Cold Light Head for Beseler 45 MCRX

[Jeff_4368]

I am shopping around for a cold head for this enlarger. Are there any tips on what I should look for, especially, if buying used? Is this head the same as one which fits a D2 enlarger? I see many on EBAY that seemed to be designed for that enlarger. Any comments or caveats appreciated.

[John Berry ( Roadkill )]

I live in Seattle and I saw a used zone VI cold light for $ 130.00 at glazers camera store. don't know condition just saw it there. said it was for 4x5 bessler.

[Jeff_4368]

Thanks for the tip. I just sent him an email about it....

[Kirk Gittings]

I have some experience with cold light on a Besler. The older Arista round model required a collar to seat it on the chasis. Mine is from the late seventies adapted with a Zone VI stabilizer/dry down thing. It works relatively well there is still some very slight drift of the light intensity. I believe the later ones made by Zone VI with the stabilizer thing built in work best. I did alot of great work with mine, had many shows and prints for a couple of books.

I actually now prefer a Color head, which with a diffuser gives a very similar quality of light. The advantage to it is the ability to do split filtering (which I am big on) with multi-contrast papers easily. There are now some modern cold lights (newer Aristas) that have two tubes and are specifically designed for split filtering.

Email me directly-I may be interested in getting rid of my Arista as I am heavily invested right now in inkjet actually.

[Chuck_1686]

Note that Aristo came out with a new V54 tube awhile ago for use with VC papers. If you plan to use VC try to get a light with this tube. Old lights can be used but the grade spacing may not be as even. New replacement bulbs are around $100.You also have the question of filter placement. Need to use under the lens filters. These are said to work Ok but need to be kept clean. The cold light also has some light drift so Zone VI came up with both the Stabilizer and later a compensating timer. They also built a Tick-Toc metronome type timer. These require a photocell to be installed in the cold light to monitor the light intensity. Zone VI models may already have this installed. The photocell connects to the Stabilizer and it varies voltage to the light to keep the intensity constant. In the timer system the photocell connects to the timer and the timer uses the input to vary the exposure time as light intensity changes. The Tick-Toc works like the timer but is a stand alone device. You have to count the beeps (which vary with light intensity) and turn the enlarger on and off using a footswitch. The timer is the latest device and I would look for it. Metrolux also builds a timer that takes the photocell input and varies time. Look for a bargin on the heads and Zone VI devices. Should be lower demand nowadays. If you normally work in a repeatable pattern of exposure and print processing you can probably get by without the other devices. If you like to expose 10 prints at one time and then process the devices will help. I would also recommend looking at color heads. Especially if you use mostly VC paper. Do a price compare that includes the added Stabilzer/compensating timer needed for the cold light.

[Donald Hutton]

I have a ZBE Oriental head which are no longer available new, but are supported (Aristo make the tubes). It's a VC head with a computer attached with a whole lot of very useful functionality. I'd highly recommend one if you can find it - they tend to go for about $600 on the used market.

You really want to decide if you want to go cold light or Dichro. If you do go the cold light route, you can choose either a straight forward head and filtration (you'll need a set of filters but they are cheap) or a VC head. Calumet has just released a new LED VC head - it could be outstanding, but I do not know of anyone who has actually tried one out. Price wise, a straightforward new cold light head (make sure you get the V54 tube optimised for VC use) will be around $300 plus filters ($25). A second hand VC head will probably run between $500 and $800. A new VC head will b e over $1000. I know nothing about the market for dichro heads or their use.