Printing hardware

Easel

L P L 21 x 26 cm

Max paper size usable on this thing is 20x25 (8"x10"), there is a screws on the back to set the offset of the top left corner for the margins. Sadly it is not graduated in any way so you cannot easily set it to half an inch…

Note: Base is magnetic, so it should be possible to use Paterson marginless magnetic holders, if those are any good?

TOG (French brand) 30 x 40cm

It’s a 30x40 cm 2 bladed easel. It’s settings for margin are strange. It otherwise is adequate to do these bigger prints. I only actually used it for making one photograph of this size. But it works well.

Timer

Paterson Precision Enlarger Timer 2040

Type number as amount of 1/10s of seconds on the keypad

Focus button turn line on and off Hold button stops the timer and light up until pressed again Start button just starts the timer

The backlight is dim and green for the screen. bit I still added a blackout cover on it because I fear it could fog paper.

Enlarger Meopta Opemus 6

Made in what was still call Czechoslovakia, factory inspected in august 1990?

This is a medium enlarger for 6x6cm film, have frames for 24x36mm and for 6x4.5cm film

I have all the basic accessories, the condenser lightbox for black and white, and a Color3 color head.

Lenses

• Meopta Anaret S 50mm f/4.5
• Meopta Anaret 80mm f/4.5 + step up ring for M39 mount.
• Nikon El-Nikkor 50mm f/2.8

I have got a 2nd lens board, so now I can swap between lenses with a single thumbscrew. This is handy because unmounting the 80mm lens from the lens board is annoying as generally the step-up ring gets torqued higher than the lens itself.

The Anaret S lens is not actively in use, as I now ise my 50mm Nikon lens for my 35mm enlargements.

Color 3 light source

Bulb

100W 12volt halogen bulb using GZ6.35 base. OSRAM 64627 HLX EFP 100W 12V is a suitable replacement bulb

Fuse

T0.5 250V

Note: I also have a condenser light box for the enlarger but I have not been using it. Even the fact that there’s a ND filter built in to the color head is reason enough for me to not bother with it

The fuse this was shipped with has blown July 13 2024 while printing.

Mixing chamber

My Color 3 is fitted with a 6x6 mixing chamber. Different mixing chambers seems hard to source. The reference number for the 6x6 mixing chamber is 392 821 620 102. But the only identifier on it is a little label saying f 60 - 80. This piece seems fragile.

Using the Meopta Color 3 head, but for black and white

This is the color head of my enlarger, it can be used for contrast control of black and white print too, but this is not the intended use.

Filtering wheels

The head has the following subtractive filters intended for print color correction

• C: Cyan
• M: Magenta
• Y: Yellow
• D: Neutral Density

Contrast control with black and white using ILFORD Multigrade

As a guideline, ILFORD’s Technical Information Contrast Control memo for has provide as a guideline the following conversion table between Multigrade filters and Meopta color filtering values.

Using the data in the Meopta Color3 head manual, I have computed an approximate factor to multiply the exposure time calibrated at Grade 2 (with white light) to get the same exposure at a different contrast value.

Contrast control with black and white using FOMASPEED Variant

FOMA sells contrast filters that are shades of yellow and magenta, but also recommends color filtering heads as a prime usage for their variable contrast paper.

The FOMA filter are not speed matched. The datasheet gives filter values. We can cross reference this with the Meopta Color 3 head manual, and build this table

Note: It does seems that the contrast from the exposure without any filtering is slightly lower contrast than standard grade 2. The difference may not be big enough to matter. FOMA’s datasheet calls contrast without filters, and grade 2, both “Special” contrast. They call grade 3 “Normal” contrast.

The information, overall, is less precise than ILFORD’s documentation, but is more than sufficient in practice, especially since we are not using ILFORD’s filters that are “speed matched”, we always need to recompute exposure

Scales and exposures

Neutral density filter is graduated between 0 and 60. 60 is equivalent to 2 stops of aperture.

Color filters add a nonlinear amount of exposure that is different per color, and follows a formula and a reference table that is given in the Meopta Color3 head manual.

I have made a spreadsheet.

Focusing light

To get brightest white light out of the enlarger, raise both side arms. Left arm removes the color filter, right arm removes the ND filter.

Color specific tools

Chemistry

I am currently using the Bellini RA-4 kit, it is stocked by my online lab. I have more information about this on my [[RA-4 paper development]] note.

To this kit, I add one additional step. I use a stop bath between the developer and the blix. This seems to help remove some blue/cyan streaking at the edges of the paper.

I use a citric acid (“odorless”) stop bath. Which one exactly is not very important. I currently use the Bellini ECOSTOP product, but you need to watch the pH. Developer carryover does raise the pH quite a bit relatively fast. I recommend instead the usage of an indicator stop. I do not know if there is any importance or change between citric acid and acetic acid. I personally prefer the darkroom not to smell like white vinegar on top of smelling like drain cleaner, so I will go with the odorless stuff.

In the future, I may use FOMACITRO or Bellini INDEXSTOP

Temperature control

I need to keep my RA-4 chemistry at the nominal 35 degrees temperature. Technically I know it is possible to use them at room temperature too but require more color correction. The problem is my main issue with color darkroom right now is the color correction process.

Sous-vide cooker

I use a big bucket of water (actually a plastic storage bin), and a sous-vide cooker. The actual sous-vide used does not really matter as long as it can maintain that low-ish temperature on a big volume of water efficiently. The one I have is a cheap one from one of those cheap ones you can find from Amazon. The brand is called “Wancle”, it’s 1100 watts, and I have used it for RA-4 print and C-41 development with no issues.

Thermometer

I taped on the side of my bucket one of these LCD Thermometer

I put the probe inside the developer bottle, as it is the one chemical which temperature is actually important.

Development

The maximum paper size I deal with for now is 8x10" (20x25cm). To develop color pictures I use drum processing. I do this with an ILFORD (Cibachrome) drum.

I do not have the motorized base for it. I just roll it back and forth on a flat surface.

The drum has a cup at the top, and it works with 75ml of chemistry. It will actually hold a bit more than that. I generally fill it with around 80ml of liquid.

Color Calibration

Paterson System 2000 PCA 2060 (Philips PCA061)

I found on LeBonCoin (French Craiglists) this tool. It needed a bit of work, one of the contacts in the probe was intermittent, I had to resolder a wire in it.

The needle is a bit slow to react when I change channels. I think it is due to old capacitors. I have them on the way. It takes around 5 seconds when switching color channels for the needle to be reacting to the pots value. It is almost like the bias voltage around that galvanometer is waiting for one of those capacitors to charge? It otherwise seems to work…

I may need to make an ideal test negatives using the included chart, but any colorful picture should work just fine.

I do not know if it is worthwhile to follow the instructions to make the “ideal test negative” with the included poster, as any colorful picture should actually work.