Gast
Hi everyone,
Hi Mirko,
I’m thinking of ordering an Opemus this week or next. Although I only use variable contrast paper, I’ve had no trouble changing filters so far. So is it worth investing in the Meograd head and transformer? Is it true that longer exposure times aren’t necessary at grades 4 and 5? Are there any differences in the exposure effect?
Many thanks for your help,
Paul.
MirkoBoeddecker
Hello Paul,
There is a fundamental difference between condenser light and mixed light. Condenser light is harder and slightly more brilliant (in terms of acutance), but it also highlights every speck of dust and every tiny scratch on the negative.
Diffused light is softer and suppresses these flaws. As with multigrade papers you can filter out the difference in gradient caused by the light, I would always prefer this type of light. However, there are also advocates of condenser light who believe that even with a slightly harder gradient, their prints are more brilliant.
As for extending the exposure time, I wouldn’t get too much hope out of it. Firstly, this varies from paper to paper, and secondly, a negative that requires a gradient of 4 or 5 is a case for the intensive printing station anyway. In other words: such a negative usually needs to be re-exposed and split-printed, and who knows what else. A slight change in exposure time hardly makes any difference in that context.
Most of the time, though, that’s exactly what you want. You filter harder because, with a softer gradient, there’s no black in the image and everything appears grey. You can now expose the harder print for a little longer than the softer one without the whitest white disappearing.
I don’t want to try and talk you into a Meograde head (I don’t even know if you want to buy one from us in the first place), but when I look at our clientele in the rental lab, everyone always wants the Meograde unit and not the drawer unit, even if it costs more per hour.
It’s simply more fun when you don’t have to keep fiddling with the filters. So it seems to be worth a bit more money too :-)
By the way, you can ‘clamp’ the transformer yourself. In the truest sense of the word. It’s nothing more than a 230V-to-12V step-down transformer with 100 watts. You can find them in any DIY store for those halogen strip lights.
However, we can’t do that for you, because the Meopta head has a CE-certified plug fitted and the entire CE certification would be expired if you tampered with it. Ultimately, though, you just need to unscrew the plug and connect it to any 12V transformer. Don’t forget the earth connection – if only to discharge the static from the housing!
I also think the Meopta transformer is too expensive... for that money, you’d be better off buying more photographic paper to practise with :rolleyes:
Best regards,
Mirko
Roman
Hello!
I used to work with an Opemus 6 with filters (in the drawer) for a long time, then with a Color3 head, and now with a Meograde head (though on a Magnifax 4 these days).
In principle, the Op.6 with filters is sufficient to start with; in terms of handling, the filters aren’t impractical – however: there’s a HUGE difference if you have problems with dust or scratches on the negative. As long as I was working with a condenser head and filters, this was a constant nuisance that spoiled my darkroom work. With mixed light, this is a far lesser problem; dust and scratches simply aren’t as clearly visible.
I switched from the Color3 to the Meograde because I was terribly annoyed by the faffing about with tables of filter settings, or having to constantly recreate test strips whenever I changed the gradation.
It’s easier with the Meograde because, as with insert filters, the exposure times remain reasonably constant across the gradients (to the specialists: yes, I know that actually only applies to one paper and a specific grey value – but in practice you’re close enough that it’s sufficient for ‘work prints’, and you do those before fine-tuning anyway; before that I often needed 1 or 2 test strips to get the work-print halfway right; constantly testing every new batch of paper with a grey scale and filter value chart would be too time-consuming given my limited darkroom time...)
Whether the constant exposure times also apply at grad. 4 & 5, I haven’t tested it myself yet – I’ve only had the unit for a few months, and since then I haven’t come across a single negative that wasn’t somewhere between 1.5 and 3.5... As far as I can gather from the somewhat unusually translated German section of my instruction manual, it should be correct, though...
Roman
Roman
Well, Mirko was quicker off the mark... :rolleyes:
RWSchueller
Hi Paul,
I’ve got the Opemus with the Opal lamp and the standard colour-mixing head. Both work very well.
As I mostly do split-exposure printing with multigrade papers, the colour-mixing head is just right. The lower light output for the softer tones isn’t really a drawback. It works well, even without additional test strips.
I’ve now switched to Beseler, Aristo cold light – and filter foils.
