I just finished building my 8x10 enlarger (based on a Beseler chasis) and while it works well, I am a little frustrated with the contrast I am getting from the cold head. I have an Aristo 1212 head with the V54 bulb. My experiance is that t he head prints VERY flat with a filter below a #2 1/2 - so flat it is like every thing is three shades of grey! When I go above a number 3 filter, the contrast s kyrockets, and is too much. The technique I have developed is printing everythin g with a #2 and #3 filters - a modified split-filter printing of sorts.

I have a Kodak Step Tablet, so I was going to take some Ilford, Agfa and Kodak f ilters to check which gave me the best contrast stepping, but if I have to mix-a nd-match between systems, there would be a speed-matching issues.

Has anyone else have with this head, and had a similar experiance? Any suggestio ns or thoughts? I realized that a cold-head prints flatter (I've worked with 4x5 Aristo heads) but I hadn't expected this!

Thanks in advance,

Eric Boutilier-Brown http://www.evolvingbeauty.com