Got it today and decided to try. A couple of practices with empty reels and water taught me how to attach it securely with no leaks. Easy Peasy.
I ran 4 120 rolls of Tri-X in Pyrocat through two canisters. No problems. Obviously, I didn't buy this for B&W development, though I may as well use it for that, too. 2nd batch I refined the parameters a bit to 50% solution @68 deg. for 10.5 minutes resulting in nice low contrast negatives for digital scanning. Because my cellar's temperature in this heatwave is exactly 68 deg, I didn't get a chance to see it extend times when the water temp dropped.
Changing the times and temp of the default for B&W is really simple. I think what the guy in the above video struggled with was writing and then uploading separate programs. I'm definitely not going there: I'm content to change the default settings each time (takes around 10 seconds). For color negs and slides there are so many options that that won't be necessary.
The one thing I'm not good at (in anything I do) is connecting it to wifi to get the latest firmware. But it's a very minor release, so I'm in no panic here. Their tech guy is on vacation, and I may reach out to him about this when he returns to walk me through it.
A couple of the reviewers remarked on how very portable it is. It is tiny and holds a 5 hr charge. I have thoughts of traveling with it and developing film at my locations. That avoids the worry of airport x-rays.
Is it worth almost $500 US? Depends on what you value. I've been letting color film pile up because developing it requires constant attention to time, agitation, and temperature. But now, I'll be able to read during most of the steps, and I suspect I'll stay much more current in the dark room. Not to mention being able to stretch C-41 chemicals. So, after owning it for a couple of hours, I'm happy. It is a really, really well-thought out and smartly designed piece of equipment. And the support on its website is excellent.
