Resurrect Cold Light Head or just move on?

[Kino]

I've had this Zone VI cold light head laying around for years unused. It came with my Beseler 45MX enlarger, but the way it was just set down through the top of the enlarger head to rest upon the negative carriers looked haphazard and rigged-up. Some sort of wool band was stuffed around the outer edge to in an attempt to block light spill; all in all, it did not inspire confidence.

When I eventually brought the 45MX into service to complement my 23C, I remove the CL head and found a condenser head to print with. Not bad but contrast is an issue and I tend to find myself printing with grade 1 to 00 VC filters to compensate.
In addition, I recently started reading all of the Zone VI newsletters in which Picker relentlessly attacks condenser head enlargers as being impossible to use for "real" printing (as well as RC paper, but we will leave that alone for now).

This got me to wondering if I should try to revive this head.

Looks like it is the earlier head, as (if I read right during research) it appears to produce "white" light and not the "aquamarine blue" light of the 2nd generation heads Zone VI produced.

Also, while the lamp works, I am noticing some phosphor delamination on the tube which cannot be good.

As I also understand, I would also need to purchase a used Zone VI stabilizer, which runs about $100 on Ebay to have good, repeatable results. The enlarger was bought second-hand and the stabilizer was either lost/separated from the enlarger, or never used in the first place.

I am concerned that after buying a stabilizer that either the head or stabilizer will not be long lived enough to make it worthwhile and that the slap-dash mounting setup will result in varying exposures despite the addition of a stabilizer.

Posts I have seen also seem to imply that the white-light version of the head is not very useful for printing VC papers anyway...

A modern LED lamp house would be nice, but is beyond my means at the time.

Opinions on if I should resurrect this beast or if I should continue fine tuning my exposure and development times on my film to try to bring the negative contrast down to print in the middle range with a condenser head?

After reading so much about it, I would hate to miss out on the experience, but would also hate to spend a lot of time and energy re-aligning my processes to be let down by equipment failure or lack of flexibility in the future.

 

[ic-racer]

I printed with a cold light for a while.

Things I'd check are evenness of illumination (distance between the diffuser and negative can have big effect) and tonal range with your favorite MG papers (may need yellow filter).

Looks like it has a built-in heater, that should stabilze the light output for most practical purposes. Just realize it can get hotter than the set-point with long exposures. You can check this and see.

 

[chuckroast]

I've had this Zone VI cold light head laying around for years unused. It came with my Beseler 45MX enlarger, but the way it was just set down through the top of the enlarger head to rest upon the negative carriers looked haphazard and rigged-up. Some sort of wool band was stuffed around the outer edge to in an attempt to block light spill; all in all, it did not inspire confidence.

When I eventually brought the 45MX into service to complement my 23C, I remove the CL head and found a condenser head to print with. Not bad but contrast is an issue and I tend to find myself printing with grade 1 to 00 VC filters to compensate.
In addition, I recently started reading all of the Zone VI newsletters in which Picker relentlessly attacks condenser head enlargers as being impossible to use for "real" printing (as well as RC paper, but we will leave that alone for now).

This got me to wondering if I should try to revive this head.

Looks like it is the earlier head, as (if I read right during research) it appears to produce "white" light and not the "aquamarine blue" light of the 2nd generation heads Zone VI produced.

Also, while the lamp works, I am noticing some phosphor delamination on the tube which cannot be good.

As I also understand, I would also need to purchase a used Zone VI stabilizer, which runs about $100 on Ebay to have good, repeatable results. The enlarger was bought second-hand and the stabilizer was either lost/separated from the enlarger, or never used in the first place.

I am concerned that after buying a stabilizer that either the head or stabilizer will not be long lived enough to make it worthwhile and that the slap-dash mounting setup will result in varying exposures despite the addition of a stabilizer.

Posts I have seen also seem to imply that the white-light version of the head is not very useful for printing VC papers anyway...

A modern LED lamp house would be nice, but is beyond my means at the time.

Opinions on if I should resurrect this beast or if I should continue fine tuning my exposure and development times on my film to try to bring the negative contrast down to print in the middle range with a condenser head?

After reading so much about it, I would hate to miss out on the experience, but would also hate to spend a lot of time and energy re-aligning my processes to be let down by equipment failure or lack of flexibility in the future.

You don't need a stabilizer. Just plug in the heater side of the head 30 mins or so before your start print. I check light output on the easel with a Luna Pro with an enlarging adapter (the same ones every time for consistency), and at each height/lens combo I normally use, and these show no drift of any significance over time.

You may need a corrective filter to print with VC, I don't know because I don't use that head (I have the VC head from Zone VI which is really nice). That may be necessary to get normal VC filtration to work.

