I wanted to pass this on to anyone else who might be interested. I contacted Jobo in Germany about when their 2.5-liter E-6 kits (product #9220) might become available for purchase in the U.S. I heard back this morning that they're currently working to make the first shipment to their U.S. distributor, Catlabs in Boston, this month (June 2023). They anticipate it'll be another six weeks via sea cargo after dispatch from Europe before Catlabs has the kits in-hand, so they're hoping for August availability (give or take). The kits have been available in the E.U. for a while now, so it's great to hear they'll soon be available in the U.S., as well.
I'm curious what the price for these kits will be in the U.S. They currently sell at various online shops in Europe for the equivalent of 90 to 110 USD (with VAT included, before shipping). Without VAT, that's roughly 71 to 87 USD. I anticipate they'll probably sell for more than that in the U.S. to offset the cost of shipping from Europe (or Japan?). The now-discontinued 5-liter Fuji-Hunt kits sold for 200 USD, so perhaps we can expect something in the range of 100-115 USD?
Photographs online indicate the kits are manufactured in Japan, so these are presumably made by Fuji, which is great news if your standard of comparison is the Fuji-Hunt E-6 chemistry. I read a statement by Jobo online suggesting that they worked with the manufacturer in some way to create the kits, which I interpreted to mean that Jobo was involved in possibly tweaking the formulas. That made me a little wary (again, I really liked the Fuji-Hunt chemistry), but I'm wondering if the "tweaks" were simply intended to make the chemistry better suited to rotary processing. For example, comparing the mixing instructions for the Jobo and Fuji-Hunt kits indicates that some of the concentrates (reversal bath, color developer Part B, fixer) are slightly different, as they're mixed at different dilutions to prepare a working solution. For example, the reversal bath in the Jobo kit appears to be less concentrated (specifically, 70% the concentration of the Fuji-Hunt version), which would actually be an improvement given that it was common practice to reduce the reversal bath concentration when using the Fuji chemicals in a Jobo. Similarly, the Color Developer Part B in the Jobo kit appears to be 10 times as concentrated as the equivalent chemical in the Fuji-Hunt kit (50 mL of concentrate versus 500 mL). Some of these changes may be motivated by a desire to reduce package weight. Whatever the reasons, I'm hoping these changes don't adversely impact shelf-life, which was very good with the Fuji-Hunt chemicals (especially if you decanted your concentrates into several smaller glass bottles).
In any case, I'm looking forward to trying these out and seeing how they do with film and control strips. Note: I didn't ask about the C-41 or ECN-2 kits, but I assume those will similarly become available via Catlabs later this summer.
I'm curious what the price for these kits will be in the U.S. They currently sell at various online shops in Europe for the equivalent of 90 to 110 USD (with VAT included, before shipping). Without VAT, that's roughly 71 to 87 USD. I anticipate they'll probably sell for more than that in the U.S. to offset the cost of shipping from Europe (or Japan?). The now-discontinued 5-liter Fuji-Hunt kits sold for 200 USD, so perhaps we can expect something in the range of 100-115 USD?
Photographs online indicate the kits are manufactured in Japan, so these are presumably made by Fuji, which is great news if your standard of comparison is the Fuji-Hunt E-6 chemistry. I read a statement by Jobo online suggesting that they worked with the manufacturer in some way to create the kits, which I interpreted to mean that Jobo was involved in possibly tweaking the formulas. That made me a little wary (again, I really liked the Fuji-Hunt chemistry), but I'm wondering if the "tweaks" were simply intended to make the chemistry better suited to rotary processing. For example, comparing the mixing instructions for the Jobo and Fuji-Hunt kits indicates that some of the concentrates (reversal bath, color developer Part B, fixer) are slightly different, as they're mixed at different dilutions to prepare a working solution. For example, the reversal bath in the Jobo kit appears to be less concentrated (specifically, 70% the concentration of the Fuji-Hunt version), which would actually be an improvement given that it was common practice to reduce the reversal bath concentration when using the Fuji chemicals in a Jobo. Similarly, the Color Developer Part B in the Jobo kit appears to be 10 times as concentrated as the equivalent chemical in the Fuji-Hunt kit (50 mL of concentrate versus 500 mL). Some of these changes may be motivated by a desire to reduce package weight. Whatever the reasons, I'm hoping these changes don't adversely impact shelf-life, which was very good with the Fuji-Hunt chemicals (especially if you decanted your concentrates into several smaller glass bottles).
In any case, I'm looking forward to trying these out and seeing how they do with film and control strips. Note: I didn't ask about the C-41 or ECN-2 kits, but I assume those will similarly become available via Catlabs later this summer.