Enlarging meters

[Terry S]

With cost being a hurdle for many, when contemplating purchasing a RH designs enlarging meter, remember that there are others out there.

The following I have seen many times, (but have never used one so can't comment on them that way) and is a much cheaper unit, that may be worth buying. Has anyone bought one?:

http://www.darkroomautomation.com/em.htm

They also do a more expensive model, which I presume has more features:

http://www.darkroomautomation.com/fst.htm

Note that at the bottom of the latter one, it mentions contacting them about a 220v model, so I presume you would have to with the cheaper model as well(?)

Terry S

[ExploringDR]

Originally Posted by Terry S

With cost being a hurdle for many, when contemplating purchasing a RH designs enlarging meter, remember that there are others out there.



The following I have seen many times, (but have never used one so can't comment on them that way) and is a much cheaper unit, that may be worth buying. Has anyone bought one?:



http://www.darkroomautomation.com/em.htm



They also do a more expensive model, which I presume has more features:



http://www.darkroomautomation.com/fst.htm



Note that at the bottom of the latter one, it mentions contacting them about a 220v model, so I presume you would have to with the cheaper model as well(?)



Terry S

Thanks for these links. Great options, and much less expensive. I've got the RH StopClock, so likely staying in their system. Pleased to see choices.

Sent from my SM-G981V using Tapatalk

[PanFrank]

Hi!
I have an RHD Analyzer Pro as well and I am very happy with it. As Richard stated the first result is almost always a good working print. With good negatives the chances for a good print is already quite high. But it is a tool. I very much recommend to watch the movies made by Chris himself, now on the youtube channel of Petter Sommer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfFYIu_t9VQ. You will find out what the machine is capable of. You have to learn how to use and then gather experience on top. Then you save firstly on time and secondly on paper later, too.
Cheers, Frank

[Keith Tapscott.]

I have bought a Paterson cds enlarging meter on eBay.
Does anyone have any experience with this meter?

[Terry S]

Originally Posted by Keith Tapscott.

I have bought a Paterson cds enlarging meter on eBay.
Does anyone have any experience with this meter?

I too have one that was given to me a while ago. I must try it out, out of curiosity if nothing else, to compare it to my RH design's version, with a measuring probe.

The last time that I used one regularly, was when I was just starting out in the late 1970's!

Terry S

[Keith Tapscott.]

Originally Posted by Terry S

I too have one that was given to me a while ago. I must try it out, out of curiosity if nothing else, to compare it to my RH design's version, with a measuring probe.

The last time that I used one regularly, was when I was just starting out in the late 1970's!

Terry S

Thanks Terry, it should arrive by Thursday, but it may be a while before I get to use it.
I will be interested how you get on with the Paterson meter.

[skellum]

I have bought a Paterson cds enlarging meter on eBay.
Does anyone have any experience with this meter?

This is a good little tool. It works best if you keep a relatively limited stock of different papers in the darkroom, as the first step is to calibrate meter and paper, assigning a 'code' letter to each specific paper. See:

https://www.cameramanuals.org/flashe...ging_meter.pdf

Once calibrated it takes a few seconds to calculate exposure for any given negative. It gets fooled by very high or low key images, but will give a workable exposure for negs of average tonal scale and exposure. What you may find is that as a demanding printer you'll use the meter to get a ball-park exposure, but still do some tests at narrow intervals round that time.
For quick and dirty 'good enough' prints it can save a lot of time and paper. I haven't unpacked mine since setting up the new dark-room. I'll have to give her an outing.

[Richard Gould]

Hi Keith,
I remember the Paterson meter, I used one when they first came out, back in the early 70's, it was very basic, but worked quite well to give you an overall time of exposure, first you needed to set the speed of the paper, which yiu needed to do for every box, this was done with a teststrip, which would give you a letter which you set on the meter, you would need to do this for every box of paper, then you fitted a diffusion disc under the red filter pole, with the disc in place and the negative in the carriere you would place the meter on the base board in the middle and adjust the aperture on the lens until a yellow light just came on, that would give you a exposure of, I think, 10 seconds for that setting and negative, very basic, but worked well enough and a marvel for the day, The rh meter gives you much more infomation and helps with dogeing and burning ect, but with the Paterson you got a basic well exposed print
Ricgard

[Keith Tapscott.]

Thanks skellum, Richard and everyone. I look forward to Thursday when it arrives.

[Flack]

I have one of these, I used in the 80's, but it has been stored for 35 years, I must get it out and see if it still produces a print, not a fair test against my Analyser Pro sowouldnot campare it to that..