Your favorite Enlarger Timer

[Duolab123]

Several MetroLux, of course. For over 30 years with cold lights and now with LEDs.

I picked up a spare Metrolux II just in case. I used Beseler dichro heads for 20 years for color and black and white. Mixed magenta and yellow at close to constant neutral density. I bought a cold light 40 years ago, I didn't really give it a chance. I'm very fond of the Zone VI setup, I really wasn't looking for these when I stumbled onto a very motivated seller. These were sold to the original owner in 2001, like new to me. I'm always surprised how fast cold lights are. There's got to be some UV coming through.
I would like a LED source for one of my Beseler units but I can't afford it right now.

[Mark Sampson]

I'll guess that a majority of the tens of thousands of enlargements that I've made were timed with an Omega Chromegatrol, the power supply/timer commonly attached to an Omega D5 Super-Chromega. That was on the job.. but for many years, in my home darkroom I've used a simple Gra-Lab 500 timer.

[jp]

I like the Gralab 451 or 450. I have one for the enlarger, one for my UV box, and a spare.

[neil poulsen]

The Zone VI compensating enlarging timer is one of the best investments I have ever made. We have only window air-conditioners in the summer, and the timer evens out the power fluctuations that used to drive me batty. Whenever my cold light head finally gives out, I am only hopeful that, unless another becomes suddenly available, someone by then will have started producing a moderately priced LED diffusion head that either uses the same sensor apparatus, or doesn't need one.

My favorite as well.

[lab black]

The Metrolux 11 has been a constant performer.

[Renato Tonelli]

My favorite Timer is without a doubt the Lektra TM-764, with a Reciprocity Control function and Metronome (a modification); it is hooked up to the Durst 501 Color Head.

The Durst Multigraph has its own Timer and has more bells and whistles than I know what to do with.

A Zone VI Compensating Timer is hooked up to the Durst PRO with the Aristo head but this has been mothballed as I have no space for this system.

All of them have foot switches for exposure; the Lektra TM-764 has two foot switches: one for focus and one for exposure. I like foot switches

[Conrad . Marvin]

I also like foot switches. But alas, I discovered the RH Designs Stop Clock Vario and now have just one foot switch. I kept one of my Lektra timers and a few foot switches as a back up.

[tgtaylor]

I've been using a Saunders/LPL ET-500 timer with foot switch with a Beseler MXT for 15 years + now and am completely satisficed with it: it's very accurate and resets to the previous setting when completed. I used a Gralab 300 for film and B&W print developing for years until it bit the dust and replaced it with a Gralab 900 without the foot switch which I've been planning on getting on day.

[Doremus Scudder]

For many years I printed with a metronome. Just a regular battery-operated compact musicians metronome set permanently on 60 beats per minute. I started the metronome, held a card under the enlarger lens, flicked on the enlarger light then removed the card and started counting. When finished, the card went back under the lens and I turned off the light. EZPZ.

I still do the same thing now, but use GraLab 450 digital timers (I have one for each enlarger). They are set permanently on 99 seconds and have the metronome "beep" function switched on. I hold a card under the enlarger lens, step on the footswitch, remove the card and start counting... Sometimes I have to step on the footswitch a few times when I have really long exposures and lots of intricate burning. Still EZPZ.

I use percentages to make test strips and figure and record my dodging and burning times, so I don't need f-stop timing (percentages do the same thing without all those pesky square roots ).

Any simple timer that turns on the enlarger light and beeps once a second is good for me.

Doremus

[Rick A]

I have a GraLab 525 dual channel digital timer with foot switch for my Omega D-5, Time-O-Lite for the Beseler 23Cii, GraLab 505 digital that runs my UV box, and a GraLab 300 that runs my motor base for rotary film processing.