Graflarger & color prints

[Sorin Varzaru]

I was considering getting a Graflarger back for my 2x3 Speed graphic for some Ty pe R or Ciba enlargements I'd like to make. I like the ideea because I don't hav e room for a regular 2x3 enlarger and I don't expect to make many prints anyway. I've heard however that the cold light this back provides is not suitable for c olor work. I was wondering if anybody knows anything about that. I would also if anybody has any experience using one of these backs and what were the results?

[M.]

Black and White graded only. No color. Better than nothing, but not much. Start and stop your exposures with the shutter, not a timer.

[Ken Burns]

Sorin:

Cold light heads use fluorescent tubes for the light source. These tubes, especially the older ones that would be found in a Graflarger back, produce a discontinuous spectrum of lightIn other words, not all colors of the spectrum are there. A lot of the early cold light sources were extremely blue in color since older graded B&W papers were sensitized almost totally to blue light. That makes these cold lights unusable for color printing and very difficult to use for VC B&W printing.

[Kevin Crisp]

Sorin: I tried, without much success, to filter an old tube to work well with B& W materials. I called Aristo and they said I would never really get this to work well. I followed their suggestion and relamped and now it works great. If you can't get it to work with B & W materials I'll bet this is hopeless with color. Call Aristo, they really know their stuff and are very helpful.