Quest for Information on V54 lamp for Aristo D-2 cold light

[vernon brisley]

I have been trying to find a V54 lamp for an Aristo D-2 cold light head. Aristo is out of business, Calumet can't help and my three attempts on Ebay have all ended with the old white lamps. I am currently printing in a community darkroom with a V54 light source which emits very green light.This lamp was purchased by the owner through Calumet several years ago so I am fairly sure the V54 is very green. If anyone knows what year the V54 came out,it may be helpful in my quest. Any information will be helpful I am sure. If there are other printers looking for a V54 perhaps we could get the company that bought out Aristo to make some. I am in contact with their rep.but no real answer ,just maybe.

[ic-racer]

What lamp do you have now? What kind of problems are you having with the existing lamp? Have you tried some yellow filtration?

[vernon brisley]

I am printing with the V54 in the community darkroom and I am setting up my own enlarger and don't want to change to the slower old bulbs with a yellow filter. Thanks

[Allen in Montreal]

I have spoken a few times with a rep at Voltarc.
They bought Aristo for other product lines and the cold light tubes are way down the list of things to work on. I have made a plea for even a once a year run of pre purchased lamps, no movement from Voltarc on this front yet.

Jensen claims any Neon tube shop can make these lamps for us.

I took my 1212 head to a neon shop and the guy looked at me like I was from Mars!
The first thing he asked, and asked, was exactly what color do want these tubes to be.
I felt like he was waiting for a pantone shade number or something.

Maybe if someone who has a v54 lamp (I do not) can attempt to determine the exact color of the tube coloring and or the exact color of light emitted we could as a group find a lamp shop that would make these custom order for us.

Anybody with a V45 lamp willing to attempt it?

[vernon brisley]

I have given your idea some thought and perhaps voltarc would release the contents and specs to a local neon shop so they could make some. I am sure there are problems with this,but if they are not making them anyway there would be no revenue loss to them. The aristo site has spectral information but to try and design something from that is a science project. Any more ideas?

[JohnN]

Try contacting Louise Kessler at Louise.Kessler@voltarc.com

She's been working very hard at convincing the new owners of Aristo to manufacture the cold lights.

[Allen in Montreal]

Try contacting Louise Kessler at Louise.Kessler@voltarc.com

She's been working very hard at convincing the new owners of Aristo to manufacture the cold lights.

I would think that each "vote" counts.
She wrote me a month ago to say there was no news, but maybe the volume of inquiries will help her pitch the cause for Aristo lamps to new management!

[tgtaylor]

Here's three photos of an Aristo D2 Cold Light head that came with my enlarger (Beseler 45MXT). The sticker on the top of the head says "V-54."

1. This is a view of the bulb:


2. View of the head with the bulb turned on:


3. Projected against a white card:


The light looks bluish Green to me.

Hope this helps.

Thomas

[ic-racer]

Here is a link to a typical "Neon" shop.
Theoretically it is possible to melt a number of different phosphor coated tubes together into a single "Neon" tube with segements of different color.
What someone needs to do is to commission a single 'test' tube with a number of different green or turquoise segments and test each segment to find a good match to whatever filter set you want to use (Ilford filters and Ilford papers etc.)

http://www.theneonstore.com/s-5-neon...aspx?pagenum=2

[Scott Walker]

http://www.aristogrid.com/spd.htm
Link for a spectral output chart