compensating metronome

[Larry Shearer]

Heres a question for all those Zone VI guys (and girls). Can anyone tell about the Zone VI compensating metronome? Does it work,does it w ork well, is it a "well marketed Fred Picker special and not much else? thanks in the before mode.. Larry

[Doug Paramore]

Larry: I don't own one, but a friend does and I have printed with it. It senses the output of the cold light head and adjusts the speed of the metronome accordingly. It seems to work well on the one he has. The light output from a cold light can vary with the temperature of the tube, so the compensating metronome is supposed to make up for that variation. I suppose it can also work with voltage difference with incadescent bulbs, but I am not sure.

[Richard C. Trochlil]

You only have to listen to one of these gizmos start increasing the speed of the count as the light warms up to wonder how anybody can print with cold light without one.

[Doremus Scudder]

Larry, I've printed quite a bit with the Zone VI metronome and like it very much. It does work, and well. The main advantage is that you can get repeatable results which otherwise would be difficult due to fluctuations in the light intensity of the cold light source. If you already have a good stabilizer, the compensating metronome is unnecessary. If you prefer to print with a timer (I don't since you can't watch what you're doing and the timer at the same time!), get a compensating timer. Or, if you are on a budget, do what I do: turn on your cold light 15 minutes or so before you begin printing and leave it on for the entire printing session. Use your lens cap to begin and end exposures. This stabilizes the light source almost as well as the most expensive stabilizer/compensator gizmos since the light fluctuations are largely due to temperature changes caused by the light being swithced on and off many times during the printing session. Don't worry about burning out the tube, they last 100,000 hours or so and longer when they don't have to go through so many temperature cycles. Then you can go to your local music store and by a $20 quartz metronome. Sure, I could afford the Zone VI metronome, but I'd rather spend my money on something more immediately beneficial to my results. The compensating problem is cheaply solved by the above procedure. Regards, ;^D)