Cold light for Beseler 23c questions

[awldune]

I am looking at cold light heads for my 23CII and have some questions.

I understand that with the Aristo models, you put the cold light unit into the stock condenser housing? Is this easy to do?

I am mostly looking on Ebay, and some heads are listed along with a power supply (transformer). However, others just have the lamp and a plug. Is the power supply required?

I have been using a Gralab 300 timer with my condenser head. Will this work with a cold light head?

Thanks!

Sam

 

[ChuckP]

You will have to take the condensers out which is fairly easy. Be careful not to damage them. The hard part is if you want to switch back and forth between coldlight and condenser. You then need to install the condensers each time. I got a separate condenser housing and just used it for the coldlight. Not sure how common these would be used. If you have to buy new it would almost be cheaper to find another used 23c for parts. The separate housing makes things a lot easier.

My 23c head (Aristo) had a separate power unit that connected to the head. Not sure if all 23c models are this way. My 4x5 and 1212 coldlights have everything in the head housing. Just make sure that you fully understand what you are buying and how it fits on your enlarger.

The Gralab is a mechanical timer and should work fine. Some timers have problems with cold lights. I use a Beseler Digitimer and Audible repeating timer and they work OK. Here again make sure the timer you pick will work or get one that people have said works for them.

 

[awldune]

Thanks Chuck!