 

[ic-racer]

 

[Bill Burk]

The heater helps. By “hotter” ic-racer means your print will come out darker than expected with long exposures. The heater is not hot to the touch. I left mine on since the last time I printed and it didn’t hurt anything but my electric bill.

There’s a compensating timer and a compensating metronome if you don’t want to go for the stabilizer. I like using the stabilizer though.

 

[ic-racer]

Actually as the lamp heats above the setpoint (around 40C) the intensity decreases.

Of course the 1414 is quite big and after 5 minutes (max on-time recommended) it would heat to 44C and diminish intensity by about 0.5 stop.

 

[DREW WILEY]

What works better than a stabilizer is an actual instrument which meters the light output and then adjusts the timing cycle. In the graphics industry for UV exposure units these were termed light integrators. But Zone VI made a simple probe version which can be used with a cold light, which varies the rate of its beeps depending on the actual light output at any instance. I use one of these on my big 12X12 Aristo blue-green cold light, and it works quite well.

If necessary for cold days, my Aristo unit also has an onboard heater element to pre-heat the grid. Generally, I don't need that feature, but when I do, I do.

However, I've also seen my fair share of old cold light grids. Since no one is making replacement grids anymore, there's little sense trying to revive the old ones once they become conspicuously geriatric.

Fred Picker came up with some interesting and useful devices. But he also had the marketing persona of an old-time patent medicine
"snake oil" salesman. You have to take some of the things he said with a grain of salt. If you want a diffuse enlarger head, you can simply add diffusers to your current condenser system. But a real colorhead would be preferable, because it would give you very selective VC control as well.

 

[Bill Burk]

Zone VI compensating timer is an integrator but you have to use its timer.

The Zone VI stabilizer actively changes voltage to hold a stable intensity so you can use any timer.

Zone VI Metronome is simpler and beeps every compensated second.

All three would work with that lamphouse.

As for the life of the bulb, you can get replacements for it. I have a spare.

For evenness, it should be a little above the diffuser. Mine actually fell down once (the clip in the middle of mine was just a twist of wire that came undone). It looked pretty ugly with the grid obviously showing

 

[GregY]

You don't need a stabilizer. Just plug in the heater side of the head 30 mins or so before your start print. I check light output on the easel with a Luna Pro with an enlarging adapter (the same ones every time for consistency), and at each height/lens combo I normally use, and these show no drift of any significance over time.

You may need a corrective filter to print with VC, I don't know because I don't use that head (I have the VC head from Zone VI which is really nice). That may be necessary to get normal VC filtration to work.

Ditto, My MXT came with a Zone VI cold light head...I used Ilford under the lens filters....& later replaced it with the Zone VI VC head & timer which i'm still using....

 

[chuckroast]

Zone VI compensating timer is an integrator but you have to use its timer.

The Zone VI stabilizer actively changes voltage to hold a stable intensity so you can use any timer.

Zone VI Metronome is simpler and beeps every compensated second.

All three would work with that lamphouse.

As for the life of the bulb, you can get replacements for it. I have a spare.

For evenness, it should be a little above the diffuser. Mine actually fell down once (the clip in the middle of mine was just a twist of wire that came undone). It looked pretty ugly with the grid obviously showing

@Bill Burk are you aware of a source of replacement bulbs for the Z VI VC heads?

 

[GregY]

@Bill Burk are you aware of a source of replacement bulbs for the Z VI VC heads?

Chuck, I'm not Bill, but I'd suggest these folks

Aristo Archive Lamps | Light Sources

Archive of Aristo lamps

www.light-sources.com

 

[MTGseattle]

GregY posted the appropriate link above to where I would look. Scattered here and on the largeformat.info site are references to "quotes" for replacement grids/tubes. It would take an email or phone call to verify, and I think the costs are going to be mildly shocking.

 

[ic-racer]

I replaced the lamp in my 1414 in 2015 for $500. A brief look at the curent owners of the Aristo brand shows they have trashed the brand.

 

[RalphLambrecht]

I've had this Zone VI cold light head laying around for years unused. It came with my Beseler 45MX enlarger, but the way it was just set down through the top of the enlarger head to rest upon the negative carriers looked haphazard and rigged-up. Some sort of wool band was stuffed around the outer edge to in an attempt to block light spill; all in all, it did not inspire confidence.

When I eventually brought the 45MX into service to complement my 23C, I remove the CL head and found a condenser head to print with. Not bad but contrast is an issue and I tend to find myself printing with grade 1 to 00 VC filters to compensate.
In addition, I recently started reading all of the Zone VI newsletters in which Picker relentlessly attacks condenser head enlargers as being impossible to use for "real" printing (as well as RC paper, but we will leave that alone for now).

