Ilford Multigrade 500 system

[philldresser]

Does anyone know if the Ilford Multigrade 500 system which fits on a De vere 203 (medium format) is the same head as for the De vere504(5x4) version? Or are there differnt heads?

Phill

 

[philldresser]

What? A question that no-one on APUG can answer?

Do I get a prize?

Phill

 

[edz]

Does anyone know if the Ilford Multigrade 500 system which fits on a De vere 203 (medium format) is the same head as for the De vere504(5x4) version? Or are there differnt heads?

Phill

The head is the same: its the Multigrade 500 H. The smaller version of the head the 500-HLZ is limited to a single 35mm negative size. The 500H is "designed for 4x5" and takes a few different mixing boxes (35mm, 6x6, 6x9, 4x5") for the various formats and with some modifications to mounting hardware have been used in systems as large as 8x10"(!) down to even 4x4cm/35mm (in fact the same head that fits on a Focomat 2c, fits on a 1c). The mixing boxes are two pieces: the box and the registration plate to hold it. The head from a 203 will surely have a box too small for 4x5". The mixing boxes are , however, primative and not terribly efficient (keeping in mind that its a 600w system) and so its been suggested that they be replaced anyway by prisms into a diffusion box and the use of the standard enlarger specific mixing boxes. Its really all a case of tinkering around.

 

[Tom Stanworth]

And all I need to be up and running for 10x8 multigrade is a powerpack.....I'd be better off looking for hens' teeth.

 

[edz]

Taking the 500H beyond 4x5"

And all I need to be up and running for 10x8 multigrade is a powerpack.....I'd be better off looking for hens' teeth.

The hardware to make the 500-H head do 8x10" is easy in a metal shop to make. Its nothing more than a big trapezoidal pyramid mixing box with a big piece of plastic diffusion material on the bottom. If you replace the standard 4x5" mixing box (or whatever you have) with some prisms BUT without the diffusion material so it feeds directly in and line the pyramid with aluminum mirrors (available cheaply from school scientific supply houses) you will have a lot of light to go around. The cost of having one of these things bent-together by a metal shop should not be high and hardly more than the price of a few pieces of film--- its really not much more advanced that what kids do in their intro to "metal-shop" in American schools (at least when I was a child). The hard part will really be get the mounting hardware design down. This is easy on some enlargers (such as the Durst L1840) and more difficult on others (such as the Durst L184) but almost always solvable.

P.S.: Hens don't have teeth.

 

[John Koehrer]

Hens teeth are more common than chicken lips!

 

[Tom Stanworth]

Edward,

I have the head, controller etc, but no transformer powerpack. The ehad is a nice mint 10x8 unit, which looks practically unused! I am therefore fine for coverage, but not for electronic gizmos.

Cheers!

Tom

 

[edz]

Edward,

I have the head, controller etc, but no transformer powerpack. The ehad is a nice mint 10x8 unit, which looks practically unused! I am therefore fine for coverage, but not for electronic gizmos.
Tom

Ah.... The transformer... Its probably not difficult but one would need a circuit diagram to know all the different interconnections and power demands.... Well the bulbs are 120V/300w so I'd assume, worse case, one can work around it and rig something up to provide 120v @ 6A plus whatever the fan takes and use the R+H Design controller (which offers many more features than the 500CPM). I'd ask Chris Woodhouse about the possibilites of a "home-brew" power-end.