ZoneVI VC Head - Ready Light Never Quits!

[Peter Lewin]

I've just taken my darkroom out of mothballs, and after 5 years of sitting with the power off, my ZoneVI VC head is acting strangely: the ready light goes on simultaneously with the power light, and stays lit throughout an entire printing session. To those of you unfamiliar with the ZVI head, that may sound fine, but it is abnormal. The ready light should be off while the head warms up, and typically goes off while the enlarger is not in use while you process a print. The standard trick was to turn the enlarger on in "focus" mode as soon as your print is in the fixer, so that it would re-stabilize in time for your next print. I can't think of any reason why something electronic would fail from lack of use, and am not sure what to do. Any suggestions? Do you know if Richard Ritter was involved with the enlargers and might be knowledgable? (P.S. After the long absence, it was fun to pyro/tray develop my first bunch of new negatives yesterday, and see them come out fine and scratch free! It was when I was proofing today that I noticed the enlarger was not functioning the way I remembered, although I was of course still able to make my proofs.)

[Alan Rabe]

I have a Zone VI VC cold light and I just checked it. The ready light comes on when I turn on the power and only goes off when I step on the foot switch. When I release the switch it comes back on.

[Peter Lewin]

Thank you Alan! (Small pause while I smack myself on the forehead and go "duh!") If you look at my post in the new members department you will see why I forgot how the head works... Just ran down into the darkroom, switched the ZoneVI on, and hit the footswitch, and just as you said, the ready light went off, signalling that the tubes were not yet at operating temperature. Left the head on "focus" for a few minutes, then back to "print" & footswitch, and light stayed on, just as it should when everything has stabilized. Apologies to all for the false alarm on my part!

[John Cahill]

Allan and Peter,

Just entered for the first time. I have a Zone VI enlarger still in the boxes. I shall be setting it up as soon as I get the darkroom modified because of the long girder. I am sure I shall be coming to you all for help.
John Cahill, Mount Vernon, Virginia, USA
zone

[Alan Rabe]

You got a great enlarger. I have a Beseler 45. I had the original Zone VI cold light for years. While I used the Brilliant graded papers it worked great but when I switched to VC paper I just couldn't get what I wanted with filters. In the past year I was able to get the VC head on ebay and love it, got complete control.

[Steve Feldman]

Alan,

Hmmmm. Intertesting. I also have the 45MXT with the single color cold light bulb. Mine is fine with Ilford VC filters. I know that others have problems. Everyone's mileage will vary.

[Alan Rabe]

Steve, it wasn't that it was bad it was fine. I just wanted more control than the filters were giving me. I mean with VC paper you should really be able to have grades like 3.25 and be able to burn easily with different grades. I also found my exposures would vary more that I liked between different filters.

[BruceN]

Now you guys have got me wondering. My ready light also goes on immediately and I can print right away. I use the Metrolux II compensating timer, so I shouldn't get any print abnormalities even if it's not stabilized, but I can't help wondering. Anyone know what the operating temp of the tubes is? I keep the darkroom at 68 degrees, so maybe they don't need to be warmer than that?

Bruce

[Peter Lewin]

Bruce: just to be clear: as Alan Rabe reminded me, the green "ready light" goes on as soon as you turn on the enlarger. However, if the head is not warm enough for the tubes to be stable, when you hit the foot switch to make an exposure, if the tube isn't stable, the green light goes out. Then as soon as the exposure is over, the light goes on again, regardless of stability. (In other words, the green light will be on whenever the tubes are "off"; the trick is keeping the green light on when the tubes are "on".) So the system isn't very "ergonomic" in that you can't tell until you are exposing paper whether the tubes are stable! My normal routine is that once I have a print in the fixer for about a minute, I reach back and hit the "focus" switch on the control unit, so that the enlarger is "exposing." Then I complete the fixing, review the print, make whatever decisions I need for the next iteration, and take the enlarger out of "focus" mode. That way I'm sure its stable for the next exposure. Another approach is to make one or more "blank exposures" by hitting the foot switch, making sure you're getting a stable cycle, before putting the next sheet of paper in the easel. My hunch is that stability is above 68F for the head (if I put my hand on the head during a printing cycle, it feels warm, above ambient temp.)

[BruceN]

That's odd, then. My green light only blinks off for a split second, even if I start the exposure immediately after turning on the head. It will blink off for maybe 1/10th of a second then come right back on and stay on for the remainder of the exposure. Once again - it doesn't really matter since I use the onboard sensor in conjunction with the Metrolux II (dang I'm really beginning to love that unit). Just makes me wonder, that's all. Thanks!
Bruce

[neil poulsen]

. . . I use the Metrolux II compensating timer, so I shouldn't get any print abnormalities even if it's not stabilized . . .

Bruce

Don't count on this. If I'm not mistaken, the Metrolux uses only one sensor. I used to use the Type I enlarger with the Zone VI compensating timer. While the timer maintains the overall light reaching the paper, each color can still vary independently resulting in a "variable" contrast enlarger. (The Type II maintains separate control for each color.) I had prints for which I'd kept records. Trying to print them later, I couldn't get the same result, because the contrast was off. It was really disappointing, because I had put a lot of time into getting those prints the way I wanted them.

Having realized that, my only solution was to print each color separately. But, that results in a lot of trouble, so grabbed a Type II system for a great price on EBay.

[BruceN]

Thanks Neil, I have the type 2. The Metrolux plugs right into the onboard sensors. So far I haven't noticed any inconsistencies, but that only means I may not be discriminating enough to see them. ;)

Bruce