Quote Originally Posted by juan
Also, I should add that Picker used a Zone VI cold light head that had a sensor inside. The sensor connected to the timer - it actually timed the light output so that each "3-second" exposure put out the same amount of light.

Fred frequently said "Same is the same and different is different." I wondered sometimes if he was being far too picky.

I don't think it matters much what you do so long as you develop a consistent procedure, get good results, the follow that procedure. Although, if you are printing a lot of prints from a given negative, you can run into inconsistent light output. Fred said that problem is what led him to have the Zone VI head developed.
I have one of the cold light stabilizers that Horowitz developed with Fred Picker's input and guidance on what was needed. I haven't used it in some time since I no longer use a cold light head. I did find, however, that cold light sources are subject to light stabilization problems that other light sources are somewhat immune to. The cold light stabilizer worked very effectively to solve these fluctuations.

If one is only doing "one offs" of prints it is unlikely that these fluctuations would be noticeable...Make a couple of dozen of an image and one quickly notices a difficulty in arriving at consistency.

I disagree that Fred Picker was only selling timers. In my opinion,from the Zone VI products that I used, they represented departures from existing methods and products and that these departures represented improvements. As such I still consider them representing good value.