Erwin Puts' article in the 8/99 issue of Leica Fotographie on the Heiland Splitgrade system, available for several popular enlargers including the V35, has piqued my interest. I'm looking for any further knowledge and experiences with this system. It looks great actually. The savings in time, paper, and chemistry and the near perfect prints achieved without using test strips sounds too good to be true. I'm emailing the company for more info and will post here any further info I get.

-- Tony Rowlett (rowlett@alaska.net), January 19, 2000

Answers

I bought one for use with a V35. It is everything it promised and more. Simply amazing. Very easy to use. The contrast/density combinations it "chooses" are right on the money for general printing. My first prints are much closer to finals than ever before. In fact I have modified only 20% of the first run prints, mostly based on conent considerations. Buy it.

Dave Guidry

-- Dave Guidry (T-Nut@home.com), February 10, 2000.

Dave, thanks a lot for responding. This is all very exciting. May I ask a few questions?

Have you had to download any software/updates for the unit, and if so, how do you like the interface and was it easy? What paper(s) do you use? Is it all in English?

-- Tony Rowlett (rowlett@alaska.net), February 11, 2000.

The Heiland Splitgrade is a fancy enlarger accessory system for printing on variable contrast papers. It is manufactured for probably five or six different enlargers, the Leitz Focomat V35 included. Because I purchased my Splitgrade for my V35, I will use my enlarger as the example here. I don't know how the system differs for other enlargers, except that the operations of the controller and probe will remain the same.

The system is a combination of densitometer, computer, and motorized VC module. It comes with a probe which is used to read the various densities of the negative as it is projected onto the easel at the working aperture. A foot switch is included in the package as well.

Everything is plugged into the master timer/controller unit (the computer) - the safe light, the enlarger, the probe, and the footswitch. The motorized VC module, which fits in place of the Leitz Vario-contrast filter module also hooks into the master controller. The filter module has an amazingly quiet motor which operates the placement of the yellow and magenta filters during the exposure.

The instructions are unbelievably simple:

1. set the enlargement ratio and compose
2. set the working f-stop (sharpest)
3. press the focus button on the controller unit and drag the probe across the projected area to include both the darkest areas that you want slight shadow detail and brightest areas which you want to be just slightly darker than the paper base
4. press the focus button again to turn off the enlarger and finalize calculations
5. place the paper in the easel and punch the "go" button (or footswitch).

That's all! You can temporarily interrupt the exposure by pressing the go button. Pressing the same button again will resume the original exposure, and any other button on the controller unit will cancel the exposure altogether. This makes breaking down a single exposure for dodging pretty easy.

There are numerous built-in menus and options that allow you to tweak the system, bias contrast or exposure one way or another, or make it compatible with papers that are not stored in its updatable PROM. This makes working with difficult images easy. The book's examples were "Black dog on coal" or (get this) "Egg on white plate."

The system has a burn-in submenu which allows you to key in times and grades for up to four burn-in exposures.

Once ready for an exposure, the unit will display the results of the probe:

"Time: 9.6 seconds Grade: 2.3"

With a few beeps and buzzes, the enlarger goes into action by turning on with the yellow filter in for a few seconds, then off, then on again with the magenta filter, then finally off.

I've learned that success with this system is determined by probing technique. The instructions warn not to probe small, brightly lit objects like lanterns or candles, or small dark (or completely black) areas like the eyes of a polar bear because it may throw off the results. There is an option for advanced use of the probe which allows selective probing, i.e. probing the details and solid white or solid black areas.

The appeal for me is not so much that the system uses "split grade" procedures to produce a print, but the fact that each negative is densitometrically analyzed, which takes practically all the guess work out of printing. I've made a couple hundred prints over the last few weeks and I haven't even been in a hurry. About 80% of the prints are keepers, and all of them were made without test strips. This saves not only paper and chemicals, but time.

-- Tony Rowlett (rowlett@mail.com), March 06, 2000.

What is the price of the system in the United States (for a V35)? Did you have to buy a new module, or did they upgrade your old moudule?

-- Mani Sitaraman (bindumani@pacific.net.sg), April 23, 2000.

It's roughly a US$1K, but check versalab.com. The package comes with its own module and it slides perfectly into the V35 head as if it were made by Leitz. The module has a cable that is, like the probe, connected to the computer/clock unit. The module has only two filters, one that looks like a grade 5, and one that looks like a grade 0. They automatically slide into place when needed during the exposure. They are both out of the way when you focus.

-- Tony Rowlett (rowlett@mail.com), April 24, 2000.

Please see Erwin Puts' test results.

-- Tony Rowlett (rowlett@mail.com), May 01, 2000.

