[Leica] Cold Light

[Richard Comen <rpcomen@mcn.org>]

Walter, 

I also get much better prints now that I rediscovered the incandescent
light and condenser enlarging. I used cold light in a Bessler 223C enlarger
for twenty years and after struggling with never ending allignment problems
I gave the Bessler to our local high school and purchased an old Leitz
Valloy II with its wonderful helicle focusing and its inability to ever go
out of allignment. I use a 75 watt enlarging bulb so heat is never a
problem. I have been printing for over 65 years and my negs have never been
easier to print or looked better. I once read that the lamp housing design
of the Valloy II along with its condenser gives the benifits of both soft
light and condenser capabilities. Whatever the reasons, I will never go
back to bellows enlargers and soft light. Another point of view for what it
is worth. Richard