Converting to Diffused head, from condensed

[brian steinberger]

Right now I have a Beseler 45M condensed enlarger which I purchased used. If I would like to convert this enlarger to a diffused, cold light, or dichro head, how would I go about doing so? And what would be the cheapest way to do so?

[Joseph O'Neil]

I went the other way - from a diffued head to a condensor head. Didn't like it. My solution was a small sheet of frosted (sandblasted one side) glass that I slid in the filter drawer of my Omega enlarger.

Not the same thing as a diffusion head, but it works for me. Cost of ht eglass was a few dollars at a local window glass repair shop.

Trick is to make sure ht eglass is above the negative, and keep it clean
joe

[Jim Noel]

Although not the cheapest, the best way to convert is to purchase an Aristo head directly from Aristo. The coverage is excellent, and the tube for VC papers works well. The same tube can also be used for graded papers even thoiugh it is not as efficient for these.
I have had two Aristo heads for over 25 years. When I have to print with a condenser, I don't like it.
JIm

[Robert Ley]

Brian, You should be able to pick up a Dicro 45S head for your enlarger fairly cheap ($150+) on Ebay. Anything darkroom is dirt cheap now as more people are going over to the Dark Side (digital) and abandoning their wet darkrooms. The Dicro head has the advantage of being able to change the contrast on VC paper by varying the yellow and magenta filtration. Good Luck!

[ronald moravec]

The frosted glass will make a condenser print 1/2 way between a condenser and diffusion enlarger.

A piece of 1/16 plexigless under the condenser will make a true diffusion at the expense of a lot of light. If you really like it, have a glass shop cut a circular one to go under the condensers inside the collar.

The best option is the color head.

Been there, done that.

[Craig Wactor]

I have always preferred printing with a cold light head vs. with a color head. The prints seem sharper, with better tonality. I seem to be in the minority, though.

[Graham Patterson]

I just swapped out a really old Beseler cold light for a Dichroic 45s. The procedure was simple enough in this case since the heads were both diffusion types - remove the scale from the upper bellows, unlatch the old head, and latch on the replacement, plug in the fan cord, and plug the lamp cord into the Analyser. The scale has to be removed because the Dichroic 45s head is almost as wide as the 45M chassis. With diffusion heads you use the upper bellows fully compressed for all formats.

The old head still works, but the tube is hard to find and the blue component of the light requires a lot of extra filtration on variable contrast paper. It looks like I can use much the same calibrations with the dichroic head as I do with the Durst M605 (tungsten), whereas the cold light was a very different beast.

At the moment I am very pleased with the change, though I expect I will use filters as often as the dial-in filtration.

[brian steinberger]

Does anyone know if this will fit a Beseler 45M? It looks like a nice head, although it doesn't have contrast dials, but I could use filters.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7522233209&fromMakeTrack=true

[Brian Ellis]

It looks like it would fit and the seller says it's for a Beseler (presumably 4x5 since he says it's also for an Omega D2). I have an Aristo VCL 4500 head that looks much like this one and it fits on my Beseler 45MXT just fine, no adapter or anything else required. However, I'd suggest asking the seller. He mentions that it has an adapter. With the VCL 4500 the adapter was needed only for Omegas, no adapter was needed for the MXT.

[Richard Schlesinger]

It looks ok except that seems a high price for a used cold light. Also, you want to get Aristo's V54 tube for the cold light. It gives a lot of light and is designed for VC papers . Check Aristo's web site - they are usually good about answering questions also.

[neil poulsen]

I tried putting a frosted piece of glass under the condensor. It didn't work so well. I had better luck first removing the condensors. Much less attenuation.

If you can, spring for a compensating timer. (Metrolux sold at Calumet.) This will adjust for the inconsistencies for which cold-light heads are notorious.