Question about lengthened printing times with Dual Dichro head vs condenser

Just a quick question about printing times with the Beseler Dual Dichro head vs Condenser head.

How much longer are they? On the order of 10 seconds? 2 seconds...30 seconds?

I was wondering because I had read that using a special diffuser assy for 35mm on the Dual Dichro is supposed to speed printing times when compared to the full diameter diffuser.


here is a picture of one.

Is this necessary?

My LPL has a similar system, there it is called a light mixing chamber. I think this is a matter of convenience. Going from 120 negs to 35mm negs the smaller diffuser might give one stop shorter times, I am making a guess here based on how the LPL behaves.

OK..if it's not that big a deal I won't sweat it.

rpavich said:

OK..if it's not that big a deal I won't sweat it.

Click to expand...

Don't invent problems that don't exist

I also use an LPL with the dichroic color head and I don't find the exposure times to be significantly longer than they were when I used an Omega B-22 with the condenser head.

One benefit I find with dual filtration (magenta/yellow) compared to single filtration for a given grade, is that I can extend the print time to allow for easier burning and dodging.

Well, I thought I'd report my experience in switching to the dichro head. My print times tripled using the same neg!

I was printing a 4x6 using an 80mm lens with times of 15-25 seconds, now the same setup takes 100 seconds!

To get anything reasonable for print times i had to switch to a 50mm lens and drop the head to within 10" of the easel.

Dang, what a disappointment.