Dark Load bags (was: Kodak Infrared freshness

["Willem-Jan Markerink" <w.j.markerink@xxxxx>]

On 20 Oct 98 at 17:22, George L Smyth wrote:

> Benson Wills wrote:
> > 
> > Ibrahim brings up another question that I had.  Can HiE be loaded in, say,
> > 90% subdued light?  Perhaps a dark room where it takes your eyes several
> > minutes to adjust?
> 
> I have done this in a pinch.  When in Wales I tried stuffing myself into one of
> those closets.  I was waiting for the whole thing to tip over. <g>  No real
> problem.  However, I have slightly fogged my film at other times in the past. 
> Loading in subdued light should be an emergency situation where you have no
> other choice.

Reminds me that I still have a non-functional darkload bag....one of 
the elastic 'arm bands' ripped while I was changing film, and my heart 
froze (imagine a burning sun on the Expo in Lissabon....8-)).

Luckily all 10 films turned out fine, including those I had to load
after the incident, in the then semi-functional bag (trying to use
only the far end corner of the bag).

Interestingly enough, I discovered that it was far more easy to
enter small cameras through the arm opening (now wide open) ,
instead of through that silly and clumsy double-zipper (which tends
to jam both when in a hurry....sadly not much different than the
zippers on both my Lowe Pro backpacks....that trip I even had to
throw the towel in the ring, and cut the zipper of my MiniTrekker
free.....what an horrifying design....it only takes a double layer
of textile to prevent this jamming....fools....but I
digress....8-)). This discovery led me to the conclusion that some 
kind of smart of elastic bands (inner and outer layer offset) 
might be a far more convenient concept than this silly zipper.
Too bad I don't have access to the rubberized light-proof textile, or 
I might have my textile repair shop come up with a prototype.

One more important bag-related note:
On this years PhotoKina, I saw a new tent-like darkload bag from
RedWing, similar concept as the PhotoFlex (? not sure, that all-black
normal dome-tent shape unit, which appeared not to be IR-proof in
early generations AFAIK). Anyway, this RedWing popped open more
squarish, like two intersected cylinders, with all the ends chopped
off. Another difference is that it has aluminium-cladded textile
all-around, so it should be inherently much better in the IR-proof
department (the elasticized arm-openings are black, so it might not
be 100% perfect).
Working size is 41x54x41cm, packed size 41x54x2.0cm
I asked about the IR-proof quality of course, but they had not tried 
that, nor confirmation from clients....so I still have to contact the 
European distributor for a test. Will be continued!





--                 
Bye,

Willem-Jan Markerink


      The desire to understand 
is sometimes far less intelligent than
     the inability to understand


<w.j.markerink@xxxxx>
[note: 'a-one' & 'en-el'!]
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