't flat at all, but just popped the other direction. Pro slide projectors offered lenses for both curved negatives, which had popped while in the carousel, and truly flat negs within glass rather than cardboard mounts. During a slide show, anyone with normal vision could detect the difference between the two methods.

But what I really wanted to interject is, wouldn't all of these accessories be quite easy to replicate using modern CNC machining? Why worry about "scarcity" if you need something like this? But forget 3D printing - you want dimensionally stable and truly flat anodized aluminum plate material, not any kind of plastic. Any decent machinist could do it.

And of course, Carlwen made Omega adapters. But once again, that kind of thing might be far easier to make today than to find used. Glenn Evans (Glennview.com) probably still has a variety of Carlwen odds n' ends on hand. I only briefly perused his list, but yes, I did notice a few Omega D adapters.

**Renato Tonelli** · 1-Oct-2021, 06:51

If I am not mistaken, Carlwen negative carriers were made for specific enlargers. I have a 35mm carrier for my Durst L-1200. It saves some time when you print more than one image on the same strip.
I think that I still have a Carlwen brochure; I can look for it, scan it and send it to you, if you'd like (send me a PM).

**mbuonocore** · 1-Oct-2021, 08:08

I have some Carlwen sales pamphlets and magazine article from the 1970s scanned, but the pdf is outside of the allowable size for this forum. Too bad. The pitch on the advertisement was "Speed up you enlarging. Fewer Scratched Negatives. Dust Easily Removed. Saves you Money."

The system used different carrier bases for different enlarger models. The ones I have are for a Durst Laborator 1000, but they made separate bases to fit the Omega D series as well. These carrier bases are made using a dense foam (similar to what you'd find in foamcore) so that they would fit snuggly into the various enlargers. The problem is, this foam is now 50 years old, and is probably starting to fail. Mine is brittle and crumbling.

The carriers themselves are just aluminum, and machined nicely enough. For the style of printing that most people tend to do in the darkroom, I'm not sure how much time this rapid shift system would save. The only frame that interested me was the Multiple Strip 35mm proofer - it help 3 strips of 35mm film. I agree with Greg above, in that it would be hard to find a good condition example of the Carlwen carriers. I think they were pretty rare even when they were being manufactured.