Condit

[vssoutlet]

Can someone please help explain what exactly this is and how and why someone would use it.
The only information that i can find on it is located here.
http://www.daviddoubley.com/Documents/KeepingPaceNewsletters/Vol066_Dec92_LogisticalProblemsEncountered.pdf
Thank you

[RPNugent]

I'm assuming it fits 8x10 film rather than 4x5 since my Condit 4x5 system is much smaller and less involved. I'm not sure what the pins on the side are for unless it fits into some larger vacuum press system for contact printing. I think I'm seeing two pins in the first open view at the top. Those would be used to align the punched film pieces for making a contrast reduction mask so they can be perfectly registered with each other with the fold down cover helping maintain edge to edge contact during exposure. A sandwich of transparency, clear spacer and black and white negative film would be put in and exposed to produce the unsharp mask, which can be manipulated by a mix of exposure time and development to determine how much one wants to reduce contrast and increase perceived sharpness in the final print. Then the transparency film/unsharp mask sandwich is aligned and paper exposed for the final print. I may be completely wrong given how different it looks from my 4x5 system, but it looks like that's what it's for. My system has a separate punch for the film pieces and then a holder to insert into my Saunders enlarger. Unfortunately Condit went out of business many years ago and many people who used the systems for unsharp mask production have either gone to Photoshop or stopped doing darkroom work.

[Drew Wiley]

Nice find. It's a valved contact frame, presumably with registration pins (hard to see on posted image). But you'd need to find a matching registration punch (nearly impossible), or more realistically, find a similar Condit punch and modify it.

[Drew Wiley]

A few Condit devices allowed for adjustment of diagonal pins (two pins at opposite film corners). But diagonal Condit punches are less common than linear ones, which punch on the side of the film.

[Drew Wiley]

Please give a closer shot of the pins.

[Drew Wiley]

Never mind. I got a better look on the big Mac screen. Its not for producing a mask, but for certain types of color contact printing. Looks like an early version and heavily-used. The pins look quite big and might possibly match the Kodak rather than Condit punch, or possibly the Durst punch.

[Louis Pacilla]

I know this it'll be listed on eBay w/ a high BIN price if vssoutlet is true to form.

[Drew Wiley]

Lucky if you even get a bid. Matched sets w punch in clean condition are a different story. These things need to accurate within .002 in.

[vssoutlet]

Lucky if you even get a bid. Matched sets w punch in clean condition are a different story. These things need to accurate within .002 in.

You could be right. With these odd items, you just never know. Could be that someone out there has the right punch. Our pin registration stuff tends to be very popular in Asia.

[Drew Wiley]

How would anyone know the right punch? The actual unit would have to be precisely measured. It doesn't look adjustable. But this is comping gear anyway, of little value for darkroom film masking purposes. Good Condit masking sets do come up from time to time. But mismatched pieces aren't any good.

[Drew Wiley]

Unless you locate the original punch from the same lab, and hopefully in better condition than this item, it would be a complete waste of time even bothering with measurements. If you start the other way around, with the punch itself, and know the right technique, you can punch a strip of thin brass shim stock or thick mylar, and then get a matching pin bar made by a specialty co. like Ternes Burton. Or you could just order the whole nine yards from somebody like that brand new.

[Drew Wiley]

How did a picture pop up? I see only text now. Anyway, it was a snapshot of the label to a box of dye transfer paper, F surface. The final receiver paper itself was simply squeegeed and taped to a board, or sheet of glass or granite. What required a registration strip were the three separately dyed sheets of
matrix film, which transferred their separate dyes in sequence. The relatively uncommon pan matrix film was available in only two sizes and punched at the
factory to match the Kodak pin system. Most dye transfer film was punched by the user, with his own system. These often used a combination of 1/4 inch
round and oval pins, matched to the type of punch one ordered. But most of the preliminary work of masking and color separation was done using offset
1/16 inch micropins to match the various Condit film punches, frames, and carriers. Even these pins varied a bit over the years. I just made a precision vac
easel for registered 8x10 film last week, and used mini metric pins very close in diameter to later Condit punches, within .0005 inch tolerance.

[Jac@stafford.net]

Oi! I found a box of Condit hardware in storage and frankly I cannot understand it, but I do note that there is no corresponding negative carrier for my 4x5. :( Junk?

[Tin Can]

Oi! I found a box of Condit hardware in storage and frankly I cannot understand it, but I do note that there is no corresponding negative carrier for my 4x5. :( Junk?

No. wait. I am getting one soon. Let's check it out!

[Jac@stafford.net]

No. wait. I am getting one soon. Let's check it out!

We will, Randy! Thanks for being there.
.

[Tin Can]

We will, Randy! Thanks for being there.
.

2 weeks.

[Drew Wiley]

A matched registration carrier is necessary only for sequential tricolor enlargenents, of which dye transfer is the most common example. You don't need this for masking purposes; you just need a film punch and matching contact frame with a registered pin glass. After the mask is developed, it is taped on to the original neg or chrome using the pin glass for registration, then the taped film sandwich goes in an ordinary glass neg carrier.

[Drew Wiley]

I learned that lesson the hard way about ten years ago! The problem now is just finding the time.

[Keith Logan]

As it turns out I do have a complete 4X5 Precision masking set from Warren Condit. He made it for me in 1981 or 82. It comes with a contact printer with glass and pins. Also a pin punch and a precision negative carrier with adjustable diagonal pins. He even provided me with an extra piece of glass with pins for the contact printer should my original glass ever break. I used this system rigorously for over 25 years. When I went to the vssoutlet link it took me to a Keeping Pace Newsletter. It was Bob Pace in Los Angeles in 1981 who told me about Warren Condit. He also told me about Pulsed Xenon light sources and vacuum easels. Because Ciabachrome in those days was very contrasty it required masking. I ordered the system from Condit then discovered I could make multiple exposures using different masks to control contrast and shadows. The pulsed xenon light source runs from 220 volts and produces extremely bright light. This kept the exposure time within the reciprocity range of the (very slow) paper and the vacuum easel kept everything flat while I removed the film to switch masks. Very slick system. I stopped using the system about 10 years ago and am now just dismantling everything.

[Drew Wiley]

Pulsed xenon enlargers were once made even bigger than 11x14 neg size and ran so hot the heads required a water-cooling jacket. I've replaced Ciba with Fuji Supergloss. It's easier to use and requires far less light intensity than Ciba, but the color negs themselves still sometimes benefit from masking, either contrast-reduction or contrast-increase. So I still keep my Condit equipment handy, as well as for occasional black and white printing applications. I also have dye transfer printing supplies on hand, but not sufficient spare time to fool with them much. I'm getting such good results from these newer materials that it's hard to justify the expense and labor of dye transfer except for a few special images. Inkjet doesn't appeal to me at all. Some of Bob Pace's old instructional videos can be accessed on the web. But films and printing media have changed so much in the meantime that this kind of thing is helpful more by analogy than specifics. Even his equipment seems a bit primitive by my own current standards.

[juangris]

Hello Keith ..it is posible to upload some images from your 4X5 Precision masking set..Thank you...