frustration with condensers

On Fri, 13 Jan 2006 15:33:35 GMT, Mike wrote:



It might be time for me to plop down $300 for an Aristo V54 head....

Or even just a regular Aristo head. Both work well with good, graded
papers.

John

Mike wrote:
It might be time for me to plop down $300 for an Aristo V54 head....

Or even just a regular Aristo head. Both work well with good, graded
papers.



How do the old heads work with VC paper?

It depends on just what color tube you have. The one in my D2-HI looks white
to mey eye. I can use Kodak polycontrast acetate filters in the filter
drawer of my 45MCRX, but I also put in a fairly strong yellow filter (#12, I
think, but maybe #15, possibly just a CC60Y). I have not done this in a long
time. Just one more thing to dust off before making a print, because it is
so close to the negative.

I rely on VC paper to compensate
for my "sloppy" work. In other words, my process isn't fine-tuned to
create a negative that always prints right at Grade 2.

Even Ansel Adams was seen purching Agfa Brovira Grade 6 paper on at least
one occasion. Maybe he could not develop the negative enough to get the
contrast he wanted. Or maybe he was buying it for a friend. That I do not know.

What puzzles me is that the condenser glass is nearly flush with the
negative. Hence the focus will capture any flaws in the glass. If the
glass was even an inch away from the negative, this wouldn't be a problem.

On the Beseler, the glass is about 1/8 to 1/4 inch away from the negative,
so that smoothes it out somewhat. I do not notice any flaws in the glass,
such as bubbles or striations visible to the naked eye. There are tiny chips
at the edges, but this does not seem to matter.

--
.~. Jean-David Beyer Registered Linux User 85642.
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Even Ansel Adams was seen purching Agfa Brovira Grade 6 paper on at least
one occasion. Maybe he could not develop the negative enough to get the
contrast he wanted. Or maybe he was buying it for a friend. That I do not
know.

Just the thought of Mr Adams furtively sneaking into the shop with wearing
dark glasses...

....its for a friend.

!

;-)

--
http://www.petezilla.co.uk

On Fri, 13 Jan 2006 13:15:29 -0600, Mike wrote:

Or even just a regular Aristo head. Both work well with good, graded
papers.


How do the old heads work with VC paper?

I added a 20CC Yelow gel to my Aristo head as the light output made
for extremely short exposures and the contrast was about G3.5. It
subsequently lost about 1.5 stops of light and the contrast dropped to
G3.0 which worked fine for my needs generally.

I rely on VC paper to compensate
for my "sloppy" work. In other words, my process isn't fine-tuned to
create a negative that always prints right at Grade 2.

FWIW, I've rarely printed on a G2 that I liked. I prefer the slightly
better shadow contrasts produced on a G3.

What puzzles me is that the condenser glass is nearly flush with the
negative.

You probably have enough room to add a piece of diffusion glass such
as white translucent acrylic or even simply a piece of etched glass
such as the non-glare glass used in framing.

Hence the focus will capture any flaws in the glass. If the
glass was even an inch away from the negative, this wouldn't be a problem.

If you have enother 1/8th inch you can add in a spacer of some sort.
Are you running very high apertures ? I stopped doing this some time
ago myself and have adjusted all of my enlargers to work at 2 stops
down from wide open by simply changing the bulbs out for lower output
types.

John

P.S. Another "trick" I did with the D2V w/condensers was to polish the
lamp-house. This effectively made the light being projected a little
softer. I just used some sulfuric to remove the finish and then
polished it with steel wool.

Mike wrote:

What puzzles me is that the condenser glass is nearly flush
with the negative. Hence the focus will capture any flaws in
the glass. If the glass was even an inch away from the
negative, this wouldn't be a problem.


Glad you mentioned that. I've a B8. The condensers have
not been checked for years. I also make low diameter enlargements.
One trick would be to use a faster stop and thus a more shallow
depth of field. Very short exposure times may result. Dan

wrote:
Mike wrote:

What puzzles me is that the condenser glass is nearly flush
with the negative. Hence the focus will capture any flaws in
the glass. If the glass was even an inch away from the
negative, this wouldn't be a problem.



Glad you mentioned that. I've a B8. The condensers have
not been checked for years. I also make low diameter enlargements.
One trick would be to use a faster stop and thus a more shallow
depth of field. Very short exposure times may result. Dan

I forget what I was doing, but making 8x10 prints from 4x5 negatives was
probably it. And exposure times were too short. I stuck a ND 1 (10x) filter
in the filter drawer along with everything else, and that increased the
exposure time enough for convenient processing. With my present Zone VI VC
cold light head, I have the opposite problem: insufficient brightness, so I
need to use f/5.6 to f/8 on my 180mm f/5.6 enlarging lens.

--
.~. Jean-David Beyer Registered Linux User 85642.
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/( )\ Shrewsbury, New Jersey http://counter.li.org
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