As the title states, I made my first Jobo run with a Tetenal C-41 Presss Kit tonight. My wife has over 40 rolls of color neg she saved up over the past year and was waiting for a sale on processing at a local grocery store, so I snagged 10 rolls and gave it a shot.
Whoever wrote the user manuals for the Jobo ATL series processors must be a frustrated webmaster because you have to jump around all over the manual like a hyperlinked document to understand how to operate the darned thing and SOME things, you just have to discover with dumb luck...
Anyway, I loaded up 2 x 35mm reels of Fuji HD 200 ASA in a 1520 drum and, since I was using a Jobo kit, just scrolled down the menu to the C41 press kit preset and hit "start".
Little did I know, even though I mixed the chemicals at 100 degrees to try to cut short the tempering time, it still took the machine almost 35 minutes to get to temperature. Although it was frustrating sitting there watching it slowly creep up to 38c/100f, I understood later when I processed the other 8 rolls that the tempering only had to occur on the first processed roll, not every roll provided you don't turn off the machine or change processes and temps.
Now, the press kit says it will process the equivalent of 12/16 x 36 exp rolls of 35mm of 120 color negative or 200 ASA or less, so I assumed that meant 536 standard 8 perf images; that comes to 22 x 24 exp. rolls or 19 x 27 exp rolls of 200 ASA or LESS.
OK, I can string together a 1520, 1530 and 1540 tank to take 8 rolls of 35mm at once, but like I stated before, I wanted to start with only 2 (the minimum you can process in 500 ml and below to retain chem life) and put a 200 ASA and a 400 ASA x 24 exp. roll and ran it at 3:15 @ 100f, the suggested first processing time for fresh chemistry.
What is really weird about Jobo is that they preprogram stabilizer as the last processing step and then tell you in the manual NOT TO use stabilizer in the machine, as it builds up and eventually ruins the plastic reels and tanks. So, instead of putting the stabilizer in the bottle, I put plain water in and got an extra rinse. I can just eliminate this step by reprogramming the sequence, but thought the extra bath wouldn't hurt.
As far as I can tell the negs are fine, but I am not used to judging color negs by eye and my scanner does not have a trannie adapter, so I guess I will have to try a contact print to see where I stand, but that is fraught with uncertainty too.
Well, I got stoked by the success of the first negatives, so I loaded up 8 more reels and processed those... but forgot to go back and extend the processing time, so they don't appear to be quite as snappy as the first two sets.
The table in the kit assumes a 1 shot processing strategy; 1 st run @ 3:15, 2nd @ 3:35, 3rd @ 3:55 and the 4th final pass (they recommend no more than 4 uses) @ 4:15. Also the BILX increases a minute each permutation starting from 6 min on the first pass.
One snag; When the color dev dumped into the reclamation bottle on the 8 roll pass, I noticed it only put back 800 ML. Hmmm...
The tanks together listed 990 ml capacity on rotation, but this was a loss of a lot more than 10 ml (you can only enter certain amounts to pump into the processing tank(s) you are using and it jumps from 950 ml to 1 liter, so I thought it wouldn't hurt to loose 10 ml but only using 950 ml would certainly be bad news.
Suddenly, I caught a spurt of red emerging from a tank join each time the tank reversed directions during the blix run. The tempering bath was decidedly darker than before; I had a tank leak. I was tempted to shut it down but resisted the temptation.
The leak was between the first and second tanks (from the lift head) and the rollers were placed about 3/4 the way down the 2nd tank away from the lift head, so maybe I should have had the rollers in the center of the 2nd tank.
I looked at the tank later, but didn't see any cracks or problems, so I have to assume it was the weight of the chemistry and the placement of the rollers.
When the BLIX dumped into the reclamation bottle, it also came out to 800 ml, so the leak was consistent.
We will see what they look like after they dry.
Next, RA4 and contact sheets.
Any pointers for where I am starting from?
Frank
Whoever wrote the user manuals for the Jobo ATL series processors must be a frustrated webmaster because you have to jump around all over the manual like a hyperlinked document to understand how to operate the darned thing and SOME things, you just have to discover with dumb luck...
Anyway, I loaded up 2 x 35mm reels of Fuji HD 200 ASA in a 1520 drum and, since I was using a Jobo kit, just scrolled down the menu to the C41 press kit preset and hit "start".
Little did I know, even though I mixed the chemicals at 100 degrees to try to cut short the tempering time, it still took the machine almost 35 minutes to get to temperature. Although it was frustrating sitting there watching it slowly creep up to 38c/100f, I understood later when I processed the other 8 rolls that the tempering only had to occur on the first processed roll, not every roll provided you don't turn off the machine or change processes and temps.
Now, the press kit says it will process the equivalent of 12/16 x 36 exp rolls of 35mm of 120 color negative or 200 ASA or less, so I assumed that meant 536 standard 8 perf images; that comes to 22 x 24 exp. rolls or 19 x 27 exp rolls of 200 ASA or LESS.
OK, I can string together a 1520, 1530 and 1540 tank to take 8 rolls of 35mm at once, but like I stated before, I wanted to start with only 2 (the minimum you can process in 500 ml and below to retain chem life) and put a 200 ASA and a 400 ASA x 24 exp. roll and ran it at 3:15 @ 100f, the suggested first processing time for fresh chemistry.
What is really weird about Jobo is that they preprogram stabilizer as the last processing step and then tell you in the manual NOT TO use stabilizer in the machine, as it builds up and eventually ruins the plastic reels and tanks. So, instead of putting the stabilizer in the bottle, I put plain water in and got an extra rinse. I can just eliminate this step by reprogramming the sequence, but thought the extra bath wouldn't hurt.
As far as I can tell the negs are fine, but I am not used to judging color negs by eye and my scanner does not have a trannie adapter, so I guess I will have to try a contact print to see where I stand, but that is fraught with uncertainty too.
Well, I got stoked by the success of the first negatives, so I loaded up 8 more reels and processed those... but forgot to go back and extend the processing time, so they don't appear to be quite as snappy as the first two sets.
The table in the kit assumes a 1 shot processing strategy; 1 st run @ 3:15, 2nd @ 3:35, 3rd @ 3:55 and the 4th final pass (they recommend no more than 4 uses) @ 4:15. Also the BILX increases a minute each permutation starting from 6 min on the first pass.
One snag; When the color dev dumped into the reclamation bottle on the 8 roll pass, I noticed it only put back 800 ML. Hmmm...
The tanks together listed 990 ml capacity on rotation, but this was a loss of a lot more than 10 ml (you can only enter certain amounts to pump into the processing tank(s) you are using and it jumps from 950 ml to 1 liter, so I thought it wouldn't hurt to loose 10 ml but only using 950 ml would certainly be bad news.
Suddenly, I caught a spurt of red emerging from a tank join each time the tank reversed directions during the blix run. The tempering bath was decidedly darker than before; I had a tank leak. I was tempted to shut it down but resisted the temptation.
The leak was between the first and second tanks (from the lift head) and the rollers were placed about 3/4 the way down the 2nd tank away from the lift head, so maybe I should have had the rollers in the center of the 2nd tank.
I looked at the tank later, but didn't see any cracks or problems, so I have to assume it was the weight of the chemistry and the placement of the rollers.
When the BLIX dumped into the reclamation bottle, it also came out to 800 ml, so the leak was consistent.
We will see what they look like after they dry.
Next, RA4 and contact sheets.
Any pointers for where I am starting from?
Frank
