The agony of the cold light and the VC paper

[dancqu]

...the cold head on the E3 takes a set of 4 strait mini-tubes ...
Matt

No kidding! I had a 4 X 5 with the same arrangement. Bought
it surplus back in the late fifties. So they still make a straight
multi-tube design. IIRC mine used 5/8 inch tubes.

Your's may use the newer 1/8 pencil thin tubes. Those tubes
are much used now days. What ever the diameter, buy four or
more and plug them in. Shop from Google or maybe eBay. Or ..

Switch to Graded paper and skip the new tubes and filters.
I dropped VC for the higher level of darkroom lighting possible
with Graded paper. Dan

[Michel Hardy-Vallée]

I use a 40ccy in my enlarger. I have an ancient Beseler with a custom (for it's time) cold light head. The 40ccy in conjunction with MG VC filters works just fine with VC paper.
Good luck.

gene

I agree with that. I've worked on my dad's cold light with a 40ccy filter, and it's just peachy. Now my problem is that I can't find a bloody such filter in photo stores down here, so besides the auction site, what would be a good source?

[papagene]

calumet has a couple of different sets of cc filters. I use their filter in my enlarger.

gene

[Donald Qualls]

I've been split filtering under a "looks white" Zone VI cold light; I get normal contrast with normal negatives at about equal exposures of the blue and yellow filters. I'm using Lee theatrical filters, the 100 Spring Yellow and 119 Dark Blue (I wanted 795 Magic Magenta, but they didn't have it locally and ordering it in would have cost too much and taken too long for my needs). Bonus: two "half sheets" of this material cost about $15 plus the gas to pick them up, and each 20x24 inch half sheet is enough to make twelve 6x6 inch filters, or forty-eight 3x3 size.

[Ronald Moravec]

Calumet sells the Roscoe Lighting Gels. They are cheap. Come in large sizes. Cut them up, put in cardboard frames, and use above the negative.

The man at aristo gaves me the values of green and blue to buy for each grade and it worked out fine.

Or use regular VC filters under the lens after the green is above the lens to cancel the excessive blue. Pull the green out only if you can`t get highh enough contrast.

[Bob F.]

Ilford's PDF on Contrast control (here) says to use a 40Y filter with the Aristo W45 lamp. It also has a table of exposure factors for the different grades.

Cheers, Bob.

[RJS]

I believe Howard Bond had an article Photo Techniqes not long ago about this. The Arist V54 lamp and MG paper is for me an excellent combination. A broad range of contrast easily obtainable and it prints VERY fast. So fast that I need to use the Aristo controller/rheostat to keep exposures in the 3-4 second range at f11.

[Ronald Moravec]

I agree with above. Contrast is well controlled with the V54 and MG. I had to use the Aristo dimmer to reduce 3 stops and I put a sheet of paper inside the light.

It has high actinic content but dim visually.

[MattCarey]

Thanks for all the replies and advice!

I got a set of warm (3000K color temperature) bulbs for the cold head. Luckily, the Omega takes regular, strait tubes, so it cost about $10. That was before I started testing them and found that none of them would start. Starters are about US$0.40 on the net...but about $2 each from the hardware store! I got them and found that they didn't help. A closer look showed that there is a lever built into the head to keep the bulbs from starting when it is taken apart! Ah well, an $8 lesson.

So, I have new bulbs, a new cord (the original looks to be really old. The shock I got indicated that it should be replaced!), but no time tonight to try it with the variable grade paper.

So, with luck, I will have some reasonable prints shortly!

Matt

[jnanian]

matt -

do you have the shutters that came with the enlager?
from what i remember about the e3, there was a shutter because
the bulbs were not "quick start" ( like the big round omegalites that were on the e4 and other later models ), so the bulbs remained "on" all the time and the exposure was controled with a shutter instead.

if you need parts &C for your enlarger, there is a place in canada ( http://www.khbphotografix.com/ ) that either still has them, or may be able to fabricate them for you. when i was looking for a spring-glass carrier for my e4, they were going to make one for me for less than i could have bought one used. from what i understand from people who know this outfit, they have a stellar reputation

good luck!

-john