The Páramo Dark Cloth provides a clear viewing screen in all conditions and is practical and comfortable to use in wet and windy weather. Although designed primarily for large and medium format, a number of photographers have used the Dark Cloth successfully with Digital SLR to slow down the process, thereby improving composition and the visibility of the LCD screen, especially for fine focusing among live view users. The Páramo Dark Cloth is available now for £90.

Páramo Directional Clothing Systems Press Release

The Páramo Dark Cloth – an innovative new development ideal for large and medium format camera users

Páramo Directional Clothing Systems are broadening the availability of their versatile Dark Cloth which has already proved very popular with a wide range of professional and committed amateur photographers. The Dark Cloth is very adaptable, able to cater for the individual preferences of creative photographers. At the same time it gives significant advantages over other dark cloths commercially available, being both weatherproof and highly breathable, but also quick to dry and lightweight. The soft and quiet fabric is easy to manoeuvre and the intelligent design makes it easy to fix to different camera types and to choose a traditional camera cloth or different size of ‘tunnel’ depending on the conditions and on preference.

The ‘birth’ of the Páramo Dark Cloth
In developing its renowned range for outdoor photographers, Páramo works closely with professionals in this area to ensure that product features suit their needs.  This is equally true of the Páramo Dark Cloth developed by collaboration between David Ward, Joe Cornish, Phil Malpas, Chris Andrews and two keen photographers from Páramo Range Development. This ‘collaboration’ took place on a Light & Land photographic trip to Glencoe in January 2007, during a pub rest stop, taking a respite from the weather. The resulting ‘beer mat’ sketches combined all the elements that the photographers were seeking and provided the starting point for Páramo to hone the ultimate Dark Cloth. The resulting prototype was tested extensively by that same team of well-respected photographers and a year ago, once its performance was assured, the Dark Cloth was released to Light & Land customers. Having been contacted by an increasing number of large and medium format photographers from around the world, Páramo are now making it available to a wider audience.

The unique advantages of the Páramo Dark Cloth
The Páramo Dark Cloth uniquely combines a number of benefits which greatly enhance its usefulness to photographers who are used to the current cotton or poly cotton products on offer which can be heavy when wet, very slow to dry, awkward to fix to the camera and require the photographer to choose between either using a standard cloth or a tunnel design.

The unique Nikwax Analogy fabric of the Páramo Dark Cloth provides a significant improvement:
- The fabric is weatherproof – combining a windproof outer with a ‘Pump Liner’ – this combines lightproofing and colour neutrality with protection from wind and precipitation;
- Analogy fabric can be re-waterproofed as required with Nikwax aftercare products – it can be folded and compressed without damage and easily repaired if accidents happen;
- Most importantly, the fabric is highly breathable and actually moves moisture away so significantly reducing the potential for condensation and misting of the viewing screen;
- The fabric dries exceptionally quickly so reducing the amount of water one is carrying;
- The fabric is soft, flexible and quiet so very comfortable to use.

The unique design of the Páramo Dark Cloth builds on the fabric advantages:
- Drawstrings and zips allow the Dark Cloth to be used as a traditional camera cloth or as a tunnel – with two options for tunnel size, making it simple to adapt to high winds etc;
- Secure, lightproof fixing to the camera;
- Placement of red fabric at one end makes it easy to position correctly in low light conditions;
- Zips and poppers are selected to be easy to use for cold and wet hands;

The resulting Dark Cloth thus provides a clear viewing screen in all conditions and is practical and comfortable to use in wet and windy weather – indeed, many of the images in Joe Cornish’s newest book, Scotland’s Mountains: A Landscape Photographer’s View, were created using the Dark Cloth. While another of the Dark Cloth’s ‘founding fathers’, Chris Andrews, details his experiences in a wild and wet Whitby. “I used the Dark Cloth for the first time on a recent trip to Whitby. The first advantage soon became apparent – I was able to fit in an extra lens into my camera bag with the space saved compared to my previous dark cloth. The double drawstrings at the camera end ensure a secure and light-tight fit, so I didn’t have problems with the Dark Cloth coming detached from the camera, as I have previously. A passing storm on the Sunday proved how efficient the weatherproofing is, with the cloth being virtually dry when I came to pack it away. The other main challenge over the weekend was high winds, gusting up to 60mph. Not ideal for 5x4, but I used the zips running the length of the cloth to reduce the amount of cloth blowing around in the wind very successfully.”

Although designed primarily for large and medium format, a number of photographers have used the Dark Cloth successfully with Digital SLR to slow down the process, thereby improving composition and the visibility of the LCD screen, especially for fine focusing among live view users.

The Dark Cloth is available from www.naturallyparamo.co.uk for £90. A few limited edition Dark Cloths bearing the signature of Joe Cornish and David Ward are still available from Light & Land.

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