Mitchell Duocube

Anybody ever use one of these things to find a filter pack and time?
I got one off Ebay and just now got through trying it, and would you believe it? It nailed it!
Granted I used a reflection densitometer instead of the grey cards to find the neutral spot on the grid and didn't follow its instructions about adding all three colors if the grid says to- in this I added the suggested filters, measured with my enlarging meter, took out the excess filtration and stopped it down to the require levels and made a print.
I was really excited to see a perfect print with one try. Wow.
I'm headed back down to the Dungeon to play some more.
Igor-get the electrodes!

I have one, and I've used it a few times. It relies on the idea that the average color in a scene is neutral, so sometimes (when there is a dominant color) it doesn't work. When it does work, it gets you in the ballpark for both exposure and filter pack in about 1 sheet of paper (4 test exposures). The gray patch is sometimes a bit hard to interpret, and you usually need some final adjustments to the final filter pack for a given negative. But it does shorten the process for getting a basic filter pack for your setup. My procedure would be to use it to help determine a basic filter pack and then to make adjustments to the pack from full negative test exposures for each new negative. If you don't have an on easel analyzer, the cube is very handy for determining the exposure for a new negative, even if you make the filter adjustment based on a full print.

Yes, I picked a frame that was pretty average content specifically for finding the filter pack. Once I found what it was I wrote it down and then cranked up the analyzer and dialed it in to the settings. I found the first shot was maybe a little less than a half stop overexposed and many subsequent prints did well at that setting. I was able to use the analyser to reset the filtration for the odd lighting situations by directly metering on a neutral or white object in the image. I feel much better about getting a handle on controlling the color in my prints. Before it was kinda like driving a car with a "mystery shifter" - you knew it had gears and where they were SUPPOSED to be but you couldn't feel anything click in when you tried to change gears. Now I can feel the click and hope I get much better as time goes on.
I've uploaded a scan of the first print. Unfortunatedly I laid it on the kitchen table and while I was out of the room the cat pounced on it and bit the right hand edge several times. You can just see the marks in the scan. Why the cat found it so attractive is beyond me.

I used one years ago and found it kind of hit or miss.