Have you bought the multigrade head yet? – I have a 4-ES that I no longer need.
Regards,
Reinhard
fotohuisrovo
Constantly testing every new batch of paper using a grey scale and a filter value chart would be too time-consuming given my limited darkroom time...)
What do you think of the Split Grade System (Heiland)? It’s also available for Meopta. It saves a huge amount of time, is reliable with baryta paper, and works almost 100% of the time with every V.C. paper stored in the module.
Best regards,
Robert
Renate
Hello,
I used to work with multigrade filters for a very long time, even though I have an enlarger with a colour head. The filters were easier to use and produced usable results. It was far too late when I realised that the filters (from Ilford) were slowly fading. I was somehow dissatisfied with the results, but at first couldn’t find a reason for it. I therefore advise against using filters. They are very unreliable in the long run.
I then made my first attempts with the colour head. However, the instructions that came with the papers also proved to be useless. So I took a weekend to work out my own settings. The result is a table that allows me to control the exposure and contrast very precisely and achieve excellent results quickly. The downside of this method is that I have to retest each type of paper.
Best regards
Renate
Goetz
I have the Axomat 3a with a colour head and condenser, as well as the Durst M 601 with a colour head. If you take the time to carry out your own tests, they work very well. And the old Axomat certainly has a soft-focus lever, which the Durst doesn’t have. Perhaps I should get a new enlarger after all? But which one? An Opemus for 35mm and 6x6, perhaps.
Gast
Hi Paul, just a quick note based on my experience with the Opal condenser / Meograde head: the standard condenser head on my Opemus 6a produced a very noticeable, one-sided fall-off in peripheral illumination, so I had to replace it with a Meograde head, which illuminates the image stage very evenly. Despite the built-in multigrade filters, I still use (out of habit) the Ilford filter set under the lens for exposure!
Regards, Rainer
Fidel42
I’ve got a question about the Meopta Opemus, as I’ve been waiting for the device for weeks now. :(
If Impex has to order it from Meopta because they’ve run out of stock, how long will that take?
Is Meopta reluctant to supply them, or are they on the brink of bankruptcy and can’t even put anything together anymore?
Do they only start assembling them once they receive the fax saying, ‘We need an Opemus with a Meograde head’? :blink:
I’m converting the lab next week and would like to have a fully equipped lab by the end of next week – will that work out, or will it be impossible by the start of next semester (April)?
Peter, wondering
MirkoBoeddecker
Peter,
Unfortunately, things are very turbulent in the photography market at the moment.
We have over €30,000 worth of Meopta equipment in stock, yet the customer always wants to order exactly the items we don’t have at the moment.
Opemus Meograde are out of stock, but we do have 20 Standard models, a couple of Colour models and 15 Maginfaxes....
We couldn’t order your one Opemus and left the order on hold for two weeks in the hope that more would come in.
They did arrive, but now we’re still missing 25 lenses.
As soon as they’re ready, the whole lot will be shipped to the Czech Republic.
I reckon in 1–2 weeks.
Sorry for the long wait, but I’m sure you don’t want to pay €750 in transport costs for a single unit, and I’m sure none of you want to fund a massive intermediate warehouse either...
So we’ll keep collecting orders until we’ve got enough together.
Best regards,
Mirko
MirkoBoeddecker
Oh, I’ve just realised I forgot to answer your question: yes, of course.
I’m sure they only assemble them once the order has been placed.
The others do the same.
Anything else would be economic madness.
Best regards,
Mirko
Fidel42
Hello Mirko,
Thanks for your reply.
Of course, you have my blessing when it comes to gathering orders before sending a batch to Meopta. I realise that otherwise the shipping costs would be prohibitive.
Incidentally, your statement is also more helpful to me than the constant: “The enlarger has been ordered, but we haven’t heard back from Meopta yet.” Which is what I was told on the phone.
After a series of phone calls with you, I eventually just wondered whether you were still communicating with Meopta via carrier pigeon.
A clear “We’re still collecting orders” is quite enough for me at this stage to wait patiently for the thing to arrive.
By the way, we need a Meograde because there are quite a few people working in our lab who are in a lab for the first time, and we don’t want to overwhelm them with a colour head... :)