I've had mine for a few days now. I've made a few prints and it seems to be about the best you could realistically make. The trick is knowing which parts of the negative to meter on. I was happy to see that they included a foot pedal for exposures. The only down side is that the box that sits next to the enlarger is rather large. Also it has a yellow/green LCD -- I wonder if this could cause fogging? My systems seems to be nice (if not expensive) now: Leica V35, Splitgrade, Dunco 90/4 easel
Now I just need to stop spilling fixer on my legs and everything will be ok...

-- Russell Brooks (russell@ebrooks.org), February 14, 2001.

I am also very interested in buying one for my V35. The question I have is this, if you buy a densomiter yourself, read a book and use your brain can you do the job for one third of the price, or is it not that simple... I am interested in the fact that you get very good prints in a short time. Sometimes I print 10 for one. I am fussy but even so I would not put my finished prints into 'gallery' category, if this did this first print I would buy one.

-- Richard Palmer (richard@designblue.co.uk), June 14, 2001.

Richard, yes, for a given paper and negative processing style, one could effectively "match up" local densities for desired shades of gray with a densitometer. The advantage one has with the Heiland unit is that a number of papers are programmed into the unit, each with extensive exposure data. My own evidence is that when I probe to an area that I think should turn out black, or just a tiny bit less than pure black -- and to do that, I simply don't probe any other area that seems "brighter" on the easel -- it turns out just the way I want it to. The same is true of the whites. Especially for back-lit scenes, you simply avoid probing areas behind your subject that would turn out more white than the specific white details of your subject. Teeth, the whites of eyes, shirt collars all are good examples of this. The computer then calculates, for the given paper you have selected, the exact exposure, accurate to within 1/10th second. It's actually quite amazing.

Like Russell said above, the only trick is knowing what parts of the negative to probe.

The unit has "bias" adjustments, as well. So if you typically probe to the point where your prints turn out dark, you can adjust the exposure off-set downward, and vice versa.

This is by no means an automatic process. At least it's no more automatic than metering your original scene with the camera's built-in meter and then selecting the proper exposure.

My experience so far includes Ilford Multigrade IV FB, RC, and Warmtone. Each seems to be thoroughly covered by the Heiland unit.

I really don't think the color of the units display will fog the prints, but if you are worried about it, you can turn the units lights off. The unit also has a beep feature (normally off) that will beep with each passing second of the exposure.

-- Tony Rowlett (rowlett@mail.com), June 14, 2001.

I see there is a review in the current month's Photo Techniques issue.

Tony, what kind of paper processing times and temperature is the Heiland calibrated for? Or do the users have to do the calibration by themselves when they purchase the unit?

-- Mani Sitaraman (bindumani@pacific.net.sg), June 14, 2001.

The Photo Techniques review neglected some practical aspects of this great analiser/timer/filtration system.

The controller unit is somewhat biased towards European papers eg some memory is taken up by papers we don't have available here. But there is an option to calibrate for your favorite paper if it's not in the unit.

If your enlarger does not accept the filter module, you can still go "manual" and use the controller unit plus the probe: you dial in manually your max. magenta, expose as indicated, then dial in your maximum yellow and expose as indicated. Or use y/m cc filters.

Works only with halogen light source as far as I know.

Highly recommended, from my experience.

Hans Berkhout

-- Hans Berkhout (berkhout@cadvision.com), June 15, 2001.

Mani, I'm not sure. I use only the Ilford papers and just follow the directions for normal printing, i.e. 1 minute in the developer tray for RC, and 2 minutes for FB. Temperatures I just aim toward somewhere between 68F and 75F.

-- Tony Rowlett (rowlett@mail.com), June 15, 2001.

Thanks for the advice, I am pretty close to buying one, how much do you pay for it in the states, they seem to be about 700 GBP in the UK here. Any more advice on this before I part with my hard earned money would be great.

-- Richard Palmer (richard@designblue.co.uk), June 15, 2001.

I ended up going directly through Heiland (via email) in Germany and spending a few hundred less than what the U.S. distributor Versalab will sell for. I'm not sure if this is possible any longer because of the contractual relationship between Heiland and Versalab.

-- Tony Rowlett (rowlett@mail.com), June 15, 2001.

I thought I would post an update.
I am still very happy with the Splitgrade. Also they have been very helpful in answering emails. The real trick of the system is knowing where to take the high and low measurements, but you would have to make these judgements with any system. The one small negative point is that the system seems better calibrated for certain types of paper. For instance it seems that my Agfa MCP is always printing too dark, Agfa MCC is too light, the new Forte PWT looks too dark, etc... So far it seems best matched (at least on my system) with Ilford warmtone and Kodak Polymax II. I know I can always make an offset but then I have to spend hours to figure out what offset makes sense and even then it might not be correct...

-- Russell Brooks (russell@ebrooks.org), August 13, 2001.