Help with cold light head bulb

[Ron Stowell]

I'm the proud owner of an Auto Omega E4 5x7 cold light head enlarger.
I will need a new lamp for this cold light head and thus far have had little luck in finding such an item.
Can anybody here shed some light (so to speak) on where I could find this bulb.

[Ed Brock]

You have acquired an excellent enlarger. I had the same problem when I got mine about 15 years ago. I just gave up and took the old bulb to Home Depot for a standard fluorescent circular bulb. It fit perfectly, comes on instantly, provides perfectly uniform illumination and was very inexpensive.

[Jerry Bodine]

I'm the proud owner of an Auto Omega E4 5x7 cold light head enlarger.
I will need a new lamp for this cold light head and thus far have had little luck in finding such an item.
Can anybody here shed some light (so to speak) on where I could find this bulb.

The beauty of these enlargers are that they were designed to accommodate off-the-shelf parts, for the most part. I have an Omega E6 5x7 with Omegalite head. I found an adequate replacement bulb at a local Grainger store. It's not an exact copy of the original but it's pretty close and it's inexpensive.
Here a link to the appropriate webpage for the bulbs:
http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/circular-fluorescent-lamps/lamps/lighting/ecatalog/N-iq5?Ndr=basedimid10071&sst=subset

Hope this helps.

[Ron Stowell]

Ed Jerry
Thank you for the information, much appreciated.

[Robert Langham]

Pretty simple and straightforward enlarger. My bulb still works but I replaced mine with a Zone VI.....now thinking about re-installing it.

104228

[Chauncey Walden]

For my friend's E we replaced the old Circline style bulb and ballast with a new electronic ballast and one of the new small diameter tube circle bulbs chosen for its actinic properties. The change was quite dramatic with nearly instant on to full power and a major increase in output. There should be a post on here somewhere with the details.

[Chauncey Walden]

I checked my original post and the details weren't there so I dug up the invoices. From the Light Bulb Emporium a FPC55/841/HO bulb (16,000 hour life) shipped for about $25 and from Semper Lite LLC a 188227 electronic ballast and a LH0497 screw mount plug for about $50 shipped. Instant full power, no filter required and 2 stops more output reported.

[Ron Stowell]

Chauncey
Thanks for the info. this enlarger is part of my on going darkroom projects for this year.