Dry to Dry? What is this?

[JohnRichard]

Pardon me for not being able to find anything with the search. And, please point me to a current thread if there is such.

I have recently talked the Photo lab at the local university (yes they still have a HUGE analogue only photo lab) to let me use their equipment. As I am a grad student there, and spend a majority of my time there... I thought why not!

Anyhow, I asked if they had a color lab, and the lady said yes, but only in the fall semester as they only set the processor up for the color class she teaches.

I asked about this "processor" and she said it was a Dry to Dry processor.
Now, way back in high school, I developed thousands of color 8x10s in a jobo drum machine. I did it wet, just like Black and White in trays, but insted it was totally enclosed in a drum/no safe light. I got REAL good at working in total darkness.

I remember in my undergrad, the photo lab had a "processor" but it was broken so again... I did everything by hand, and the other students just stayed away from color because they didn't want to work in total darkness.

Can someone point me in the right direction to learn about this mysterious Dry-to-Dry "processor"?! And, could someone explain to me why the nice lady looked at me as if I had 2 heads when I said I had developed color prints, one at a time, in a rotating motorized jobo?

Don't people do that anymore?

 

[removed account4]

extamatic processors are able to process prints ( RC ) dry to dry.
i probably got the spelling wrong, but i have been told they are
similar to xray processors.
i worked for someone for a very short time who had one ..
they have rubber transport rollers that get gummed up with stuff
and need to be cleaned often ..

good luck!
john

 

[tim_walls]

Isn't a 'dry to dry' processor just a roller transport type processor with a drying stage at the end? I.e. you feed the exposed paper in one end (dry) and it's passed through rollers on a continuous run through each developing tank until it comes out the other end, also dry?

I presume they're only suitable for resin-coated because of the demands of roller transport and the final hot air drying phase, but I'm only guessing.

 

[PHOTOTONE]

The common definition of a dry-to-dry processor, is a Roller-Transport processor that has a washing unit and a drying unit attached, or built-in, so the RC paper comes out dry and finished. Such processors may have built-in chemical replenishment pumps, and are almost certainly always plumbed into water and drain pipes. I have a Nutek ACP 500 with attached wash/dry module myself. With it I have developed thousands of sheets over the years of RA-4 color paper. Some, like my Nutek, have variable speeds and variable thermostatic temperature control, so you can set them up for various processes, from B/W RC paper,. to RA-4 paper, to Ilfochrome paper. In every case, they only do "RC" papers. The common Fuji Frontier mini-lab processor found in may Wal-marts is a dry-to-dry processor, with additions like print trimming to size, and even has the built-in laser exposure unit on the front end.

Common brands found used in potentially dry-to-dry print processors, for color would be Durst, Nutek, Fujimoto, Hunt, Kreonite and others. In b/w RC dry-to-dry processors there have been units from Kodak and Ilford.

 

[srmcnamara]

At my school we have a dry-to-dry processor. it's exactly like it sounds. you expose your print in an individual darkroom, put it in a paper safe, take it to a separate darkroom where you feed the print into the processor. The print comes out the other side in the community area 3 minutes later completely dry. It's pretty nice, I think ours is an Omnia.

 

[Mike Wilde]

Up until three years ago I have developed RA-4 prints (and EP/2 before that) in daylight drums (no jobo though- just a roller base and a water bath for the chems). It works fine, but you are forever tied to the process, with no artistic interpretation like working a row of b&w trays for prints.

Then this thing called digital came along big time, and then all of the small commercial users dropped their roller transports for a song. I have three in the household at the moment, although only one in service. It is a fijimoto CP-31 ($300 used; the other two came for free) , and it takes 5 minutes dry to dry. The cat's meow. Print all night, chat with the kids, read bedtime storiest, make next day's lunches, check homework, etc, all the while the printing is ongoing.

 

[Mike Wilde]

Sorry, mised the reference to the Kreonite the first read though. Yes, that is the vendor of one of my machines. Mine is a 19", and it swallows 10L of developer, 13L of blix, and is online replenished. It is not easy to drain and wash out, so I can see her point of not running it if there is not the volume of prints to feed it. There are much larger dry to dry machines Part of the process is a washer. Some units are dry to damp, and need a separate wash, then dry,and some machines are dry to damp, with a separate wash/dry module. Then there are the Printos, which were totally modular.

 

[PHOTOTONE]

For home use (so to speak), there are several roller-transport processors that provide the convenience of hands-off processing and use a modest amount of chemistry. These would be the units marketed by Durst, Fujimoto and Nutek. All available used. Some produce a developed, blixed print that needs to be washed and dried, and some have wash/dry modules that produce a dry finished print, but in either case, they take all the variables out of the developing process, and once you insert the paper you can turn the light on and go about your business while they work. Durst originally marketed tabletop processors that were actually made by Nutek, and when Durst came out with the Durst Printo modular processors, Nutek took over the marketing of their processors themselves and came out with several improved models that were in design similar to the units originally marketed under the Durst name. The Fujimoto processors are similar to the Nutek processors.

The first color print processors sold by Durst were designed before RA-4, and do not have a spray bar on the inlet of the developer tank, therefore they are not optimal for RA-4. RA-4 needs a great deal of agitation to get even results with the shorter development time. A spray-bar actually sprays developer against the paper as it enters the developer tank thus ensuring even development.

The units made by Hope and Kreonite (on the other hand) are designed for professionals and have higher volume production but use more chemistry in their tanks.