This got me to wondering if I should try to revive this head.

Looks like it is the earlier head, as (if I read right during research) it appears to produce "white" light and not the "aquamarine blue" light of the 2nd generation heads Zone VI produced.

Also, while the lamp works, I am noticing some phosphor delamination on the tube which cannot be good.

As I also understand, I would also need to purchase a used Zone VI stabilizer, which runs about $100 on Ebay to have good, repeatable results. The enlarger was bought second-hand and the stabilizer was either lost/separated from the enlarger, or never used in the first place.

I am concerned that after buying a stabilizer that either the head or stabilizer will not be long lived enough to make it worthwhile and that the slap-dash mounting setup will result in varying exposures despite the addition of a stabilizer.

Posts I have seen also seem to imply that the white-light version of the head is not very useful for printing VC papers anyway...

A modern LED lamp house would be nice, but is beyond my means at the time.

Opinions on if I should resurrect this beast or if I should continue fine tuning my exposure and development times on my film to try to bring the negative contrast down to print in the middle range with a condenser head?

After reading so much about it, I would hate to miss out on the experience, but would also hate to spend a lot of time and energy re-aligning my processes to be let down by equipment failure or lack of flexibility in the future.


View attachment 384059 View attachment 384060

move on. They weren't even good when they worked. A good color enlarger is all you need for quality-B&W printing

 

[DREW WILEY]

My cold light is an excellent performer; and I have two other 8x10 enlargers which do have colorheads. But I otherwise agree - no sense trying to fix and old cold light when a basic 4X5 colorhead will prove more versatile and convenient. Most cold lights designed for popular 4x5 enlargers were not oversized enough to give an even field of illumination, and were often underpowered too. Mine is of the high output commercial variety, and cost commensurately.

 

[Kino]

Thanks everyone.

Much to ponder.

 

[GregY]

Since you have it. Try using it. I think the reality re:enlargers/enlarger heads/ dry mount presses....is that we buy what we can pick up locally. So it might be slim pickings when you're looking for something specific.

 

[Paul Howell]

I have an Omega brand cold light for my D3, the tube is fine but the electric shutter is no longer working. I have put off attempting to repair it as even with yellow compensation filters does not work well with VC paper. Before spending that kind of money I would really think about a working color head.

 

[mshchem]

I have the last version of the Zone VI VC cold light heads on a couple enlargers. I use a Metrolux II timer and also the Stopclock Vario. These work great. I've scrounged for darkroom equipment for decades. Got this stuff cheap.

Bottom line is I wouldn't dump money into a stabilizer etc, wait for it to show up. Ebay has become insane, prices are nuts.

Meanwhile the condenser head will work fine.

 

[koraks]

This is very personal, but I'd consider it a waste of time trying to resurrect this given its inherent drawbacks for this application. Look for a regular halogen light source/head for your enlarger and print happily forever after, and/or upgrade to a LED system once you've found something to your liking and that's affordable/feasible for you.

relentlessly attacks condenser head enlargers as being impossible to use for "real" printing

I wonder if other fields but photography are also pestered by people doing a spin on the "you're doing it wrong" theme. What the heck, of course condenser enlargers work just fine.

 

[mshchem]

I totally agree with Koraks. Condenser heads will deliver outstanding prints. With VC paper you can do anything. Color printing is super easy too.
Beseler Condenser heads look cool too

 

[MattKing]

I like the results from those Cold Light Heads - I have a friend who has one.
But other diffused sources are really good, and easier to use in some circumstances.
A dichroic colour head with a halogen source is still a good option.

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

Once I started printing with a cold light, I never went back to condenser. The comment by poster above about them "not being good when they worked", is ridiculous. I have an Aristo VCL4500 for almost 30 years, and a 1212.

 

[GregY]

Once I started printing with a cold light, I never went back to condenser. The comment by poster above about them "not being good when they worked", is ridiculous. I have an Aristo VCL4500 for almost 30 years, and a 1212.

Agreed. I have a 45MXT w Zone VI VC head and a Durst 138 (colour head) side by side....each sees equal use.
I still don't comprehend not trying out the cold light head that is in hand.... everyone suggests buying something? Is that a Black Friday thing?

 

[chuckroast]

Once I started printing with a cold light, I never went back to condenser. The comment by poster above about them "not being good when they worked", is ridiculous. I have an Aristo VCL4500 for almost 30 years, and a 1212.

I have much the same experience with the Zone VI VC CL head over about the same timeframe. The concern I have is what do I do when/if it fails. I do have a full condenser head with lenses for my push up Omega D II.