printing 6x9. what carrier to use?

[68degrees]

Soon I will have a 6x9 camera and I want to have my Beseler 23cii ready to
print b&w negatives 6x9 and 6x6. They are such big negatives though, what is the best carrier? Glassless or glass?

 

[f16sunshine]

I have the same enlarger. The glassless carriers do a nice job holding flat negatives.
Make sure your negs are flat and you're all good.
I have glass carriers for 35mm but, seldom have used them.
No thanks to two more surfaces to jeep dust free.

Make sure you get a 105mm lens for enlarging those 6x9's .

 

[68degrees]

Make sure you get a 105mm lens for enlarging those 6x9's .

for 6x6 also or just 6x9? Thanks I was wondering about that.

 

[Dwig]

Glass carriers are a royal pain in the butt. There are issues with Newton's rings and dust (4 extras surfaces to collect it). Glassles, on the other hand, eliminates the Newton's ring problem and there is less of a dust issue as only the negative can collect it.

Glassless carriers also eliminate another attribute of glass carriers; negative flatness. Hence, way back when, when I still did wet darkroom work, I printed most images with a glass carrier (Beseler 45 with 4x5 glass carrier). All the medium format, Polaroid 665 PN negs, and 4x5 sheet film negs were printed with a glass carrier. 35mm was a mix. For most, I used a glassless carrier, but occasionally I used the 4x5 glass carrier. When I needed to print the the very edge of an image whose edge was extremely close to the end of the strip the glassless carrier offered two choices; crop slightly or loose support for the end of the neg and loss some sharpness since the neg wouldn't be as flat. The glass carrier was the cure.

"You pays your money and makes your choice", as the saying goes. For me it was a glass carrier.

 

[Mark C]

I use glass and don't really find it to be any trouble. Especially with 6x9 you can get a lot of movement with glassless carriers from the heat of the enlarger head.

When I use glassless, I turn the enlarger on for long enough to pop the negative before focusing, then again just before exposure. Plenty of people don't do that and are happy enough, but a comparison will show the difference if you are using a good lens not stopped down to where diffraction is an issue.

 

[zsas]

Congrats, what'd you get? the Meadalist?

fwiw, I use the glass carrier on my 23cii, but do find dust to be a pain to keep track of. I've learned how to spot my dust spots! Find some Spotone if you use glass. And yes to print 6x9 you need a 105mm