prints get lighter consecutivly

I have used nothing but cold light in my darkroom. I have never ever had a problem with "drift". I don't have any special equipment to prevent "drift". One head is the Aristo VC, and the other is their 1212 with V54 tube which is optimised to VC paper. Both are plugged into a Gralab digital timer. Nice, even, reliable illumination. What are you guys going to do when your country bans incandescent bulbs? Hmmm?

Incandescent bulbs have very quick response times,

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what does this mean? I hit my foot switch and the light goes on immediately. I hit the switch again, and it goes off immediately.

Roger Hicks said:

I'll drink to that. A lot of the mystique of cold lights is ritual and sympathetic magic, nothing to do with getting good prints with modern materials.

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Not entirely, Roger. When I was doing darkroom work for money I always used cold cathode enlargers – admittedly in those days with graded papers – because there *was* a difference, if only in the amount of time spent spotting the wretched prints afterwards.


Mine's a pint of Fullers. Cheers!




Richard

fschifano said:

No offense to RH designs, but this whole thread makes me question the usefulness of cold light heads for the home darkroom worker.

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No offence taken - in fact I agree with you. I have never been convinced by cold light compared to an incandescent diffusion source. The only advantage I can see is that it is indeed "cold" whereas large format incandescent enlargers need big hot lamps. I suspect the reason cold light is popular in the USA (do correct me if I'm wrong!) in particular is that condenser heads are the norm rather than diffusion and what users are seeing is the difference between condenser and diffusion rather than cold light vs incandescent.

Richard Kelham said:

When I was doing darkroom work for money I always used cold cathode enlargers – admittedly in those days with graded papers – because there *was* a difference, if only in the amount of time spent spotting the wretched prints afterwards.

Mine's a pint of Fullers. Cheers!

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That's the difference between diffuse illumination and condenser rather than cold light itself. And mine's Timmy Taylor's - thanks

Frank and Roger: there were real benefits to me in using a cold light enlarger - my darkroom was in an uninsulated loft and hellishly hot in summer. While the cold light head emitted some heat, it was nothing compared to my other enlarger, and virtually silent, too - no fan noise. Besides, you can't take everything people say as gospel fact - you have to find out yourself sometimes. I'd heard a lot about the mystique of cold light enlargers and I just had to see for myself if it was true - poo-poohing something and then citing someone else's opinion as a reason doesn't really cut it for me. So I tried it. I now use a dichro head.

Frank: as for 'no offense to RH Designs' my main bone of contention is that there was no mention of the unsuitability of the meter I bought at the time that I bought it (I read all the info about it first) and I ended up with a very expensive product that didn't do what it was supposed to - unless I jury-rigged it to work as Richard explains. Most places I deal with would have offered to take the product back.

Andrew: I use old processes more and more these days, so when bulbs are no longer available or prohibitively expensive due to punitive taxation, I'll print-out using the sun. They can't tax that, can they? - oh, they already did! During the american civil war all "sun pictures" had to have a revenue stamp purchased and fixed to the back!

Regards,
Neil.

Hi Neil,
I use an Analyser Pro with a very old Zone VI cold light head and am able to get repeatable prints very easily. It's not a compensating timer. All I need to do is let the enlarger warm up for ten minutes or so. I am able to use the test strip generator with uncanny accuracy. I don't think that the RH timers are unsuitable for cold light heads, just that you've had a particularly poor cold light head.

If you've no longer got the heat problem then I'm sure the dichro works at least as well as cold light.

Matt.

Roger Hicks said:

I'll drink to that. A lot of the mystique of cold lights is ritual and sympathetic magic, nothing to do with getting good prints with modern materials.

Cheers,

R.

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Are you trying to get excommunicated Roger?

I'm happy using one because I don't have to replace the bulb often and I think I get goood results with modern materials.

Hi Matt,

Could be, but there are various types of light sources available for cold light heads, perhaps with some being more suitable for some applications than others - maybe mine was just an unsuitable match for the timer.

I don't think it was a poor version at all - it was a De Vere 507 cathomag and came straight from the distributer, Odyssey Sales, who were very helpful, offered telephone advice and inspected the head.

You are right about the dichro, though - I find the results indistinguishable from the cold light head and it is far more adaptable/versatile, too.

Regards,
Neil

Neil Miller said:

Frank: as for 'no offense to RH Designs' my main bone of contention is that there was no mention of the unsuitability of the meter I bought at the time that I bought it (I read all the info about it first) and I ended up with a very expensive product that didn't do what it was supposed to - unless I jury-rigged it to work as Richard explains. Most places I deal with would have offered to take the product back.

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Neil - the problems you appear to be having are not with the Analyser; several people have commented that they use one successfully with cold light. Perhaps your enlarger is particularly unstable for some reason. As for taking the product back, we have always advertised a 14-day period during which you can return the product if it proves unsuitable for you, and I don't recall you asking about returning it. If you had asked to return it during that period (or indeed within a reasonable time afterwards) I would have accepted it.

Richard - I struggled with it for ages, then telephoned your office for support. You (or someone else) arranged a call-back for me, which was very kind. However, we couldn't resolve the problem. My problem (if it is a problem) is that I'm not 'pushy' - your man didn't offer me a refund, so I thought the problem must be my fault somehow, so I didn't ask for one. On the very few occasions that something similar has happened to me I haven't had to ask - it's always been offered.

Only much later down the line, having had the head inspected, purchasing voltage/stabiliser controls and a patch lead from yourselves did I come to the inevitable conclusion that there was nothing wrong with the enlarger.

14 days had long since passed.

Regards,
Neil.

Neil Miller said:

Richard - I struggled with it for ages, then telephoned your office for support. You (or someone else) arranged a call-back for me, which was very kind. However, we couldn't resolve the problem. My problem (if it is a problem) is that I'm not 'pushy' - your man didn't offer me a refund, so I thought the problem must be my fault somehow, so I didn't ask for one. On the very few occasions that something similar has happened to me I haven't had to ask - it's always been offered.

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It would have been me you spoke to. I can't honestly remember what happened now but usually I do remind people of the guarantee if they're unhappy with the product. Apologies if I didn't on that occasion but it's always been featured in our literature.

Anyway, if you want to have another go, do feel free to give me a call and we'll see if we can get to the bottom of it. Now you're using a dichro head it should be easier.

Thankyou Richard, I appreciate your offer, but there isn't a problem with the dichro head - the meter works just as it should do with it.

However, it's taken an enormous amount of time - far beyond that of getting used to a new peice of equipment - and a considerable amount of money to get to this point.

I do distinctly remember that you didn't offer me a refund as I thought it a bit ungenerous of you at the time.

I had been struggling with the meter/cold head for months before I telephoned you, so naturally I disregarded the 14 day guarantee contained in the literature.

Anyway, thanks for the offer.

Regards,
Neil.