The vacuum deposition of metals onto poly (dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) gels was studied as a function of the crosslink density and the polymer substrate temperature during the deposition. Reflectance and conductance measurements were used to characterize the quality of the resulting metal films. Variations in the measurements were found to depend on the substrate temperature during metallization and on the particular metal used. For most cases, the variations of conductance and reflectance can be accounted for by cracks in the metal film and the coarseness of the surface texture.