Ilford 500 System

[raven_garrison]

I just saw a Beseler 45MXT enlarger advertized on an auction. The light source is the "Ilford 500 System". Does anyone have any knowlege of this system? Pros - cons.

[trevor_crone]

Raven I use a Multigrade 500 head which comes with power supply and

keypad to set time and paper grade. The head uses two lamps a green

and a blue which are either used singularly or in combination to set

the grade. The green is of course soft and the blue hard. In use you

simply key-in the required grade and exposure time on the keypad and

the head does the rest it's as easy as falling off a log!

The only downside that I have encountered so far is the thermal cut-

out is rather sensitive on my head so if you take a long time to

compose the image on the baseboard and keep switching on the head it

overheats and cuts out and you have to wait for it to cool down

before you can activate it again.

Regards,

[fred1]

I have used the Ilford 500 in commercial situations for many years

and think it's great. One often overlooked feature of this system is

the ease with which you can burn in a negative at a different

contrast grade than your base exposure, assuming you are using a

multi-grade paper,which everyone seems to be going to even in fiber

base materials.

 

<p>

 

fred

[arthur_gottschalk]

I've been using the Ilford 500 system for the last few weeks at the

Print Space rental darkroom in New York City, and can say that I much

prefer it to the Saunders I'm used to. I've been enlarging 6x6 to

20"x24" and I'm very impressed. The lights seem much stronger than

Saunders, which reduces exposure times, and the pictures seem crisp.

I've also been using a Rodenstock lens, which seems better than the

Nikkors I use with the Saunders.

[jeffrey_scott]

"Labwork" in Cleveland, Ohio has three of these heads on their

enlargers. We have been using these for over a decade with great

results. They are reliable and after using one of these you will

never go back to individual filters under the lens!