Apparently brand new: Wotan Duka lamp - NA10FL

Just thought I'd share this...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Wotan-Da...600937&hash=item1ee8437998:g:no4AAOSw0EZbdKSm

Allegedly brand new and unused. Very very rare these days, last ones I found listed for sale were over £300 from the US.

There were two, but I just bought one, sorry about that! Still, one left though...

Not brand new, but made between 1993 and 2009, though technically that should not matter...

Once you get it let us know how well it matches up to brand new and unused. My definition would be in original box and never used. The fact that it might have been made a minimum of 9 years ago is immaterial to me

pentaxuser

By the way, the sellers only ships within the UK...

AgX said:

By the way, the sellers only ships within the UK...

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Oh noes! Well, I'd be happy to relay it on at postage cost price if anyone from off of here buys it!

Bit of an update:

It arrived while I was on holiday. Packaged extremely well. Box in nice condition, and comparing it to my other 2 spare lamps* it looks clean and new, but has a couple of slight smear marks on the outer bulb.

I'm a pro-audio guy (rather than lighting) but I do know some things about lighting, not enough to be a danger to others though. These lamps look similar to MSD type which are from memory mercury discharge something something something 250w, obviously this is a much lower power one though. For the MSD types, a quick whack of power creates an arc with the tiny bit of mercury and vapour and all that, then the inner bulb heats up and gets brighter. The outer bulb protects it all, but any grease marks can cause hotspots and cause the lamp to blow. Usually, you can't easily tell the age by looking at it, although the mercury will be spattered around in the inner bulb and the glass may be slightly misted. This one looks good, and the anode/cathode and bits in the inner bulb all look nice and clean.

In summary then - Winning! It's good, someone buy the other one before I do!

*Yes, I have 2 complete working Wotan 50 units and 3 additional spare lamps for them. I love these safelights, I also really enjoy being able to read a newspaper in my darkroom, or something!

Pardon my ignorance, i am just a beginner at 35mm Black and White, but......... Are these the lights that can supposedly be used with Color Paper.?
Thank You

Yes, those luminaires got this sodium-vapour lamp. And its light just falls into the spectral sensitivity gap of colour papers.

There is a dealer in London who still has new replacement bulbs for these lamps. They are expensive as far as bulbs go - around £85 each. I have one on order as I type this. After 15 years use, my current one could do with being pensioned off, although there does not seem to be any change in it's effectiveness in the darkroom with RA4 printing.

BMbikerider said:

There is a dealer in London who still has new replacement bulbs for these lamps. They are expensive as far as bulbs go - around £85 each. I have one on order as I type this. After 15 years use, my current one could do with being pensioned off, although there does not seem to be any change in it's effectiveness in the darkroom with RA4 printing.

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Yes 15 years for even £85 is probably not bad value

pentaxuser

As I don't do colour work in the darkroom, I think I've give the 75 pound (!!) price tagged bulb a miss!

I'll be sticking with my 3 pound red led light, which is MUCH better brightness wise than all my other Paterson safe lights put together.

Sorry, but I just can't understand the very high price tag - for a bulb!?!

Terry S

tezzasmall said:

As I don't do colour work in the darkroom, I think I've give the 75 pound (!!) price tagged bulb a miss!

I'll be sticking with my 3 pound red led light, which is MUCH better brightness wise than all my other Paterson safe lights put together.

Sorry, but I just can't understand the very high price tag - for a bulb!?!

Terry S

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Well it is quite a specialised bulb with the spectrum of the sodium vapour light at a wave length to which colour paper is 'blind'. As I print colour it is essential to find my way about so the Duka is essential. The Duka50 safelight can also be used for B&W with the light baffles completely open and even after a 20 min exposure I have never had any fogging of the paper even when it is quit close to the dish. They really are the Rolls Royce of safe lights.

tezzasmall said:

Sorry, but I just can't understand the very high price tag - for a bulb!?!

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-) a matter of request and offer

-) the lamp was already expensive back then

-) it is not a lamp as others, as in contrast it got different, shorter hull, a slightly different innard, a different socket as known from electronic valves, a dichroitic coating

-) it was aside the darkroom only used in scientific apparatus, the overall production number must have been quite low

-) comparable current samples of such lamps cost a multiple

Can anyone help with the following info.

I just one the WOTAN 10 on eBay (about £16 GBP) UNTESTED.
Not sure if it works but I thought it worth a gamble at that price,
It came without a red filter disk, just a white disk.
Do i need the red disk for black and white work, can you buy the red disk separately?

How is it powered? It came with a strange plug socket... (Photo attached)
Can i just take the socket off and wire a British plug?

any info would be great thanks in advance.

-) the plain luminaire is intended for colour papers with their spectral sensitivity gap. For everything else make a foggingf test under your conditions, to establish whether or not to use that extra red filter.

-) you got a special male connector unknown to me, someone mounted likely to get a small coupling within the cord or to some special outlet.
Have a british male plug mounted.

I would guess that that safelight originally came with another appliance - probably a timer - that had that plug.
It looks like a power plug that used to be used over here to plug some computer monitors into the back of desktop computers, so that the monitors got their power without having to have a separate cord to a power source, and to permit the monitors to be switched off by the computer.
Think DOS, CRT monochrome monitors, and music from the 1980s!

