Zonemaster II Questions

[Keith Tapscott.]

I have a stop clock from RH Designs and was wondering if adding a Zonemaster is worthwhile?

Does it come with settings for current Multigrade papers from Ilford?

Any advice appreciated.

 

[removedacct3]

The answer to your first question is easy ... yes! My best darkroom investment ever.

The second question is a bit more tricky to answer. I do not know if they updated the factory defaults to Ilford's new V papers. But even if they did, keep in mind that your enlarger setup plays an important role to this.

In my experience, and your mileage may vary of course, under the lens filters vs a VC head vs a colour head vs led lights all result in different exposure and/or contrast settings.

I think the ZMII is a wonderful tool, but to get the most out of it you'll either need to do your own paper calibration or re-calibrate your brain, so to speak, to work with the default factory settings. I went with the first option, but a number of forum members reported that they are very happy using the default settings after they gained some experience working with the various patches of gray.

 

[Patrick Robert James]

I don't have anything else by RH Designs, but I do have the Zonemaster. Totally worth it. Saves from having to do a bunch of test strips, and saves most importantly, time.

I'd say it is one of the best photographic tools I've ever bought.

 

[Joel_L]

The zonemaster plus stopclock is a nice combination. I recently got the pair and am very happy with them. It is also worth doing your own calibrations for the paper you are using. The canned settings were OK, but the settings I got calibrating against my paper and enlarger work better. It is not too bad to do.

 

[Keith Tapscott.]

Thank you for your replies. Its something I have been thinking about for a while.
Its an expensive item though.

 

[Joel_L]

It only hurts once and only a little bit