Heiland Splittgrade

[armin_seeholzer]

Hi

 

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Has anybody expierience with Heiland Splittgrade for VC papers?

Is it really so easy as they say?

[paul_owen]

Hi Armin

I saw a review in a copy of "Darkroom User" (I think!!). Seemed a

great idea. But spoke to RH Designs and decided that it was a hell of

a lot of money. But the major reason I decided against it was that I

thought it would take some of the fun/enjoyment out of my printing!!

I know this may sound strange, but I felt that an important part of

the print-making process was simply being automated, and taken out of

my control. BUT, if you are turning out large volumes of prints then

this is probably an essential piece of kit!! Paul

[armin_seeholzer]

Hi Paul

 

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Yes I was also a bit shoked abot the prieces for my LPL it would cost

about 2500 SFR or 3000 DM the one with the fully automated filters etc.

But in my case I would only take the small version were I can use the

VC head and filters of my Jobo LPL but still cost about 1700 DM.

If I were a rich man, or if I would make 1000 of prints every months

then I would buy it! I just remember in the beginning I worked with a

little Labmeter, but I don`t use it anymore.

But thanks for the comment Paul.

[don_welch]

Armin,

 

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There is a review of the Splitgrade in the May/June 2001 issue

of PhotoTechniques. This is Vol. 22, No. 3. If you email them at

circulation@phototechmag.com you can get a back issue.

[diego_rigatti]

There is a deep review by Erwin Puts at

http://www.imx.nl/photosite/technical/heiland.html

 

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I use a similar analyzer made by Durst and it gave me back the

pleasure to stay in the darkroom: three minutes to have a print

perfect in contrast and exposition, ready to start with burning and

dodging.

 

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I heard from the Italian importer that the Splitgrade is even better

than the Durst one (we are going to compare prints made through the

two different systems from the same negative)

[rick_obermeyer]

This all sounds like a new spin of the Durst Multigraph at the same

high costs! A word to the wise if I may, after reading through all

the smoke and hype, it comes down to the "programmed paper types".

I see that they list a select few and those papers not listed can be

manually exposed. The same with graded papers. Why pay large sums of

money for something that still requires manual exposure, that is,

trial and error testing? On the otherhand, you can be tied into the

select few programmed papers! There are some nice papers on the

market that I didn't see listed such as Oriental Seagull, Bergger,

etc. It comes down to the question of how good is the product support

for this new equipment. As a Durst Multigraph owner, I can tell you

that when you use one of the programmed papers and the unit is

calibrated to the paper, everything turns out fine. I can also tell

you that Durst has the worst product support of any company I've ever

done business with. Their comment in regards to getting testing data

done to program another paper was, you send us two 25 sheet packs and

perhaps within a year we'll get back to you with the data! There is

no product support by Durst in regards to the Multigraph and new

papers! The paper testing and programming is the whole idea behind

these two technologies. Without the paper testing information to

download into the unit, what good is it? Might as well save your

money and stay with the trial and error testing method! The whole

thing is only going to be as good as the product support you get for

it!

[msitaraman]

There are some threads in the Leica forum here on LUSENET

 

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http://greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-one-category.tcl?topic=Leica%20Pho

tography&category=Darkroom

 

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A couple of the enthusiastic reviewers in there will be happy to

answer your questions.

 

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I did not find the Erwin Puts article to be particularly useful. Input

from an experienced VC printer would be much more useful.

 

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In any case I think the Heiland is one step beyond the multigraph in

that it ties densitometric analysis of the projected negative to

downloaded/programmed VC paper information and the motorized filter

pack.

 

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But its no substitute for burning and dodging as necessary.

[diego_rigatti1]

Rick,

 

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You are right regarding the lack of prompt reaction from Durst in

sustaining Multigraph; on its side, Heiland seems to periodically

update the software making it available through its web site.

[diego_rigatti1]

The Heiland web site page where the history of the upgrades in the

software (downloadable) is shown is

http://www.heilandelectronic.de/html/english/products/history.htm.