New lamps

[srs5694]

I'm assuming (wrongly?) that many of us are using enlargers with colour or VC heads and that they run their bulbs/lamps at 12V through a transformer. Now it just so happens that the millions of cars in the world use 12V bulbs as well, so they won't be disappearing anytime soon as far as I can see.

The worst-case scenario I can imagine is the need to modify an enlarger in some way to take bulbs it wasn't designed to use -- say, pulling out the bulb fixture and replacing it with something else, perhaps in combination with an extra transformer or control panel. Chances are there'll be simpler solutions for most enlargers, though.

When we get round to safelights though, maybe we'll have to think about running them through the enlarger's transformer with a 12V bulb also.

No need. There are already red and amber LED bulbs that screw into conventional tungsten sockets. Perhaps if your safelight uses some bizarre socket you'd need to do something weird, but the safelights I've seen (in the US) use conventional Edison sockets, the same as most household lights. Any bulb intended for conventional light fixtures will therefore fit, and of course the bulbs are being and will be designed to fit these fixtures. Maybe in 100 years homes will be designed with different fixtures in mind, but until then getting a working LED safelight will be easy.

 

[Trevor Crone]

I'm assuming (wrongly?) that many of us are using enlargers with colour or VC heads and that they run their bulbs/lamps at 12V through a transformer. Now it just so happens that the millions of cars in the world use 12V bulbs as well, so they won't be disappearing anytime soon as far as I can see. When we get round to safelights though, maybe we'll have to think about running them through the enlarger's transformer with a 12V bulb also.

If it were that simple, mine uses two 120v. 300w. tungsten halogen. However it seems for the time being at least the TH lamps are ok.

 

[Rafal Lukawiecki]

If it were that simple, mine uses two 120v. 300w. tungsten halogen. However it seems for the time being at least the TH lamps are ok.

My Ilford 500H VC head uses two 120v 300w TH bulbs, but those are fairly "standard" ELH bulbs (on base GY5.3). There are still a few manufacturers around that make those and they are fairly cheap, ranging from $10 from bulbdirect.com to GBP 12 from nice people at Odyssey. Stock up?

I wonder if anyone has found any red LEDs to be unsafe for VC papers.

Thanks,
Rafal.