Dev.a: A compact, fully automatic film processor

Hey APUG/Photrio,

As you might have heard, the Dev.a automatic film processor has landed and has been in live working lab environments for a few months now, showing the amazing capability this machine has to offer to anyone from home users to pro labs.
Its compact foot-print and simple design make it ideal for smaller labs that want the automatic and throughput without the bulk and cost of a roller transport machine.
So far, Adel have pushed out several firmware upgrades, continually updating and upgrading the machine's capabilities based on actual user input. This makes the machine even more flexible. Imagine being able to upgrade the firmware on your Colenta or Omega D5500 enlarger!
Adel's customer service response is superb and on par with what you can expect from such a machine and manufacturing operation.
With the addition of reels made by 20th Century camera, the Dev.a can now process sheet film up to 8X10!

A few machines in the upcoming shipment (expected to arrive late Jan 2022) are still available and you can secure one for yourself right here: https://www.catlabs.info/product/deva

Let us know if you have any questions or feel free to open up the discussion on this!

Best,

The CatLABS team

Cool… thanks for the heads-up!

Yes, I have a question.
Can it work with cold processes?
I use operations at a temperature of 20 degrees Celsius,,
Can this machine maintain a cold temperature for 22 minutes? ? Or is it only designed for hot processes where the temperature is 38?

mohmad khatab said:

Yes, I have a question.
Can it work with cold processes?
I use operations at a temperature of 20 degrees Celsius,,
Can this machine maintain a cold temperature for 22 minutes? ? Or is it only designed for hot processes where the temperature is 38?

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Like most processors, this machine does not have a cooling facility on board, however, the programming of the machine is limitless, if your ambient temp and water mains supply provide these conditions, the machine will be happy to automate the process for you.

Can you provide a few more deatils on the machine, for example when I use 1500 series 120 reels I generaly load two rolls., But the website indicates that the small tank can do One 35mm or one 120. does that mean to small tank capacity is actually adjusted depending on the size of the film? If the tank is on it's side the chemistry would have to go as high as the hub to cover 35mm, and so that would imply that it would be high enough to do 2 120?
the other thing that caught my eye is that their are to be custom reels for 4X5, how would they compair to what is now available for the Jobo 1500 series tanks. what is the interchange?

Pretty neat!!

Is it possible to run it continously as a repleshiment system? If yes, is it an automatic replenishment?

halfaman said:

Is it possible to run it continously as a repleshiment system? If yes, is it an automatic replenishment?

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That is not possible to do at the moment, but may be part of future plans.

cmacd123 said:

Can you provide a few more deatils on the machine, for example when I use 1500 series 120 reels I generaly load two rolls., But the website indicates that the small tank can do One 35mm or one 120. does that mean to small tank capacity is actually adjusted depending on the size of the film? If the tank is on it's side the chemistry would have to go as high as the hub to cover 35mm, and so that would imply that it would be high enough to do 2 120?
the other thing that caught my eye is that their are to be custom reels for 4X5, how would they compair to what is now available for the Jobo 1500 series tanks. what is the interchange?

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Probably a typo - obviously, 2 rolls of 120 may be loaded on each reel.

CatLABS said:

As you might have heard, the Dev.a automatic film processor has landed and has been in live working lab environments for a few months now, showing the amazing capability this machine has to offer to anyone from home users to pro labs.

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How do you see the market for the Dev.a machine in comparison to the Jobo line-up?

CatLABS said:

Like most processors, this machine does not have a cooling facility on board, however, the programming of the machine is limitless, if your ambient temp and water mains supply provide these conditions, the machine will be happy to automate the process for you.

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I did not ask to cool the solutions, but I only asked to maintain their temperature?
Do not compare yourself with other devices.
I did not buy any other device for the reasons, what is new that your invention brought? Many other devices accept automation and programming.

Tom Kershaw said:

How do you see the market for the Dev.a machine in comparison to the Jobo line-up?

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Jobo does not make any automatic processors.

mohmad khatab said:

I did not ask to cool the solutions, but I only asked to maintain their temperature?

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If the ambient temperature and water mains feed is lower or at your desired process temp, the machine can maintain that temperature, it is infinitely adjustable, there is no lower limit, though i am fairly certain water will become solid at some lower temperatures

If the ambient temperature or water mains feed temp is higher than your desired process temps a cooling facility is needed.

I wish CatLABS lots of success with this new product, and thank them for posting the notice here.
I'll also mention that although they have been very supportive in the past, they don't seem to have advertiser status any more (hint, hint )

michael_r said:

I remember when this one was first launched I thought it would look perfectly at home in a stack of audiophile components. The Filmomat was pretty slick but this one tops it.

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I thought that too. An infinity ago (late 70's) I had an Audio Research tube Amp and pre-amp.

This processor is pretty, at least as long as it's cleaned after use. Looks pretty high tech, modern. That's good.

Not in the market for this at present .....but at the quoted price I might be in the future. Looks like a very useful, well priced product.