Densitometer recommendation?

I'm at the point in my photography where I'd really like to start testing my negative

processing for to optimize density and 'curves'. I'll need a densitometer to do this.

 

I've read here that one can buy old densitometers on eBay for under $200. What should I

be looking for if I'm interested in a densitometer for negative testing?

 

Can older densitometers be calibrated for accuracy? I presume I'm looking for a

transmission densitometer for film testing, correct? Will a color densitometer work for

black-and-white negatives?

 

Thanks in advance,

Peter

Don't mess around with older stuff. Find an X-Rite 810 or 811 series that does transmission, reflection, and color. It will do b&w just fine. See, the minute you have a transmission machine, you'll want a reflection machine. Might as well solve the problem just once! Shouldn't cost too much.

Macbeth TR524 or the later TR924 are also good transmission and reflection densitometers for normal photographic purposes. They have visual and red green and blue Status A and Status M. They can be used for conventional B&W work.

 

Are you using any alternative printing processes that might require UV transmission readings?

 

Best,

Helen

I'll second Conrad's recommendation. I picked up an X-Rite 810, plus the calibrated transmission and reflective references, for $250 about a year ago on eBay. It works perfectly. They show up quite often.

X-Rite densitometers are fine but the model 810 has, despite being very feature loaded, only Status-M transmission. Status-M is for orange masked negatives. Its great for doing process control of the C-41 and RA-4 lines in a typical mini-lab but its, in my opinion, less than optimal for our uses. The X-Rite 310T offers, by contrast (and keeping to the X-Rite lineup), Status-A and Visual. These are are very important for <U>our</U> typical uses. If the negatives are solely intended for UV sensitive materials in a printing frame then you may also want UV as density in UV and Visual denisity are not the same. If you are using stained negatives (Pyro) but printing using variable contrast papers in an enlarger then you don't want UV but want Status-A. There are many excellent devices that fit the bill from any of a number of makers that are all quite good: Macbeth (now Gretag-Macbeth), X-Rite, Gretag (now Gretag-Macbeth), Barbieri, Viptronic and many others.

Hi folks,

what would be your recommendation if I need the densi also for UV and normal light?

Kind Regards,

Martin

"<cite>Hi folks, what would be your recommendation if I need the densi also for UV and normal light?</cite>"

<P>

If you plan on using materials sensitized only to the 300-400 Nm UV then you might want a densitometer with UV sensitivity. These typically are for graphic applications and so, other than the UV, won't be suited to photographic use. I do not know of any densitometer that offers Status-M, Status-A with UV. You will thus want at least two(2) units. One unit could be a reflective-transmissive unit with Status-M, Status-A and Visual and the other for UV transmissive measurement. If your focus, however, is alternative processes then I'd (unless one was cheap) leave off the UV densi as the consistency of materials tend to be unsufficient to warrant making a big deal out of UV measures over guessing (especially in B&W) UV density response from visual measurement.

UV etc.

 

The Macbeth TD904 and TR927 do red, green and blue Status T (TR 927 transmission and reflection, TD904 transmission only); UV and ortho (TD904 and TR927 transmission only). The Status T filters are wideband gelatin filters (Wratten 25, 61, 47) instead of the glass spectral interference ones of Status A and M (eg TR924). The UV filter is a Wratten 18A.

 

I'm theorising because I have never tried this, but I suspect that a Status T blue reading could be useful for B&W work, if Status T was used consistently. Does anyone have any experience of this?

 

 

Best, Helen

Peter!

 

Two months ago I was in the same situation as yours. I bought on e-bay a used Konica PDA-85 densitometer for $54 plus $14 shipping. It is especially built for black and white and X ray films with a reading opening of 3mm. It is not as fancy as other densitometers but it works very well. For this kind of densitometers you will also need a normal light table and a Stoufer 14 step tablet to calibrate your densitometer.

 

Alex