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Thread: Any Aristo W54 Cold Head Tips?

  1. #41

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    Re: Any Aristo W54 Cold Head Tips?

    I received my V54 today! The sure did pack it well - it came in quite the oversized box with tons of padding. In any case, I installed it and it's working great! I managed to make a decent print using a #2 filter - looked just about right for what I would expect. I gotta say though it is BRIGHT. I had to stop down to f/32 and it was still a 5 second exposure. To work around that, I now have a stack of 3 Hitech ND filters to drop it down six stops. That gets me to 10 seconds at 5.6 - a little much so I may remove the top filter, but I wanted to make sure I had room to dodge burn in all formats (my 35mm enlarging lens only goes down to f16 as I recall).

    Test strips worked out pretty well more or less - exposure was so short more testing is required but I did get proper bands and they seemed to be a stop apart. I just turned the metronome on and kept the light on, exposing each strip after 3 seconds. Easy peasy.

    Guess I'll need to get some decent NDs though. Sharpness seemed good through the Hitechs but stacking filters like that makes me concerns I might be causing shenaigans. I guess I'll need to pick up a few NDs to use for the cause. Nice to have more light than not enough I suppose.

    It's so bright it does point out ALL the places the enlarger leaks light though. I had to put gaffer tape on parts of it to help mute the light. Doesn't seem to be fogging the paper but I didn't do any long exposure tests yet.

    Overall I'm pretty satisfied but glad I had some NDs lying around for sure.

  2. #42

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    Re: Any Aristo W54 Cold Head Tips?

    Glad to hear that your anticipated V54 arrived safely. In my earlier post, I mentioned the brightness issue. Hence my use of the 750 Dimmer. You might condsider using something similar instead of stacking filters. I prefer exposures in the 20sec. range. Enjoy!

  3. #43

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    Re: Any Aristo W54 Cold Head Tips?

    I remember when I got that big box from UPS! Lots of gray foam. Best Packing in the world. My lamp was a bit 'jumpy' when I first turned it on. It flickered around for a while. I called Louise and she said to just use it for a while and it will settle down and it did. Good luck!

    www.robbiebedell.photoshelter.com

  4. #44

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    Re: Any Aristo W54 Cold Head Tips?

    Quote Originally Posted by Merg Ross View Post
    Glad to hear that your anticipated V54 arrived safely. In my earlier post, I mentioned the brightness issue. Hence my use of the 750 Dimmer. You might condsider using something similar instead of stacking filters. I prefer exposures in the 20sec. range. Enjoy!
    Doh I forgot about the dimmer option! I was searching the thread yesterday for info on filters but yeah that's a thought. You mentioned a Contactor but I'm not entirely sure what that is? I don't have a lot of experience with neon lights or whatever bulb this is Looks like the light is AC powered (runs from a transformer) so a normal dimmer should drop the incoming voltage and thus make it dimmer correct?

    The filters aren't bad necessarily - well, definitely extreme for 4x5 though didn't seem to affect sharpness. I was worried stacking 3 filters might cause newton rings or some such but I didn't see any (I only printed on 4x5 negative last night though). I ended up only needing a 2-stop for 35mm which makes me think 120 may require a 3 or 4-stop. I also prefer being able to get up to 20 seconds or so for prints, at least if I'm dodging/burning. Otherwise I like to be around 10 seconds.

    The light spillage I'm going to keep working on. It doesn't seem to fog papers but it certainly lights up the room heh.

    Otherwise though I'm loving it. It produced great prints at contrast levels I'm much more used to than with a condenser so I'm quite happy!

  5. #45

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    Re: Any Aristo W54 Cold Head Tips?

    It would be good to look around for a Zone VI Cold Light Stabilizer. It has a dimmer built in and consistent light output.

    www.robbiebedell.photoshelter.com

  6. #46

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    Re: Any Aristo W54 Cold Head Tips?

    This is the dimmer I use. It measures 5 1/4 x3 x 2H.

    https://www.light-sources.com/wp-con...immer_info.pdf

  7. #47
    Tin Can's Avatar
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    Re: Any Aristo W54 Cold Head Tips?

    Very nice and I am sure very hard to find.

    But it does indicate a well oversized device is specified.

    Assuming Aristo named it for rating at 750 watts. I measure my W54 at 300 watts.

    Quote Originally Posted by Merg Ross View Post
    This is the dimmer I use. It measures 5 1/4 x3 x 2H.

    https://www.light-sources.com/wp-con...immer_info.pdf
    Tin Can

  8. #48
    Drew Wiley
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    Re: Any Aristo W54 Cold Head Tips?

    Consistent light output is tricky with cold lights. A better approach is a "light integrator" which measure the actual amount of light and then adjusts the timing intervals. Zone VI had a device like this specially for cold lights called a Compensating Metronome which had a probe for the light head and adjusted the frequency of audible beeps based upon the light output. Typical light integrators are used in UV printers or "plate burners" instead. Maybe one of those would work too; but you would have to look up the spectral sensitivity of current models.

  9. #49

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    Re: Any Aristo W54 Cold Head Tips?

    Quote Originally Posted by Drew Wiley View Post
    Consistent light output is tricky with cold lights. A better approach is a "light integrator" which measure the actual amount of light and then adjusts the timing intervals. Zone VI had a device like this specially for cold lights called a Compensating Metronome which had a probe for the light head and adjusted the frequency of audible beeps based upon the light output. Typical light integrators are used in UV printers or "plate burners" instead. Maybe one of those would work too; but you would have to look up the spectral sensitivity of current models.
    Yep I thought about the Metrolux mentioned earlier here. It's on my list but I may hold-off as a new modern timer someone is working on (part of the Reddit/Discord /r/analog folks). I don't think he's quite ready to fully announce it yet, but soon. I've seen some tidbits and it looks very exciting.

  10. #50

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    Re: Any Aristo W54 Cold Head Tips?

    Sure, the Metrolux works wonderfully with cold light, but some people would rather wait for an imaginary (exciting) better mouse trap!

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