The electrical conductance and the optical density of evaporated carbon films are measured as a function of the thickness of the films. The resulting data show that up to a thickness of approximately 4 nm, carbon films are optically transparent and electrically insulating. The same data also suggest that this insulating character persists near to the surface when the overall thickness is further increased. Since a support film with poor surface conductivity is undesirable for many applications in electron microscopy, we suggest that the usefulness of evaporated carbon films in electron microscopy might be further improved by doping or by other methods that improve the electrical conductivity near the surface. (C) 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.