Variable contrast papers and Zone VI cold light head.

[gary892]

I am making a change in my workflow and switching from graded papers to variable contrast papers.

I have been using a Zone VI Cold light head for years.

I read somewhere that the Zone VI Cold light will not work well with variable contrast papers, the information I read said the contrast will be reduced.

I would like to get the folk's on this site opinion and suggestions.

Thanks

Gary

[ic-racer]

Try it and see. Only you have that lamp.

[Michael Clark]

I had the model 1 4x5 enlarger, it did not have the variable contrast head but the older blueish light grid and needed to use a extra 40yellow filter for multacontrast papers. It worked OK but sold it and got a LPL enlarger with the VCC head, much easier to use.

[gary892]

ic-racer, that is the obvious approach and one I already plan on taking. I was looking for some responses from people with experience using variable contrast papers with a zone VI cold light head. Michael Clark provided the information I was looking for.

Thanks to both

Gary

[Doremus Scudder]

Gary,

The older units that were not designed to be used with VC papers emit light that is noticeably blue-green. If your unit seems "white" or there is any question at all, then it is one of the later ones that work alright with VC filters. I owned two (think I still have one somewhere) Zone VI cold-light heads and both of them were the more modern variety.

FWIW, the Zone VI units were made by Aristo. Aristo will still supply replacement and upgrade tubes. Do a search here and at APUG and you'll turn up the posts

Best,

Doremus

[billie williams]

Gary,
As Michael says, if you have the old-style bulbs, you need that 40 Yellow filter for best results. However, the old-style of cold-light head on my 8x10 enlarger works okay (without the filter) with some VC paper. Ilford Warmtone, for example, seems quite nice. In the long run, I got tired of messing with the filters and went back to graded papers, even though the selection is quite slim. The replacement tubes are quite expensive, btw, at least for the 8x10.
Here's a link that helped me quite a bit: scroll down to the post by John Stockdale. http://photo.net/black-and-white-pho...g-forum/00bRmV
Good luck!

[Alan Curtis]

Zone VI sold a set of six filters for use on the cold-light head. They were CC5Y through CC50Y.

[Jim Noel]

Regardless of the yellow filtration, your contrast range will bve extremely limited - about 1 1/2 - 3 1/2 maximum. I gave mine away years ago because of this.

[Alan Curtis]

Regardless of the yellow filtration, your contrast range will bve extremely limited - about 1 1/2 - 3 1/2 maximum. I gave mine away years ago because of this.

I agree my experience using the filters with a cold-light head was not very good.