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RH Designs ZoneMaster II

Introduction

"Darkrooms are dead. Digital is where it's at." If you are completely convinced of that, feel free to hit your Back Button right now. This review is about a piece of equipment that, either stand-alone or combined with an equally revolutionary timer, will breath new life into your darkroom and give you capabilities and functionality typically found only in digital editors.

Background

B&W fine-art prints are extremely difficult to learn how to make. Learning how to print is pretty easy, but getting the results you want without wasting time, materials and hair (from being pulled out), requires training, analytical skills and exactness. Unfortunately, these skills can't be bought. Most of us have learned B&W developing and printing from school (High-school yearbooks), or workshops. School printing generally didn't extend beyond the basics and workshops frequently teach advanced techniques, but from the unique perspective of the instructor.

All this leads one to abandon or never build a B&W chemical darkroom and just go digital.

Brightness and Contrast

We have two basic controls when printing.  Brightness and Contrast. Brightness is adjusted by time and aperture, while Contrast is adjusted by paper-grade. Dodging and burning are local contrast tools along with many other tricks of the trade, but I'm strictly limiting this to overall image control.

In looking at the negative (illustrated here with a digital file), we can eyeball the general look and feel, and an experienced person can guess a starting exposure and paper grade.  But that first print will not be anything more than a guess.

Ok, that wasn't bad for the first test print. The exposure is close, but the contrast is very flat. In the digital darkroom I would set the "Black Point", "White Point" and maybe the "Middle Point" to achieve a nicely contrasted picture with the complete tonal range. In this picture, I'd use the forground grass and either the sun or a spot in the brightest clouds for my points. Or, when in doubt, open up the "Levels" dialog in my editor and just use the histogram to set the points with.

In the computer this was very easy. It takes you longer to open up the dialog box than it takes to correct the picture. This ease of exposure processing has made the "Digital Darkroom" superior to the "Chemical Darkroom".

Doing this in a chemical darkroom would require 2-3 test strips and at least 4 minutes per test. Then the final print is rarely acceptable without a few more full-sized prints destined for the garbage. What takes less than a minute in the computer may take an hour or more in the darkroom.

If only there was a way to mimick the "Levels" dialog box in the Darkroom.

RH Designs ZoneMaster II

The ZoneMaster II is digital darkroom meter with a probe that is essentially a multiple reading spotmeter. I won't get into a full-blown description of every feature and capability, but will describe the meter this way: It is an F-Stop based meter intended for B&W printing using fixed and variable contrast papers. You meter the negative (as projected on the easel) and then adjust the meter using the exposure up/down and contrast up/down buttons to move the "dots" around on the grayscale.

Measurements

We start by placing the negative in the enlarger and adjust the height and cropping before getting our exposures. Next we remove any color filtration used for contrast control and dial in an aperture that gives a reasonable exposure time (something under a minute is good, but not too short). While taking measurements it is recommended that the safelight is off as it will skew the readings. (I placed a completed print in the easel for illustration)

Place the probe on a highlight (the densest part of the negative) and press the "measure" button on the remote probe. The meter will read the exposure at that point. Next take a reading of the darkest point in the picture (clearest spot of the negative).

I also take a few other readings of midtones, shadows, etc., for sanity sake.

Each reading takes a couple of seconds and up to eight readings will be stored and displayed on the scale.

Interpretation and Adjustment

The meter displays the multiple readings via a series of 15 LEDS underneath a grayscale. The meter will automatically adjust exposure to achieve a proper highlight. If a given exposure exceeds the scale, the final LED will blink.  In this case, the right-hand LED is blinking, indicating that the darkest point of the print will be too dense. To bring the tonal scale back into check we need to reduce contrast. The common method for reducing contrast is by going to a softer grade of paper.

The indicated paper-grade on the meter is "Grade 2". The meter will mimic paper grades from 00 to 5. (the meter holds multiple custom calibrations for different paper types; the default is Ilford Multigrade RC). The paper grade is adjusted in 1/2 step increments and as you adjust you will see the dots shift on the grayscale indicating the new expected tonal response.

It is important to recognize that the meter does not control anything. It gives you the recommended exposure time (15 seconds in top picture, 9.1 seconds in bottom picture) and recommended paper grade (Grade 2 in top, 1.5 in bottom).  You will be required to set the timer (exception noted at end of this page) and use filtration with variable-contrast papers or use appropriate graded papers. The tie-in with the "Zone System" is more than passing coincidence.

Adjustment to exposure (using the up/down buttons) is based on the F-Stop method. This means that each press of the button will adjust the time in stops or fractions of stops. Mine is usually setup for 1/4 stop increments so it takes four presses to either double or half the exposure. When evaluating test prints, it is easy to think in terms of stops as this is how our cameras work. If I need to increase my exposure by 1/2 a stop, I just press the up button twice. Reciprocity failure is factored in, therefore the increase in time is calculated automatically.

There are a multitude of options, settings and customizations with the meter. It could also be used as a densitometer with traditional D readings. Usage methods are adaptable for fine-art or portraiture where exacting placement of skin tones are required.

With a calibrated system, the accuracy of the meter is only limited by the technique and interpretive skills of the operator.

Conclusion

The ZoneMaster II has proved to be an exceptional tool in the darkroom. There are a handful of master printers out there with densitometers and years of experience that may not need it, but for the rest of us, the ZoneMaster II is a terrific value and will pay for itself in time and material savings.

It is powered by a nine-volt battery and is small enough and handy enough to be used in community darkrooms. I've gotten over a year's use out of the battery--it is very frugal, indeed.

Finally, when combined with the RH Designs StopClock Professional timer, the ZoneMaster II will automatically program the timer with the recommended time.

For more information on the ZoneMaster II and StopClock Professional visit the RH Designs website at www.rhdesigns.co.uk