I plan to install a dark room and buy an enlarger. Is there a problem in using variable contrast paper with a condenser-type enlarger with an incandescent bulb lamp? I've heard that those bulb lamps change color as they get older, so I expect paper grade shifting with lamp age. Thanks, Gert

-- Gert Raskin (gert.raskin@med.kuleuven.ac.be), May 12, 1999

Answers

I'm not sure I understand you here. All condenser enlargers require an incandescent bulb. That's how they work.

It is true that as the bulb ages your prints from the same negative will change. However, consider how long you have that bulb on in a given printing session and how slowly it will age and the myriad of other factors affecting the print. The change will be there, but it will probably be so gradual you won't notice it unless you're really really good or very very experienced or print the same neg over and over and over and have all the other variables nailed down rock solid tight.

You could always buy a cold light head or a color head instead.

-- Sean yates (yatescats@yahoo.com), May 13, 1999.

P.S. Check out an earlier question in this forum, further down the page entitled, "Age of enlarger lamp affecting exposure time"

-- Sean yates (yatescats@yahoo.com), May 13, 1999.

All enlarging light sources "age"--color heads, cold light & condenser. This will have an effect on the final out come. A print made this year,this month will require slight adjustments from one made a year from now. But unless you are using your enlarger ever day, five/six days a week- chances are you will rarely notice the differences until the light source is ready to go. But then again different emulsion batches of paper , agitation method, slight differences in developer dilutions, etc.

-- jim megargee (jim@mvlabs.com), May 14, 1999.