What's the safest buy for a Beseler 45 color head today?

If one wanted to buy a color head for a Beseler 45 series enlarger today, what would be the safest choice? Reading the forums, all I find is story after story about how something important in one of the various color heads broke and parts are no longer available to repair it. Were there any color heads for the 45 series that didn't have chronic problems or at least still have repair parts available today?

williaty said:

If one wanted to buy a color head for a Beseler 45 series enlarger today, what would be the safest choice?

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45S

http://www.beselerphoto.com/light-sources/

David Brown said:

45S

http://www.beselerphoto.com/light-sources/

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The 45S has common problems with the electrical supply circuit to the lights for which the repair parts are no longer available. There's a lot of threads about the problem here on APUG.

I've owned a Beseler Dichro 45S color head for over 30 years. I had to replace the optoisolator already. The heads are pretty robust. You'll see a few used ones on Ebay once in while. You can try to repair them, but some are so cheap that it's probably better just to replace it with a new one.

The one to avoid is the 45 A (the Minolta flash-tube based head). Sure, it's compact, potentially giving you a couple extra inches of enlargement height if you're in a low-ceilinged darkroom, but the flash tubes are expensive if they go bad, and they do. Easily.

TheFlyingCamera said:

The one to avoid is the 45 A (the Minolta flash-tube based head). Sure, it's compact, potentially giving you a couple extra inches of enlargement height if you're in a low-ceilinged darkroom, but the flash tubes are expensive if they go bad, and they do. Easily.

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I'm curious about those color heads and I've never laid my hands on one. But I think they work with the RGB additive color model instead of using CYM subtractive filters. I would think today, if someone had the will and he or she a electronic's geek, It's possible to build one out of LED's and have the RGB LED's timed during exposure to manipulate color balance of your print.

You don't need a fancy dichroic head to print color. I remember when I started to print color before I bought my 45MX with dichroic head, I used a set of Beseler color filters that came in a box. I would put them in the filter drawer to balance out my prints. I think that's how the term "filter pack" got started.

I'm actually not that interested in printing color at this point. The color heads seem like the most reasonable route to getting a diffusion head onto the enlarger without opening the can of worms (and stabilizers, and compensators...) that is a cold light head.

williaty said:

I'm actually not that interested in printing color at this point. The color heads seem like the most reasonable route to getting a diffusion head onto the enlarger without opening the can of worms (and stabilizers, and compensators...) that is a cold light head.

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Ah. I don't blame you. I think cold light heads are mainly for graded papers. They do make cold light heads for VC papers too. Besides diffusion, a 45S dichroic color head offers the ability to change contrast with VC paper. The halogen bulbs last a long time in the heads too.

If you have any fabricating and electrical experience, you could look at doing something like this: http://www.jbhphoto.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/LEDsVCPrinting03.pdf

williaty said:

The 45S has common problems with the electrical supply circuit to the lights for which the repair parts are no longer available. There's a lot of threads about the problem here on APUG.

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True, however, I was responding to your first sentence: "If one wanted to buy a color head for a Beseler 45 series enlarger today, what would be the safest choice?"

Of all the color heads made for the Beseler 4x5, the 45S is the one to get now. Mine (and others' ) has worked for decades. They are readily available for spare parts. Also bear in mind that the small sample of people here on APUG that report problems are only the ones with problems, and may not be a representative sample of all users of a device.

The "safest" thing is to use the condenser head and filters. Good luck.

Cheers,

Not knowing whether or not there's a VC head available for the 45's would that be a way to go?
Another option, DIY though might be building an LED VC head.

I disagree, the 45A is easily the best, most reliable, and most full-featured of any of the heads for the Beseler. They are dirt cheap compared to what they used to cost. Usually well under $200 on ebay, sometimes under $100. (they were $2600 new in the 80s-90s.) I have 6 of them, I use one and keep the rest for spares. Also have some spare tubes. The tubes last a good while, hundreds if not thousands of prints. I have printed at least 600 prints on the set of used tubes I am using now and haven't had to change any (though the blue one is getting a little slow).

not only is it a great color head, but as mentioned it's additive so the output for color enlarging is better than a subtractive head (more narrow-band light). It also has a great built-in color analyzer/meter that can auto-correct color balance, do automated ring-arounds, has options for programming various emulsions, and many other features.

They are not too hard to work on mechanically, and aside from the tubes, there's not much to wear out on them. Sometimes they have sticky buttons but that is easily fixed. I have all the manuals and service docs posted on line if anyone needs them.

-Ed

John Koehrer said:

Not knowing whether or not there's a VC head available for the 45's would that be a way to go?
Another option, DIY though might be building an LED VC head.

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I don't know about VC cold light/diffusion heads available new anymore, but there are several out there on the used market that will work with Beseler enlargers. There's two ways to tackle this: you can just use gel filters to achieve variable contrast (I used to put my Ilford contrast filters on top of my negative carrier, or you can put them in the swing-out filter carrier that goes below the lens on most enlargers), or you can get a dedicated VC head. There were Zone VI, Ilford, and Oriental VC heads for b/w. None of them are common on the used market but they do show up. I have what some would claim was the best of them, an Oriental VC-CLS head. It has its quirks, some of which I wish had been handled differently, but the quality of light is outstanding. In the non-variable, there are Zone VI and Aristo cold light heads, which are much more common. If you get desperate, the same units were also made for Omega enlargers, and will fit a Beseler with an adapter which is easy enough to home-brew.

45s. Place it on top of your enlarger. Print. Color or VC, easy-- done. Many of the problems were poor connections where the circuit boards plug in, easily cleaned. I have one I got used here on Apug that I've used now for years with no problems. I picked up a second one for a few dollars in case I need parts in the future. I also have the 45a which I have not yet used. I know Ed is a fan. At his suggestion I picked up some spare tubes and addition complete units if I need parts, all very cheap if you shop a little. Everything is so cheap now compared to what we used to pay when this stuff was in production that buying a spare head or two for parts is a very small investment.

I've been using Dichro 45s heads for years. YES the earlier ones had a optical relay, as mentioned by Mainecoonmaniac. There s a part on the circuit board marked ISO 1 .When this fails the lamp lights with an unpredictable delay or not at all. About 15 years ago I miraculously got ahold of someone at Beseler, they no longer offered repair kits as the type used was about 1980 vintage and obsolete.
I found some nut on the east coast who had a stockpile. I finally got him to sell me 10 of the little buggers for 20 bucks each. Takes about 10 minutes to get the board out and solder in replacement. I've fixed about 3 or 4.
The models made in the last 10 years or so don't have this problem, these work perfectly.
98% of what I use these heads for is VC printing using both magenta and yellow filtration simultaneously to achieve constant exposure.
I love these heads but f you get an old one (eventually they all fail ) I've repaired ones that have been repaired once before.
Hope this helps
Best Regards Mike