Suggested setup for contact printing with Lupex (8x10)

I had an 8x10 negative I wanted to contact print a few days ago and got pretty good results on Ilford RC and FB papers so thought I'd bust out my sample pack of the new Adox Lupex. I knew it would be slower but I sort of wildly underestimated by how much. My Omega Chromega head and 80mm lens fully open could barely make anything come up after a minute of exposure.

While I'd like to use my enlarger, looks like my best option to get to shorter exposure times is to go more old school with a 300W (or equivalent) bulb and reflector I can put on a chain and hang from my darkroom ceiling. Any other advice on this? Such as would an LED bulb work (I'm guessing less so since it recall hearing Lupex may enjoy UV light)? Are there reflector/lamps which can handle 300W (I found a lot of 150W but far fewer 300W and many of those had guards that I thought might case shadows on the paper)? Any thoughts on how to use my enlarger perhaps?

m00dawg said:

...My Omega Chromega head and 80mm lens fully open could barely make anything come up after a minute of exposure...Any thoughts on how to use my enlarger perhaps?

Click to expand...

Yes, expose at f/8-11 and keep it turned on four to eight times as long:

Oh shame on me I didn't think to check LFF, thanks! I was pondering removing the lens so nice to see that's something to try!

If you do use a bulb in a hanging reflector start with a 25W bulb. This paper is awesome.

Oh wow 25W? That would be enough? I saw on the LFF post one person was getting exposure times of 4-8 minutes. I don't need that much time to dodge burn - around a minute was what I was thinking or so for an average exposure? 25W would be nice though because I could use my darkroom timer. I'm not sure that thing can even handle a 300W bulb.

I have a crazy contact printer Arkay Speed Dodge, has UV rich Argon bulbs, average exposure is around 1.5 seconds.

Look up Edward Weston. He did all his contacts with a hanging lamp. Smaller bulb gives more time for dodging and burning. I would try what you have.

This is a job for a regular light bulb no LEDs etc

My 1945 Ilford handbook recommends starting with 5 seconds, 12 inches from 40 watt bulb for gaslight, ie contact papers.
For bromide enlarging papers, 25W bulb, 48 inches for 4 seconds.

Nice thanks folks, this have been very very helpful! My goodness though, 1.5 SECONDS!? That's gotta be fire of the sun bright!

The argon lamps emit a weird purple glow of light, it's got IIRC 16 of these lamps, each with it's own rocker switch. These lamps put out quite a bit of uv and are only a few inches from the paper

After some members here asked for Lupex in 4x5 and the kind people at Adox made it available I did buy a box a few months ago. I did a few contacts then and I used a 250W Nitraphot light (3200K, normal household bulb form factor made by Dr. Fischer) in a small Adolight reflector. Probably about one metre (3-4 feet) distance to the paper.

Unfortunately I don't remember the time; my notebook is in the darkroom. But I'd expect that I tried to get to around 15s.

I use a standard 250W flood in a porcelain base mounted about 5 feet above my worktable. Exposures typically are around 30 secs. I tried a couple different LED bulbs, but none worked out. My main issue with the LEDs I tried was that they didn't fully extinguish the light immediately at the end of exposure.

Don't waste your time with a 25 watt or the enlarger
Follow Alan's advice and you'll be very happy
150 watt and up are fine..kiss

lantau said:

After some members here asked for Lupex in 4x5 and the kind people at Adox made it available I did buy a box a few months ago. I did a few contacts then and I used a 250W Nitraphot light (3200K, normal household bulb form factor made by Dr. Fischer) in a small Adolight reflector. Probably about one metre (3-4 feet) distance to the paper.

Unfortunately I don't remember the time; my notebook is in the darkroom. But I'd expect that I tried to get to around 15s.

Click to expand...

OK, I've got my notes from August and I was wrong. I didn't use the 250W photo bulb, but a 60W household bulb. Probably 2800K, or worse. Distance to the paper was 110cm. And the ligth path a little diagonal. I had the lamp mounted on a simple lamp stand at the edge of the table, on which I made the contact, and raised the lamp to the ceiling.

The time was 21s. However, the negative (Fomapan 200 4x5) was from 2020. Back then I used a faulty batch of Xtol, my first ever, and I didn't know. Only once I bought my Densitometer I realised that the densities I was getting were too low. And a few months later I got my Heiland splitgrade, which insisted on Grade 5 for a lot of my negatives from that time. A better negative might take a little longer, which is probably a good thing if you need to dodge and burn occasionally.

In case anyone is interested, I also contacted a Stouffer TP 4x5 step wedge. These are half-stop steps. Step 1 is deep black. Step 11 (5.5 stops) is totally white.

Step 10 (5 stops) is basically white but I imagine seeing some density in the right light and viewing angle. But in my experience my Heiland densitometer can't very read faint reflective densities, which the eye can still detect.

Step 9 (4.5 stops) is faint but clearly visisble against the white base. I need to read this sheet with my densi, but I wouldn't be surprised if step 9 still didn't read. It could fit the description of Zone II.

That seems to correspond well with the plot in the Adox datasheet.

you don't need the lens on your enlarger! you might find with no lens and maybe a 4x5 (empty) neg carrier in place that you get a decent exposure time. Maybe.