About dark cloth

[Alan Davenport]

I made my darkcloth. It's sized so the short dimension is will go around the rear standard of the camera. The long dimension is about 1 meter or so. Then it uses a weird Velcro-type tape, that has both parts of the Velcro mixed together-- the hooks are sort of buried under the fluffy loops so it doesn't snag on things. The downside is that it also doesn't grip itself as well as I'd like, but it works. I ran the Velcro about 1/2 meter along edges so the cloth closes into a tube.

I made the cloth from a heavy denim-like fabric, two layers of black and a third layer of white on the outside.

It's not really light weight, but it sure is dark inside.

[gevalia]

I found it hard to use the hood on my Chamonix, there always light coming from the space between the back standard and the bed.

I had the same problem with my Chamonix. When I use my darkcloth, I put a big rubberband over it and around the rear standard. Light tight and free.

[aphexafx]

I just recieved a SunShade 40" x 40". It's light. It's huge. It has an elastic banded end to fit right over the rear standard, with velcro to keep it snug. I can't imagine why I would ever want anything else. Oh, and it was cheap. Like, $20 to my door.

[Drew Wiley]

I've commented on this several times before. I prefer black Goretex. It's lightweight,
very durable, waterproof, breathable (comfortable), and lint-free.

[Songyun]

I've commented on this several times before. I prefer black Goretex. It's lightweight,
very durable, waterproof, breathable (comfortable), and lint-free.

where can I get black Goretex?

[RooX]

where can I get black Goretex?

Goretex itself, is actually a very fragile membrane that cannot be used for this application on its own. It would be laminated in between two separate layers, usually an out layer or ripstop nylon, and usually a special inner layer (rather tough) of a proprietary fabric from Gore. There use to be a 2 layer, which was an outer layer of nylon, then the membrane followed by a mesh, but you wont find it much anymore.

[Mick Noordewier]

I just recieved a SunShade 40" x 40". It's light. It's huge. It has an elastic banded end to fit right over the rear standard, with velcro to keep it snug. I can't imagine why I would ever want anything else. Oh, and it was cheap. Like, $20 to my door.

Matt,
Who supplies SunShades? Can you post a link?
-Mick

[aphexafx]

Mick, I meant to put "Sun Shade" in quotes, not concatenate it into SunShade like a brand name, heh. These are the generic nylon dark-cloths that seem to come from Japan and Hong Kong on eBay.

This is the listing where I got mine: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...Category=29981

It says "used" (just noticed that) but mine was brand new, factory creased, and sealed. The nylon is slick black on the outside and red on the inside like a parka or light ski pants.

Anyway, I like them.

[ki6mf]

I have a 3' square Kalt dark cloth got from B&H. Its double layered all black nylon with Velcro at one end to go around the camera. Lightweight, stuffs in a camera bag or pocket and doesn't cost much. They are NOT available year round so check inventory first. Cost around $24.00 too

[Phil O.]

This may draw a few laughs, but I use a regular hand towel for my 4X5 and a bath towel for my 8X10. Both are dark brown in color and have elastic strapping sewn into one of the long sides. The elastic is something I picked up in a fabric store and is what would be used in an elastic waist band. The elastic part attaches the towel to the back of the camera.

Why a towel? It started out as low budget way get on with doing my large format photography until I could afford to buy a factory made dark cloth. But I found that the towel came in handy at times for drying myself and camera gear off when caught out in a rain. When possible, I try to depend on a portable umbrella to keep things dry when the rain comes. I shake out the towel every once in awhile to cut down on the chance of dust or lint getting on a film holder.

When I was starting out back in the 1980's, I took a two day large format workshop with Howard Bond. On the last day we went into a greenhouse to put our teaching to work. Howard saw me with my towel, gave me a funny look and said he'd never seen anything like that before. When I told him how it did double duty, he seemed to find some acceptance in that when he suggested the idea to me of adding the elastic strapping.