@matt thanks. you paint a great picture.
@AgX appreciated.

I will have a go at re-wiring tomorrow. Does anyone have a spare RED disk they may want to sell?

Best
jamie

Jamie A Cowan said:

Can anyone help with the following info.

I just one the WOTAN 10 on eBay (about £16 GBP) UNTESTED.
Not sure if it works but I thought it worth a gamble at that price,
It came without a red filter disk, just a white disk.
Do i need the red disk for black and white work, can you buy the red disk separately?

How is it powered? It came with a strange plug socket... (Photo attached)
Can i just take the socket off and wire a British plug?

any info would be great thanks in advance.

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It looks like a IEC C15/16 plug for high temperature applications and you will need a BS1363 to C15 Power Cord.

Jamie, just bear in mind that the lamp and the bulb are unlikely to be new but there is no way of knowing how much life there still is and a new bulb is expensive. If it works and I intended to do a lot of colour printing but very little B&W then the extra time on B&W may not matter but if I were a mainly B&W printer but intended at a later stage to do colour I'd be tempted to get a B&W safelight and save the Wotan for colour.

If you are solely a B&W printer and might never do colour then I think that I'd use the Wotan. I do not use mine for B&W but I think that it can be used "in white" without fogging and at full power. However if no-one here confirms that then try several safelight tests with the internal baffles from closed and low light to open and bright light until there is signs of fogging. A lot will depend on what is the longest you need each piece of paper to be exposed to the Wotan light before fixing and how close the Wotan is to the enlarger and then the developing tray.

Just one further point. The Wotan is designed to be permanently on throughout the printing session as its "safelight safety" changes as it warms up each time on being switched off then on again, so switching off and on each time you expose a print may not be sensible and might ( but I don't know) shorten the bulb's life. Leaving it on will not cost much in electricity but will rack up the hours of use and any bulb has a limited life of course.

Let us know how you get on with it

pentaxuser

cramej said:

It looks like a IEC C15/16 plug for high temperature applications and you will need a BS1363 to C15 Power Cord.

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Not for high but medium temperatures, but otherwise you are right.
I actually got it in house, But I never saw it with such plate attached, made me think of kind of lock for cable coupling.
Anyway, that connector basically makes no sense at such luminaire.

By the way, the manufacturer is german Osram. Once market leader in Europe next to Philips.
In UK that brand name was lost due to the Versaille treaty. There they used instead one of their old brands: Wotan.

cramej said:

It looks like a IEC C15/16 plug for high temperature applications and you will need a BS1363 to C15 Power Cord.

Click to expand...

Correct! Also known (or used to be known before the days of cordless kettles and bases) a kettle lead. It might have been originally fitted as an easy way to extend the cable...

pentaxuser said:

Just one further point. The Wotan is designed to be permanently on throughout the printing session as its "safelight safety" changes as it warms up each time on being switched off then on again, so switching off and on each time you expose a print may not be sensible and might ( but I don't know) shorten the bulb's life.

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^ All this. On this type of lamp (which I've just thought is similar in a way to LCD projector lamps) repeated striking (switching on) and temperature cycling will wear the lamp out faster. Once it's on, leave it on for the full session and cover the front of it if you need darkness for a few mins. Once it's struck, it will consume very little power.

If you need a red lens, keep an eye out for non working ones on eBay. They do come up occasionally...

Fin said:

Correct! Also known (or used to be known before the days of cordless kettles and bases) a kettle lead. It might have been originally fitted as an easy way to extend the cable...

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-) in that case one would have employed the cold-appliances version of such connector
-) I never saw any german electrical device delivered originally with a coupling installed within the mains cable
-) fitted at its end it makes no sense either as there are no wall sockets with the resp. counterpart

@pentaxuser thanks for the great advice. I dont know what I will be yet? it is my first darkroom and not sure which way I will go 'Colour' or 'B&W'. It is this reason I thought the WOTAN to be a good start.
Permanently on - Got it.
Expensive bulbs - eBay selling them at £85 ouch!
Check FIRST to see if it will work without the RED filter for B&W

AgX thanks for the history lesson

@Fin - I will go buy a Kettle lead. and set an alert on eBay - Has anyone tried the WOTAN on B&W without the RED filter fitted?


UPDATE: I just bought a plug and it switches on. It takes a few seconds to start and it makes a humming sound (buzzing) is this normal? How do I know it is now hit maximum brightness? I read somewhere it can take upto 5 mins to fully working. The light it emits is very warm yellow/orange, should it be?

Good that it is working, You may have hundreds of hour left in it. Yes it does buzz and take at least 5 mins to warm up. It has been a while since mine was on but a yellow/orange sounds right. I'd tilt it towards the ceiling. That way there is no direct light on the enlarger or developing tray. Due to the size of its front the light spreads well. Ideally try and place it higher than the enlarger so its out of the way and reflects off the ceiling.

Hopefully you'll get an answer about its suitability for B&W without the red filter. Don't hold me to this but not long after I got the Wotan I think I did try a B&W printing session and it was OK. I have never had the red filter so cannot speak from experience

pentaxuser.