beseler 45 heads

[mitch brown]

thanks for all the help on my other post. i do have one question. it seems that the computerised color head has some problems. which model is the computerised one. 45/45s ect.
thanks again
mitch

 

[resummerfield]

The Minolta computerized colorhead is the 45A. The conventional Dichro is the 45S.

 

[glbeas]

The Dichro 45 microprocessor controlled head is the notorious one. A tech described it as having a ticking time bomb of a board, after a while they burn out and Beseler no longer supllies parts. Richard Davies (ADRIANANDJILL@worldnet.att.net) has designed a replacement but I don't think the head is worth the cost.
The Beseler Minolta 45A does have one bug I know of and it's more operator oriented. Sometimes it doesn't work and you have to reset the computer with a pin pushed into a hole on the board. Many owners don't know about the reset switch and are mystified and annoyed when it abruptly quits. Other than having to keep fresh flashtubes in it to work the best it works as advertised.

 

[unregistered]

Thats why its best to stick with analog technology, like a regular cold light head.

LOL

 

[Curt]

I am working on a work around for both the Universal and 45s. Both have filters in the head, a given, each uses halogen bulbs, also called lamps. The Universal has three bulbs for each of the three colors, the 45s has one. I don't have cables and controllers for either. Since the 45s uses mechanical rise and fall filters in front of the lamp I can disconnect the circuit boards, leaving the fan connected and connect the lamp to a circuit that I can control with my digital timers. The Universal needs three dimmers on a circuit that can be controlled with a digital timer. I don't need the color feedback because I have a color analyzer and I only use the heads for B&W VC paper. I could do color if needed but I don't do color at home anymore. These would give me two more diffusion heads with filters built in. I have have an Aristo head for my Beseler that I am using now but if the bulb goes out I have backups.

 

[Chan Tran]

While the Minolta 45A is a troublesome head. I don't own one but a long time friend has one for almost 20 years and I had played with it. The Beseler computerized color head is exactly the same as the 45s except for the filtration readout. I have one for a while now and I found that it's very consistent.