Automatic home film processor

I'm giving consideration to processing my own film at home (135 & 120).

I like the idea of a fully automatic machine and know of two on the market that fill this niche.

1. Dev.a https://analogico.adel2000.it/deva-details/
2. Filmomat https://www.filmomat.eu/filmomat/

Does anyone have experience with either of these machines?

Kind regards,
~ Jeff

Model71 said:

I'm giving consideration to processing my own film at home (135 & 120).

I like the idea of a fully automatic machine and know of two on the market that fill this niche.

1. Dev.a https://analogico.adel2000.it/deva-details/
2. Filmomat https://www.filmomat.eu/filmomat/

Does anyone have experience with either of these machines?

Kind regards,
~ Jeff

Click to expand...

I’ve had a Filmomat for two years. It’s a great machine. Extremely well designed and made. And the support has been great even from Germany to the U.S. I’ve run 116 batches through it since new. B&W, E-6 and C-41. I’m not a fan of the 3-bath E-6, however. …doug

Why fully automatic?

Philippe-Georges said:

For sale: a well looked after COLENTA AT 60 DEVELOPING MACHINE.

Click to expand...

I know, shipping costs. Apart from that, a professional machine for less than an amateur one.
Disclaimer: I have no relation whatsoever with the seller.

I think @Andreas Thaler uses a Filmomat and is very happy with it. Perhaps he can chime in. I also believe the Dev.A was not yet available when he got his Filmomat, so he may not have had to decide between the two.

Personally, the fanciest I have at home is a simple Jobo CPE2 with no automation other than a thermostat and a motor, and I frankly don't see how I would justify something more fancy than that. In fact, most of the time when developing color (negative; I don't shoot slides anymore), I just develop them in a manual tank. I use the Jobo only very rarely.

koraks said:

I think @Andreas Thaler uses a Filmomat and is very happy with it. Perhaps he can chime in. I also believe the Dev.A was not yet available when he got his Filmomat, so he may not have had to decide between the two.

Click to expand...

Thank you.

I bought one of the first 20 Filmomats in 2017.

We drove to Munich to pick up the device and met Lukas Fritz, the designer, in person. It was a very interesting and pleasant meeting.

I've been working with the Filmomat ever since, with a break of a few years due to illness.

I can only agree with @Doug Kaye completely.

The device is worth the money, built for professional use (= high throughput), and Lukas's support is exemplary.

If you take photos regularly and want perfect results when developing film, a Filmomat is an excellent choice.

Here's a review from back then; Lukas has since further developed the Filmomat, so this is a glimpse into the past.

mshchem said:

Why fully automatic?

Click to expand...

In my view, the automation provides repeatable precision while freeing me to have discretionary time. I am not necessarily uninterested in processing film by hand, rather it is more about time management and repeatable precision.

Regarding the manual processing of film, when I was in high school, my mother allowed me to have a corner in the basement to setup a darkroom. I developed black and white and made prints. I don't remember any friends caring to much about film development back then.

Doug Kaye said:

I’ve had a Filmomat for two years. It’s a great machine. Extremely well designed and made. And the support has been great even from Germany to the U.S. I’ve run 116 batches through it since new. B&W, E-6 and C-41. I’m not a fan of the 3-bath E-6, however. …doug

Click to expand...

The 3-bath E-6 is a consideration which makes me lean toward the Dev.a.

bernard_L said:

I know, shipping costs. Apart from that, a professional machine for less than an amateur one.
Disclaimer: I have no relation whatsoever with the seller.

Click to expand...

I was unaware of Colenta. Thank you for the reference. I am surprised at how long this has been up for sale and the resulting price drop.

Andreas Thaler said:

Thank you.

I bought one of the first 20 Filmomats in 2017.

We drove to Munich to pick up the device and met Lukas Fritz, the designer, in person. It was a very interesting and pleasant meeting.

I've been working with the Filmomat ever since, with a break of a few years due to illness.

I can only agree with @Doug Kaye completely.

The device is worth the money, built for professional use (= high throughput), and Lukas's support is exemplary.

If you take photos regularly and want perfect results when developing film, a Filmomat is an excellent choice.

Here's a review from back then; Lukas has since further developed the Filmomat, so this is a glimpse into the past.

Filmomat - it does not get better!

I recently bought a copy of the still rare Filmomat. Dead Link Removed This machine is manufactured and distributed by a young guy in Munich/Germany. Located in Vienna/Austria I have tested it developing my very first color film and I am very satisfied with handling and results. This is my...

www.photrio.com

Click to expand...

Thanks kindly for sharing feedback and information.

Jeff, I have a Dev.A machine and I’d be glad to share my experiences with it. The biggest appeal to me with the machine is its capabilities and capacities; it has six chemical tanks so it will handle a six bath E-6 process. Not all six tanks have to be used either, if the process only needs two chemicals such as black and white negatives, just two chemical tanks can be used. It will also process films up to 8x10. Primarily I develop 120 and 5x7 sheet, but I have been doing 4x5 and have some 8x10 ready to go. I did purchase my machine to use exclusively for E-6 processing.

A super nice feature of the Dev.A machine as well is the touch screen. It makes setting up and programming the chemistries, times and steps very easy and quick. The instructions and documentation from the manufacturer explaining the features and parts of the processor is well done too.

I strongly considered the Filmomat and really liked what I saw, but the three chemical tanks meant I’d be stuck to three bath processes. That alone is what led me to the Dev.A.

After many years of hand processing color, I do very much like having an automatic processor simply as it’s precise and far more consistent. Temperature drifts when doing the films by hand always vexed me. I love being able to walk away from the machine and do other tasks while it does the work of processing the film perfectly.

