De Vere enlarger probe advice

Hey guys I picked up a De Vere 203 a few weeks back for a steal, the enlarger came with the Ilford 500H and the rest of the gubbins.
I have been playing with the probe but have found it quicker to make test strips as it doesn’t seem as accurate as id hope. I am not going to give up with it so I am hoping that someone might have some tips or ideas that might help.

Cheers,
Paul.

Paul Green said:

Hey guys I picked up a De Vere 203 a few weeks back for a steal, the enlarger came with the Ilford 500H and the rest of the gubbins.
I have been playing with the probe but have found it quicker to make test strips as it doesn’t seem as accurate as id hope. I am not going to give up with it so I am hoping that someone might have some tips or ideas that might help.

Cheers,
Paul.

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Paul,

I've recently started using a DeVere 504 enlarger with the Multigrade 500 head and the RH Designs Stop Clock 500 timer. In my case the MG500 head didn't come with the probe for the CPM500, but making test strips or guessing the starting exposure is not too cumbersome. I can image analyser probes may prove themselves useful (perhaps the RH Designs Zone Master II) if printing from very diverse negatives.

Tom

Hi Paul

I used a Multigrade 500 set up for years when I ran a commercial lab. The system works pretty well once you have calibrated the probe - it will certainly get you into the ball park in terms of correct exposure, but you do need to rely on a degree of experience to know when to change metering points.

From memory you could meter from the black area on a final print (that is - a clear area on the neg that would print black), or from mid greay (the same grey as a grey card) - it just depended how you set the probe up. I seem to remember using the grey method for metering...

I would recommend getting hold of the Multigrade 500 Instruction book, as it's been so long I can't remember how to set one up. From memory it came with standard negs you used when setting up the head.

These heads are excellent units, and make printing (expecially split printing using multiple grades) very easy. And if you don't already have one get hold of the foot switch - they make printing so much easier..

Cheers

Andrew