Zone VI enlarger problem

I have a nine month old Zone VI 5x7 VC enlarger and i have had a

reoccuring problem with the 'soft tube'. On occasion, it will not

light during exposure, meaning i will only be exposing with the 'hard

light'. There is a procedure i have to run thru to get the tube to

turn on and become visible. It seems there is something wrong

therefore with the enlarger, but Calument and Zone VI feel this is just

a little bug that you have to work around. I lost a night printing

because i couldn't remember the right procedure to bring the tube to

functioning. I was wondering if anyone has this problem with their

Zone VI as well...(?)

Richard

Richard -

 

I think you need to gently rattle Calumet's cage. I had the 4x5 version of that head. They're a little quirky, but as I recall, both lights came on all the time. My guess is that something is wrong.

 

The folks at Calumet have good intentions, but I'm not sure they quite know what to do with the Zone VI product line.

 

Just my $0.02.

Richard,

I've have owned a Zone VI enlarger since March 1998. I recently had a problem with loss of control of the intensity of both tubes! I sent a detailed message to Luc at Calumet describing every detail of my problem. He contacted me and told me to return the VC head to them for inspection. I was contacted a few days later by a Customer Service person and was told it would be about a week to fix! I received the repaired head back exactly one week later...no charge!! Ironically the head works better now than when new! I have much more control of the contrast settings. I would advise to be firm....there should be no work around with a piece of equipment that costs this kind of money!

i bought a Zone VI cold light head from calumet to use with my venerable beseler 45. the compensating timer burned out twice within the first two months i owned it. calumet "repaired" it the first time (lasted about 2 days), but blamed my electrical supply the second time and basically left me on my own. i had a local guy fix it with (with schematics kindly provided by zone vi). coat $80, but it has worked fine for 2 years +. while on the topic of zone vi, a friend of mine reports that the fellow who used to modify the pentax spot meters for zone vi is now solo, and willing to offer the service again. he will calibrate, install a zone scale and, most importantly, install a filter pack to optimize the meter for the color response characteristics of your favorite black and white film. it really works well. zone vi will supply his name. he also apparently has a website (search for "zone vi meter modification") or email me and i will ask my friend for the info.

That would be Richard Ritter. You can contact him at:

rrlg4mat@sover.net He is in Vermont. Give him time to respond. He is usually busy [that's a good sign - I don't like craftsmen who are just sitting there waiting for business].

 

By the way, he also does LF camera modifications. He helped Fred Picker assemble the Zone VI Classic cameras and can perform all kinds of mods on them. I highly recommend [from experience with him].