One more thing—while the machines are fantastic and they save me time, there is a little maintenance that gets glossed over. Cleaning. You cannot leave chemistry in these machines. It’ll oxidize, stain, get gummy and that will be terrible for the internal valves, tubes and pumps. Leaving the chemicals in them for days or weeks thinking you can just turn it back on later is a bad, bad idea. At the end of the day when all processing is done, I remove the chemical tank lids, tanks, cores, reels and give them a good wash in the sink. Then all the chemical tanks get emptied and rinsed. Finally the automatic cleaning process of the machine itself, draining any left over water and drying it out with a towel. This takes me about forty five minutes. Do factor in cleaning time for these machines.

konakoa said:

Do factor in cleaning time for these machines.

Click to expand...

The Filmomat has its own program for cleaning with water

Even though the machine does a lot of the work, there's still enough work left for setting up, mixing/handling the chemicals, and drying the film.

That's why I use a minilab in Vienna when things need to be done quickly, for example, when developing test films.

Andreas, the Dev.A has an automatic cleaning process with water as well, I'm just extra careful about the condition of when it's idle and stored. I run E-6 about once a week or every two weeks. Extra care in cleanliness if only to prevent any mechanical issues (it would not be fun trying to clear a stuck valve) and E-6 is fussy enough I don't want any chemical contamination from residues.

konakoa said:

Andreas, the Dev.A has an automatic cleaning process with water as well, I'm just extra careful about the condition of when when it's idle and stored. I run E-6 about once a week or every two weeks. Extra care in cleanliness if only to prevent any mechanical issues (it would not be fun trying to clear a stuck valve) and E-6 is fussy enough I don't want any chemical contamination from residues.

Click to expand...

I fully understand!

koraks said:

I think @Andreas Thaler uses a Filmomat and is very happy with it. Perhaps he can chime in. I also believe the Dev.A was not yet available when he got his Filmomat, so he may not have had to decide between the two.

Personally, the fanciest I have at home is a simple Jobo CPE2 with no automation other than a thermostat and a motor, and I frankly don't see how I would justify something more fancy than that. In fact, most of the time when developing color (negative; I don't shoot slides anymore), I just develop them in a manual tank. I use the Jobo only very rarely.

Click to expand...

I have accumulated several Jobo machines over the years. All these machines are fun gizmos, completely unnecessary this day in age. When commercial photographers were developing large format and medium format color reversal films (E-6), these machines were wonderful.

All you need is a thermostatic mixing valve, a good one, installed by a plumber. A decent water bath with a circulating heater (sousvide thingy?) Like a Phototherm.

For C-41, you need critical temperature control for three and a half minutes, your going to need, running tempered water at 100°F for washing.

I love my Jobo machines and tanks but I have developed tons of film in Paterson tanks in a water bath.

Jobo machines are cheap, and easy to clean.

MHOFWIW YMMV, PAX ROMANUS!

"The original machine had a base-plate of prefabulated aluminite, surmounted by a malleable logarithmic casing in such a way that the two main spurving bearings were in a direct line with the pentametric fan. The latter consisted simply of six hydrocoptic marzlevanes, so fitted to the ambifacient lunar waneshaft that side fumbling was effectively prevented. The main winding was of the normal lotus-o-delta type placed in panendermic semi-boloid slots in the stator, every seventh conductor being connected by a non-reversible tremie pipe to the differential girdlespring on the "up" end of the grammeters...

— John Hellins Quick, 2nd paragraph of "The turbo-encabulator in industry", Students' Quarterly Journal, Vol. 15, Iss. 58, p. 22 (December 1944)"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbo_encabulator#:~:text=The original machine,22 (December 1944)

Model71 said:

In my view, the automation provides repeatable precision while freeing me to have discretionary time. I am not necessarily uninterested in processing film by hand, rather it is more about time management and repeatable precision.

Regarding the manual processing of film, when I was in high school, my mother allowed me to have a corner in the basement to setup a darkroom. I developed black and white and made prints. I don't remember any friends caring to much about film development back then.

Click to expand...

C41 takes 8 1/2 minutes

Doug Kaye said:

.......I’ve run 116 batches through it since new. B&W, E-6 and C-41. I’m not a fan of the 3-bath E-6, however. …doug

Click to expand...

I've processed around 130 rolls of Provia 100f in E6 in the past 5 years, using mainly the Tetenal (now Adox) 3/4 bath kit and the Bellini 6/7 bath kit (original E6 process). Honestly I can't tell the difference between these two kits, even if intuitively one might feel that the 3/4 bath kit is a compromise. However, I have heard bad reports about some 3/4 bath kits (for example, Cinestill), but now my goto 3/4 bath kit is the Adox C-Tec.

And all this processing has been using a Paterson tank and temperature controlled water bath ... no automation at all. Automation is a very large outlay, but if you process hundreds of films over its lifetime, I'm sure it gives consistent results.

ChrisGalway said:

I've processed around 130 rolls of Provia 100f in E6 in the past 5 years, using mainly the Tetenal (now Adox) 3/4 bath kit and the Bellini 6/7 bath kit (original E6 process). Honestly I can't tell the difference between these two kits, even if intuitively one might feel that the 3/4 bath kit is a compromise. However, I have heard bad reports about some 3/4 bath kits (for example, Cinestill), but now my goto 3/4 bath kit is the Adox C-Tec.

And all this processing has been using a Paterson tank and temperature controlled water bath ... no automation at all. Automation is a very large outlay, but if you process hundreds of films over its lifetime, I'm sure it gives consistent results.

Click to expand...

I have used both Tetenal and Fuji E-6 I can't tell the difference. Don't overuse the chemistry.

This is all you need.