I have an Omega D760XL. Need to know the dial in Magenta / Yellow for the approx equivalent to Kodak variable contrast filters 1 thru 5. Thanx.

-- Walter D. Godwin (wdgodwin@aol.com), March 09, 2001

Answers

My advice, which I'm sure will draw some static, is forget about numbered contrast grades. Forget about combining yellow and magenta for constant exposure too. Do tests and adjust film development time to give a good print of a contrasty outside sunny scene without enlarger filtration. Then for other situations dial in magenta to increase contrast, dial in yellow to decrease contrast. Think of filtration in exponential terms: going from 10 to 20 magenta will increase contrast about as much as going from 50 to 100. Last, stop doing test strips. Try my test square method, detailed at home.flash.net/~brownt/darkroom.htm

-- Tim Brown (brownt@flash.net), March 09, 2001.

I'm sure kodak gives this information packed with the paper, but in any case it's available on kodak's website HERE.
Note that the filtration varies with the enlarger light source.

-- Pete Andrews (p.l.andrews@bham.ac.uk), March 09, 2001.

Alright, Pete, how did you get it is embed like that? Let me try something: Give Pete Andrews a shout! Hopefully it works...

-- Johnny Motown (johnny.motown@att.net), March 09, 2001.

I second Tim's advice about forgetting contrast grades with a dichro head. What you ultimately want is the optimum contrast; it's more valuable to know how your particular enlarger head behaves when changing filtration. The numerical contrast grade equivalent is somewhat immaterial IMHO.

-- Larry Rudy (ljrgcr@cetlink.net), March 09, 2001.

Johnny: Use the 'View page source' option in your browser to reveal the dark secrets of HTML script.

-- Pete Andrews (p.l.andrews@bham.ac.uk), March 14, 2001.

Thanks Pete. Yes, there are DARK secrets to HTML authoring. ;-)

-- Johnny Motown (johnny.motown@att.net), March 15, 2001.

I will third the idea of not worrying about contrast grades. Just dial in more yellow for less contrast, more magenta for more contrast.

-- Terry Carraway (TCarraway@compuserve.com), March 18, 2001.