Enlarger Bulbs Lifespan

Vincent.G

Vincent.G

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I am thinking of buying some spare bulbs to keep. I am on a 75W 220V condenser enlarger lamps. Realistically, how long does a typical enlarger bulb last? 100hr?

What's your experience?
 
No idea but I am thinking about LED heads. It sounds like an interesting alternative since you could control the color and therefore the grade of multigrade papers.
 
Sounds like a good idea.

Does that require a new enlarger head? Or simply rewiring the existing lamp holder to accept a lower wattage LED bulb?
 
From what I have seen on-line one would need something like a diffuser and some modification of the head. There are some examples in the internet to find.
 
In the 20 years or so I worked in commercial B&W labs, I don't know if I ever blew out a bulb. Maybe once. What you probably have to watch out for is some local and temporary power anomaly that would blow one after the other.

If I had to stock up, I would probably have four in the closet. They're not that expensive.
 
mdarnton said:
In the 20 years or so I worked in commercial B&W labs, I don't know if I ever blew out a bulb. Maybe once. What you probably have to watch out for is some local and temporary power anomaly that would blow one after the other.

If I had to stock up, I would probably have four in the closet. They're not that expensive.
Click to expand...

I've been printing for over fifty years and never burned out a conventional bulb. I have however burned out three or four halogen bulbs. I'd probably keep three or four. If you want to extend the life for decades put a dimmer on the line and run it 10 - 20 volts lower than line voltage. Chances are you'll never burn one out.
 
I do not think this is a good idea when printing RA-4 color prints because the color of your HLX bulb is then very important.
 
The halogen ELB lamp for my Chomega B color head (80W, 30V) is rated for 15 hours.
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Correct when taking above bulb color for RA-4 printing in practice. Regular Osram 100W HLX (12V) is for 50 hours. But when doing B&W only you can use it much longer.

This is the Heiland solution for the Philips HLX bulb for the V35 Leitz. You can order the unit with potentiometers or for their (automated) Split Grade version:

http://www.rolfadam.de/LED.htm
 
Vincent,

Life span on Halogen bulbs varies greatly from one manufacturer to another. In my experience, cheap bulbs are a waste of money. Turning the bulb on and off, e.g. contact sheets, also shortens the bulb's life.
The shape/size of the bulb is crucial in order to get even illumination. Find bulbs made for your particular enlarger model.

Regards,
Robert
 
rlouzan said:
Vincent,

Life span on Halogen bulbs varies greatly from one manufacturer to another. In my experience, cheap bulbs are a waste of money. Turning the bulb on and off, e.g. contact sheets, also shortens the bulb's life.
The shape/size of the bulb is crucial in order to get even illumination. Find bulbs made for your particular enlarger model.

Regards,
Robert
Click to expand...

Hi Robert

I bought the Philips 75W 220V Opal enlarger bulbs.
There are also equivalent bulbs made by Osram.
 
I'm converting all of my enlargers to use LED lights. I don't print color, so it won't be a problem. The only issue will be even illumination across the frame. With a condenser enlarger (bulb-condenser lens-negative), you will need to diffuse and even out the lighting as much as you can across the negative.
 
Will a piece of custom cut frosted glass be helpful? The objective is to diffuse the light right?
This can fit into the filter drawer above the enlarger lens.
 
You can use any material: tracing paper, Lexan, plexi ... as long as it can stand the heat.

Vincent.G said:
Will a piece of custom cut frosted glass be helpful? The objective is to diffuse the light right?
This can fit into the filter drawer above the enlarger lens.
Click to expand...
 
I know from Heiland they do the conversion to a cold LED source without further modification of the enlarger.

http://www.fotohuisrovo.nl/documentatie/LED_Coldlight.pdf

In the past the conversion to Split Grade was only possible with enlargers using a diffusser box and HLX bulb.

Now there is the choice if you want to keep the regular HLX light source or also replace it for the cold light LED.
 
The rated life of a PF603 240V 75W opal enlarger lamp is indeed 100 hours. The life will be the same for other voltages as the construction will be adjusted to suit. See 'International Lamps' PDF catalogues (www.internationallamps.co.uk) - an extremely useful source of such information.

Regards

Andrew More
 
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