Originally Posted by
interneg
Is this the halogen or LED Splitgrade?
The halogen Splitgrade system essentially uses full yellow or full magenta output & meters/ analyses/ times those two exposures to match up with your specific paper. Most of the retrofits use a motorised system that flicks between the two filters, with a blank panel between them that acts as a shutter. The safelight shut-off is something that most enlarger control systems that analyse the neg do, in order to minimise the effect of the safelight (the sensor is sensitive to wavelengths that the paper isn't). The LED system uses RGB LEDs and makes green & red exposures, with the red as a built-in safelight - along with the option to get a 'white' light output & a colour mix controller. Split-grade has strengths and weaknesses - if you are fairly production oriented, work mainly with one or two paper/ chemical combinations & don't mind having to work your dodges & burns around the low & high contrast exposures, you can refine it to fit your procedures & potentially largely eliminate test strips - however, it is not a magical solution, nor does it do anything that an appropriately chosen single filter value & single exposure would do (unless you dodge & burn differently on both low & high contrast exposures) - it isn't the very expensive panacea that some claim it is.
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