Help!! I am building a darkroom from complete scratch! But I know what I want. I have a woman who is helping me through the process but I don't want to bug her again right now. I know that I want a cold light head with a schnider lense 50mm or 80mm but I don't know what enlarger to get. I am leaning towards an Omega D2 or Saunders LPL but I can't find any cold head solutions. When is says Saunders LPL Condenser does that mean that I can't put a cold light in it!?

Help me! Where do I go? and What do I get?

--Owen

-- Owen Keller (kelo003@newhampton.org), February 21, 2000

Answers

Why on earth do you want a cold-light head for 35mm or roll-film?

If you particularly want a diffuse light source, why not go for a dichroic or VC head?

Cold light heads are intended for large-format use, as an economical and light-weight (pardon the pun) diffused light source. There is just no need for them in enlargers for smaller formats.

-- Pete Andrews (p.l.andrews@bham.ac.uk), February 22, 2000.

With respects to Peter --- The cold light system is not "intended" for larger negatives. What this source does for larger negatives it also does for smaller negatives. If you are serious about setting up a darkroom - and you do not have your negatives undercontrol - then you would need all three heads. Condensor, disfussion and cold light. The "key" is to understand what you are looking for in a final print.And begin shooting and developing your negatives to fix the enlarging system you have. There are pluses and minuses to each system. One suggestion is to buy the best lens you can afford. This has more to do with your final out put than the type of head you are using. You can always addjust your negatives to the type of head.

-- mvjim (mvjim@interport.net), February 24, 2000.

Perhaps someone could kindly explain the difference between a cold-light source and any other form of diffused light source, and how exactly it affects the print.

-- Pete Andrews (p.l.andrews@bham.ac.uk), February 27, 2000.

A cold light head is a diffused light source, as is a dichroic head. The term "cold" comes from the color of the light itself, which tends towards the blue end of the spectrum and the fact that the light source is a flourescent tube, which runs a bit cooler that tungsten sources. Cold light heads are intended for black and white graded and VC papers, which are sensitive to blue and blue/green light respectively. They are not useable for printing color negatives/chromes since they do not emit a full spectrum. Dichroic heads have a complete spectrum light source and allow for color filtration for printing color materials. They also work as well as cold light heads for black and white, but are ususally much more expensive. If you intend to only work with black and white, a cold light head will give you the advantages of a diffuse light source (reduced dust spots, decrease in contrast due to the callier effect) without the added expense of a dicroic head. If you plan on doing color work as well, the dichro head would be the best bet for both. Regards. ;^D)

-- Doremus Scudder (ScudderLandreth@compuserve.com), March 02, 2000.

Dichroic or VC heads are actually cheaper than cold-cathodes for 35mm and Medium format enlargers, and don't have the warm-up time problems of Cold-cathode heads. I understand that Zone-VI cold-light heads have some sort of electronic feedback to minimise this problem, but this presumably makes them even more expensive, especially as all enlargers come with some sort of light source built-in, and the Zone-VI head must be bought as an add-on. Cold-light sources cannot easily be used with VC paper either, and I have never seen a cold-light tube in a size smaller than for a 5"x4" enlarger. What's more, in a well-designed dichroic head, such as the LPL, the heat from the Halogen bulb never gets anywhere near the negative to "pop" it. In fact the diffusing box is lined with expanded polystyrene, which would melt under even moderate heat.

So I would still like to know why anyone would prefer to use a cold-light over a dichroic head for Medium format.

-- Pete Andrews (p.l.andrews@bham.ac.uk), March 06, 2000.

Cold light sources are easily used with VC paper; just get a V54 tube from Aristo. It, along with Aristo as well as Zone VI heads, can be readily obtained for medium format enlargers. Not all enlargers are as successful at preventing popping as Pete claims the LPL is. Owners of Beseler and Omega machines, which do produce enough heat to buckle negatives, are undoubtedly the primary target market of cold light manufacturers. Please note that I'm not connected in any way with Aristo or Zone VI.

-- Sal Santamaura (bc_hill@qwestinternet.net), March 06, 2000.

I have a standard Zone VI cold light head on my 4x5 and use a 40Y color printing filter when using VC paper. It seems to balance the blue light coming from the enlarger.

Nancy

-- Nancy Goldstein (nfayegold@earthlink.net), April 23, 2000.

More on printing VC with cold light. I have a standard Zone VI cold light head on my 4x5 and use a 40Y color printing filter when using VC paper. It seems to balance the blue light coming from the enlarger.

Nancy

-- Nancy Goldstein (nfayegold@earthlink.net), April 23, 2000.

Be careful of using "scrath" for your darkroom. It isn't opaque to certain wavelengths of light. (wink). James

-- james (james_mickelson@hotmail.com), April 23, 2000.