Small cold light units - bright enough?

I am selecting an enlarger for a darkroom I'm currently building. I

need an enlarger capable of handling 645 negatives, and don't

anticipate needing 4x5 capability any time soon, so I'm not really

seeking out LF enlargers (unless one fell into my lap...). I will be

buying a used enlarger.

 

I'm currently taking B&W lessons from a local fine arts

photographer. His enlarger is a Beseler 4x5 unit with a Zone VI cold

light. I feel that whatever enlarger I end up with, it needs to be

have a cold light source. If I cannot find one already fitted with

one, I'll add an Aristo cold light.

 

I'm currently printing VC 8x10 and 11x14, using under-the-lens

printing filters. The darkroom is designed to be able to handle an

occasional 16X20.

 

The enlarging lens would be an 80/5.6.

 

My current 'short list' of enlargers includes: Omega B22/B22XL, Omega

B8, Beseler 23C/23CII/23CIII, or Durst 601. There are other

possibilities, I know. And, depending upon what I end up with, I may

need to mount the enlarger directly to the countertop and add a drop

surface to handle the larger paper sizes.

 

One thing I have noticed in the Aristo cold-light catalog is that the

cold light heads for the Omeaga B22 and the Durst 601 are 40-watt

units. Heads for the other units are 70-watt units.

 

My question is whether the 40-watt units are bright enough? I

guess 'bright enough' means a projected image which is easily

focused, and 'reasonable' printing times at moderate apertures. If

I'm missing something else here, please let me know.

 

I know too much light can be a problem, but Aristo's dimmer could

handle that for more $$$ (sigh).

 

Does anyone here have experience with a 40-watt Aristo/Zone VI unit?

 

Thanks, everyone!

 

� Bill Brant

Bill, I haven't used one in years, but I used to have a full B/W darkroom and was using the 40 watt Aristo cold light on a Beseler

67 CSXL with a Rodenstock 80 f4 lens. The Aristo was great, even

tonal graduation, completely eliminated the 'chalking' and 'mudding'

effects you get with condensers. I never tried it on VC - was using

only fiber based papers at the time. The Zone VI unit, as I understand, was every bit as good, maybe better, than the aristo. I never had a need for the dimmer, 40 watts never was too much for the

printing I was doing.

I have the Besler 23IIIVC enlarger. Its easly to align and keep that way. The V.C. head is great. This new design is nothing like the much milgned dual dircro head. It uses one blue and one green filter connected together. The cvontrast knob moves the filter pair up or down producing blue, green or any shade in between. You are always focusing with the color light the paper sees. The ilumination is very even and the print speed is good. I don't get any negative popping when I use glassless carriers. V.C. printing with a standard cold light is a problem. You need the newer tubes that are colored for V.C. paper responce.

I have a 23CIII with Zone VI cold light head, and have replaced the tube with Aristo's V54. The Zone VI and Aristo heads (not necessarily the separate power supply units) for this enlarger are virtually identical, so my comments should apply to both.

 

Bright enough? Making an 8x10 from 6x7, I'm using a 2 stop ND filter on the enlarging lens just to get times of 10 seconds at f/16 to f/22 with most papers! There is no shortage of brightness. However, even illumination is certainly lacking, since the tubes make twists and turns right above the negative, and only a single plexiglas diffuser is used between them. I solved this problem by obtaining a second round diffuser and separating it from the first by 1/4". That has eliminated any density variations in prints containing even tones, such as sky, even when using high contrast paper/filters, which would exacerbate the problem. However, the inherent design limitations of these heads means that I still have falloff in the corners with 6x7 negatives. If you will not go above 645, this modification should provide you all the even, diffused cold light you'll ever need, and in a tidy package.