I'm just setting up a new b&w darkroom and I have the opportunity to buy a mint Omega D5XL Super Chromega with a dichroic diffusion color head.

I like to get some opinions how suitable this unit would be for b&w work as opposed to using a Omega with a cold head?

Also, does anyone know what the max print sizes on the baseboard are for 4x5 and 6x7?

-- jd (jdloftus@earthlink.net), October 09, 2001

Answers

BUY IT! I do all of my B&W printing on the same enlarger. Not only do you have infinite levels of filteration, but it is soooo much easier for doing split filteration printing. As for max sizes, I have printed 20X24 on mine from 4X5 negs with no problem.

-- alan lemire (gallery@alanlemire.com), October 09, 2001.

Good diffusion color heads produce light that is very similar to cold light, except for the spectral distribution. After all, the main purpose of cold light is to get even diffuse light.

The color heads produce a light that is suitable for use with regular VC filters. Alternately, you can use the color filters to mix blue & green light to get the contrast you want with VC papers.

Unless the cold light tube is one of the newer ones, it has so little green that you really can't use VC filters.

I prefer the color heads, just because cold light has a few idiosyncrasies that I'd rather not be bothered with. (And for my enlarger, the color head was cheap.)

-- Charlie Strack (charlie_strack@sti.com), October 09, 2001.

Jump on it! It's a great set up. I switched to this exact system from a D5 condenser and love it. Smoother output and much more convenient than using drop in filters.

-- Arden Howell (serenisea@aol.com), October 10, 2001.

If you need the color settings for the contrast grades from 1-4, email me and I will send a PDF.

-- Scott Walton (f64sw@hotmail.com), October 12, 2001.