I bought another enlarger last week and it came with a pretty much new Beseler 45 condenser head. My Beseler 45 came with an Aristo diffusion head and I have used that exclusively in my darkroom, though I have used a condenser in other darkrooms a few times.
It got me thinking again about the differences and boy Google is full of a million opinions and thoughts, most of them useless. What I couldn't quite pinpoint, but read some interesting opinions on, is about what each head might bring to a negative, when considering the negative size vs. enlargement ratio and also the paper used, including VC vs. graded.
I am wondering if some of you use both types for different prints/formats/papers, and why? Today I have been printing a 35mm negative onto a few different graded papers, and I think I'm going to pop the condenser head on to see how it changes the print. So yes, I am "trying it" as I know the first response always is when it comes to printing. But I just wanted to hear some thoughts on the head type vs. printing different negs on different papers. And I know this is the LF forum but this question relates to all formats and why one might want to use one head over another for LF as well as the smaller formats.
And to be more specific, I've always heard condenser heads give slightly higher contrast. Is this true for graded papers?? I can't see how, but I am curious if it matters.
Bookmarks