Eee Gads! My new enlarger leaks light...

[scott jones]

Hi all,

I am starting to play with my new enlarger in my new household darkroom. I have the Saunders/LPL 4550 XLG with VCCE head. I was surprised to see a lot of light leaking out of the negative carrier slot "painting" a thin line of light with a 270 degree arc along my walls perpendicular from the verticle axis of the enlarg er.It is really quite bright. There are some other small light leaks around the heat shield for the bulb which also project out horizontally. I can't see anythi ng projecting down toward the paper.

So here is the question:

Is there a problem with light shooting out like this? I do have black cloth hang ing on the nearby walls where the light band hits, so I don't think any is refle cting onto the easle.

If there is a problem, then what to do? Perhaps a cloth skirt with elastic aroun d the negative carrier slot to block the light?

The small light leaks at the heat shield aren't aimed at the easle and I think a ny cover-up there might get too hot (ie: catch on fire).

Any and all advice as to whether this is a problem and solutions if needed would be welcomed. Seems odd to design an enlarger with light pouring out of it...

Scott

[Steve Baggett]

As long as the walls where the light is striking are not white and reflecting light back on to the easel, you are probably OK. You can ease your fears by doing a fog test. Put the cap on the lens, put a piece of paper in the easel, turn the enlarger on for 5 minutes, then process this piece of paper with one straight from the box and see if you can detect any fogging by comparing them.

[Bill Smith]

Welcome to the wonderful world of Saunders.

No it is NOT alright to have light leaking from the enlarger. Get yourself some black velvet cloth and tape it to the enlarger creating "curtains" where the light is leaking from. Do not place the cloth tightly over the air vent, just drape it enough to block any light leaks.

The Saunders is a good enlarger, but little engineering design went into the light seals.

Enjoy it as it will produce wonderful images.

Bill

[Jim Billlups]

Scott,

I don't think you will suffer any ill efects from this. As noted above, do a simple test to see if there is any fogging, and then take the appropraite action if necessary. Enjoy.

[ZoneIII]

I realize that this thread is VERY old but I thought I would mention something for the benefit of anyone reading it in the future.

I am surprised by the responses that recommended doing a fog test as described early in the thread. That is, to place a sheet of paper on the easel and let it sit for five minutes. Such a test is invalid and almost useless. I am surprised that this myth never seems to die. You must bring your paper up to threshold before doing a fog test. Without doing that, the test may not reveal fogging even though it will be present in the high values of a print. To do this, first make a series of non-image exposures on a sheet of paper just as you would when printing except that, in this case, you will use a very small aperture and increment your times by one second. Develop and find the strip that just shows slight tone above paper base white. Now your paper is above threshold and will show any additional exposure including fog. To do your fog test, expose a sheet (or small piece) of paper for the length of time determined in the above test and then place the paper on the baseboard for however long you want to do your fog test but cover up about 1/2 of it. Develop and inspect. If you see a difference in the side that was covered compared to the side that was uncovered, you have fog.

If you are just testing for light leaks from your enlarger, you should do these tests in total darkness.

If you are testing for safelight fog, there are many variations of this test but keep in mind that if you just leave the paper on your easel, you will not be checking the safelights over your developing trays. There are several very good methods for testing them both and, in fact, there is an excellent and clever way to check for safelight fogging under the enlarger AND in your developing area at the same time while determining which area has a fog problem in the same test.

The important thing to know is that when doing any fog test (with the exception of paper fog - bad papers), you must bring your paper up to a very light gray (just over threshold) for the test to be valid.

I am always suprised that people still recommend doing a fog test without bringing the paper up to threshold. Even experienced printers who should know better often recommend this. It's really a useless test. Paper has a threshold. Before it reaches that threshold, it does not respond to small amounts of exposure by producing a print value above paper base white. If you do not bring your paper up to just over threshold before doing a fog test, it may not show any exposure at all but it may show fogging in prints because the highlights are over threshold.

[D. Bryant]

I have the very same enlarger and have had it for years and it does leak a lot of light.

It is absolutely NOT OKAY to allow the enlarger to leak light - any where for critical printing. Do what you need to to block the light. If you look carefully you will also notice you have light leaking from the lens cones. And from the exhaust fan and as originally mentioned the negative carrier.

Definitely check your safe lights for leaks as well.

The quality of your prints will jump once you clean up ALL white light leaks - what ever there source.

Don Bryant

[cyrus]

I suppose the very reason that paper has a threshhold is why minor light leaks are not considered to be a problem by some printers: the amount of the leaked light is not enough to reach threshhold, and therefore any effect on the paper is deemed to be negligible.

However, in my HUMBLE OPINION since the effect of light exposure is cumulative, any effort to reduce stray light is better than none. After all, we're not talking about wildly expensive efforts here to block light, just a simple cover or skirt suffices, so why not attempt to block it?

PS: every enlarger I've ever owned or seen leaks light somewhere. And, I won't say that my darkroom as a whole is entirely light-tight either. Thus far I've addressed the major leaks and don't have much of a problem with the smaller leaks. But just to be safe, when I'm handling film, I use a very large changing tent even in my darkroom (especially since the flo lights in my room tend to occasionally flash for some unknown reason.)

[Brian Ellis]

John Sexton uses this same enlarger (or at least he did at the last workshop in his studio that I attended about four years ago). He has several home made devices for stopping light leaks at various points with this enlarger, one of which is the skirt that you mention. If you really want to get discouraged, put your head on the easel and twist around so that you can look up into the lens and lens carrier with the light on. What you see is what your paper is seeing when you print and you may see a lot of light leaking from around the lens board and therefore onto the paper. To stop extraneous light from that source I've fashioned a gizmo out of carboard that attaches to the two screws that hold the lens board in place on my Beseler MXT enlarger. I disagree with those who say that your light leaks aren't important. Everything has a cumulative effect in the darkroom and that light leak, combined with your safelight and perhaps other seemingly insignificant light from other sources, can all add up to a problem. Rather than trying to guess whether it's a problem, I'd try to fix it and not have to worry about it.

P.S. Saunders isn't the only enlarger that has light leaks out of the box. I've used Beseler and Omega enlargers, plus seen the Saunders. All had light leaks from several sources. Maybe Dursts are different - I've never used or seen one of those. Finally, the way I was taught to check for light leaks from the enlarger is to turn off all the lights, sit in the dark for 10 minutes, then turn on the enlarger light with the lens cap over the lens and look all over, under, and around the enlarger.

[Jim Billlups]

Scott,

Just do a simple test for fogging as Steve suggested above. Think about it. Just think how much light is hitting your paper when you are making an exposure and how you can have pure(non fogged)white areas right next to pure black in a print. Just do the test and determine if this is a variable for YOU or not. Please let us know your results Most importantly, have fun!

[John Hennessy]

If it's any comfort, Beselers do the same thing. Mine is in a three sided booth sort of arrangement and the walls are painted flat black so the leaking light does not go any where.

The suggestion about doing a fog test with a prefogged piece of paper is a good one. You have to get the paper over its threashold to do a valid test.