Beseler Color Head

[Wilbur Wong]

About 10 years ago I purchased a Beseler 45 VXL and a Univeral color head, which is a dichroic head with feed back circuitry.

I find a complete dearth of info regarding this head today. It has served me well and has never been a problem other than an occasional burnt out bulb.

Was this light source in general never greatly adapted by others in this community?

I'd like to hear from anyone else who has or had experience with this unit.

[dan nguyen]

Wilbur....

If i'm right I have the same Beseler Universal Head but I only have the VC controler (for B&W) w. built in timer and not the Color Controler. I came with a small device (probe) that measures the light on the board to determine the correct time for printing. I never use it, I prefer using test strips method. It serve me well. lot of satifaction from it except to change bulbs which is normal. If I want to print color, I need to buy a color controler and a set of filters to put in the slot in from of each bulb.

[dan nguyen]

sorry to piggy-back your post..... anyone has the same probe descirbed above and use it with satisfaction...?

thanks

[Wilbur Wong]

Dan,

You are right that the Univeral Head was available both for color printing with a color controller with settings for magenta, yellow and cyan; and also for a variable contrast controller.

The head is the same, although I am not sure that the cyan lamp would be used for the b & w VC.

My version does not use a probe at the easel, but has feed back from a sensor inside the mixing chamber to the electronic controller. And again it has served me well over the past decade whenever I was able to find time into the darkroom.

The way I understand this head to work is that there are 3 lamps with a seperate dichroic filter in front of each. The controller cycles each of the lamps on and off to vary the mixture of light, which in my experience is extremely precise.

At this writing, I don't know if Beseler is selling the controllers, certainly I don't find it listed at B & H.

[Brian Ellis]

My recollection is that Beseler's Universal system had some problems when it was first introduced, which later were fixed but the initial problems gave it something of a bad rep. Plus it ws fairly expensive. And then just a few years later you know what started really catching on and that had a big adverse effect on the market for all new enlargers. I'm pretty sure the Universal line was discontinued a few years ago though I could be confusing it with the 45A that was discontinued quite a while ago.

[dan nguyen]

Wilbur...

The infos I gave above is not completely correct.. sorry....I just open and check the head, read the manual.... It came ready with 3 filters in front of the 3x250 Watt EVW lamps and a spare clear filter. The instructions says that if I used the the head for B&W (and with the VC controler) I need to take the red filter of the midlle lamp and replace it with the supplied clear filter. Also, under the head there a double bellows housing and a turret for 3 lenses, which is nice if someone want to switch format....I like this feature since I use MF too...

and Brian, you're right it's "fairly expensive".. I mean an arm and a leg.... :-)

[james mickelson]

Wilbur, are you coming up to Mammoth Lakes and Bodie with us this year? Hope to see you there.

[Wilbur Wong]

James, and Dan too - I'll be there - hope to see you soon.