I have been using a Zone VI cold light head with fiber-base papers. My cold light head is an older one, and not the $900 model Zone VI makes for VC papers. I would now like to try some Ilford VC RC and fiber base papers. I have read about using a CC 40 yellow or CC 40 green filter, in combination with the VC printing filters, to compensate for the cold light source. Should I expect to get contrast grades comparable to using a condensor head when I use one of these CC filters with the VC filter? Which one should I use? Any info would be greatly appreciated.

-- Frank Burtnett (confra@earthlink.net), August 23, 2000

Answers

Frank, my Omega 4x5 enlarger has an old cold light head. I used the CC40 yellow filter above the negative and the VC filters below the lens with Ilford FB paper. It works for me, but whether you actually get a grade 3 or 4 etc. might be questionable...but it does change the contrast. I've since taken the CC40 out and replaced it with the No. 2 VC filter and get much better results. You will probably just have to experiment with your enlarger and find out what works for your setup.

-- Don Sparks (Harleyman7@aol.com), August 24, 2000.

For a long time I used the old Aristo cold light in my Beseler 23CIII enlarger without the recommended CC40 yellow filter. I printed almost exclusively with VC fiber papers. I was successful in making prints but I always suspected something wasn't right because of the contrast grades of filters I found myself using. Rarely did I use a filter above a #2, and most of the time I would print with grades 1/2 to 1. Last year I purchased the newer Aristo cold light with the V-54 lamp. I was amazed at the difference. Now a #2 filter is my starting point when I begin working with a negative. The V-54 is blue and more intense than my older cold light. I realize you are using different equipment, but I think what I've attempted to outline here may be relevent to your situation. For what it's worth, I hope this helps.

Tom Schumacher

-- Tom Schumacher (tlschuma@orotech.net), August 24, 2000.