Alternative Enlarger Lamps

In their wisdom, the Australian Govt has recently announced that by 2009 they will ban the sale of incandescant light bulbs, forcing people to CFL. I'm not sure of the details yet, but potentially this ban could make it impossible to get replacement incandescant bulbs for my enlarger, since it takes standard Edison Screw light bulbs.

I haven't tried yet, but my thoughts on using CFL in the enlarger are that it wouldn't work too well - CFLs tend to not start immediately, but more concerning is that they don't turn off instantly, and glow for quite a time after turnoff. Does anyone have any actual experience with CFL in an enlarger who can tell me if my thoughts are on track?

If I can't get incandescant, would LED be a viable option? I assume I would have to use white led, and lots of them. LED would be good in the sense that it doesn't get as hot, but again my thoughts are that it wouldn't be as bright, and the spectrum being peakier than incandescant may be an issue. LED does have the advantage though that it is available in ES fittings and so could be used without modifying the enlarger.

The other thought I've had is converting to Halogen (apparently they won't be banned). Halogen in theory should have similar spectral response to Incandescant, but converting over to the different fitting would probably be painful.

Or, should I just bulk buy incandescants while I still can?

If it makes any different, the enlarger is an old meopta and I only do B&W.

Hi. I have seen some threads about this topic, and it's clear that your country is going pretty quick with this trend and scarying the rest of us off.

If you do a search here with the search function, you will find those posts.

In Japan, we are catching up. Until a few months ago, I didn't hear and/or read much about it, but now the same eco-campaign on the use of certain lightbulbs is everywhere in the Japanese media. Everyday it's all about global-warming, oil-price increase, potential food shortage, and so on...

My advice to you is, just buy enough spare bulbs for your enlarger when you can and worry about it later.

Buy more than you will need now and sell some later. When I couldn't get a replacement transformer for my Beseler 45 Dichro head I extracted the transformer, 83v, and replaced the 83v bulb with a 120 volt, same color temp and specs and run it off a CV. You have to think ahead and get the parts or find replacement parts.

It's hard to believe that a country would ban incandescence bulbs because of the technical equipment that was specifically designed for that type of bulb. It's one step backwards.

A few US states are considering bans on incandescent bulbs, too, but I don't know if any of these bans have actually passed.

A few random thoughts/comments:

• It'd probably be simplest to just buy a bunch of the incandescents while you still can, although that might also be the solution with the highest up-front cost.
• If you're doing B&W only, using a combination of blue and green LEDs might be more efficient than using white LEDs. Even if they're dimmer than an incandescent, if the LEDs emit at the right frequencies, they might expose as well. This is just speculation, though. For color, you'd need to add red to the mix. Getting the proper frequency matches could be tricky, though -- ideally, the LEDs should emit at the frequencies at which your paper is most sensitive. I believe blue LEDs are especially problematic in this respect. In any of these cases, you'd probably have to either modify the enlarger or create some sort of custom mount to fit an array of LEDs into a standard incandescent bulb's fixture. Some people have been experimenting with using LEDs in photographic enlargers, but I've not been following the topic all that closely.
• If an alternative is necessary, halogen strikes me as the most likely to be viable. My first enlarger was a Durst C35, which took an odd 55W tungsten bulb in R20 format (known as a P3/106 or MELAMP 55). These are now very rare and expensive, but I found that a 50W halogen in PAR20 format worked well as a substitute. These bulbs used the same screw base as the originals, so no modifications to the enlarger were required. Most enlargers don't use the C35's R20 bulbs, and I've not looked into available substitutes, but I imagine that they either are currently available or will be available if/when such bans become common. Whether such substitutes will work well in enlargers (and especially in condenser enlargers) is another matter, though....
• In my experiments with my Durst C35, I found that CFL bulbs produced very weak light compared to the original bulb. This could be a matter of the specific bulbs, though, particularly since I was looking for bulbs in an R20 shape, which limited my options. As you say, the fact that fluorescents tend to glow after being turned off could make them a no-go even if they were bright enough.

Curt said:

It's hard to believe that a country would ban incandescence bulbs because of the technical equipment that was specifically designed for that type of bulb. It's one step backwards.

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I certainly can't speak for all such legislation, but the proposals I've heard about in the US include exceptions for bulbs needed for certain applications for which substitutes aren't readily available. I don't know whether photographic enlargers would fit into this category. If you know of such legislation that's being considered in your country or state, it certainly makes sense to look into it and try to get the legislation to include such an exception.

srs5694 said:

I certainly can't speak for all such legislation, but the proposals I've heard about in the US include exceptions for bulbs needed for certain applications for which substitutes aren't readily available. I don't know whether photographic enlargers would fit into this category.

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One would hope that such an exemption would apply, but given that the bulb this one takes is a standard 75W 240V Edison Screw bulb, I wouldn't like the chances of it being considered special purpose, especially since <sarcasm> film is dead</sarcasm>. I would anticipate that after the changes, if they are still available for special purposes, that the much reduced demand would lead to a significant hike in price. I guess stockpiling ahead of time is the smart and simple option, especially since bulbs aren't very expensive now.

grahamf72 said:

I guess stockpiling ahead of time is the smart and simple option, especially since bulbs aren't very expensive now.

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This would seem the best option, especially as in 35 years of B/W printing (albeit not at a high volume) I've never had an enlarger bulb fail except when dropped! On that basis, three or four spare bulbs will be more than ample to see me into the great darkroom in the sky!

Steve

If, and I repeat if, the only problem with the CFL bulbs is start up and shut down, use a card to cover and uncover the paper. I'm not sure that's the only problem, though. Sandy King reported some tests, I believe in a thread on the BLB type bulbs for alt process, that showed there was a drifting of light output. The conclusion was that for alt process, where the exposure times are measured in multiple minutes, the drift was not significant. However, for silver paper where the exposure is in seconds, the drift may be a real problem.
juan

The 5000 Watt metal halide lamps I formerly used in graphic arts diazo reproduction started out at about half output, and took about 30 seconds to reach full power. In this application exposures were long enough and not too critical for this to be a problem. Leaving the lamps on continuously wouldn't have been practical.

I'm coming a bit late to this thread, but it is of importance as the EU is also planning to phase out incandescent bulbs in a couple of years, so I need to stock up.

The thought occurs that, if we are forced to use the CFL bulbs, they would have to be used in a similar way to a cold cathode head. When I was a working photographer I always used cathode heads in preference to condenser – nicer tonality and much less time spent spotting prints. The cathode head had to be kept on all the time you were working, exposures being made by use of the red swing filter. Not difficult.

Does anyone know how the spectral response of the CFL bulbs compares?

Hi !
I recently go to a hobby shop to buy some stuff to repair something. I had a look at the offering regarding light bulbs and specially CFL, because I had read this (and other threads).
I've found that they also sold LED based lamps. I do not know if they provide sufficient output now, but sure they will and they will start without the delay we experience with CFL.
So it may be a lead to follow....