- Joined
- Aug 22, 2006
- Messages
- 1,511
- Format
- Multi Format
Ahhh, that's probably because you never saw or dealt with so-called cine processors. Granted, they are limited to certain sorts of usage, not suited to being started and stopped frequently, nor for different sizes of film, etc. But when one has large quantities of roll films for a certain process and in a specific width there's nothing else to compare.
I was gonna describe something of the design and its elegance, but it just gets too wordy, not to mention off topic. So here's just a couple of paragraphs. Let me just say that if one wants every inch of all of their film to be precisely processed, easily within 1/4 second of the spec time, and well and consistently agitated, and near as pristine as can be, a properly set up and operated cine machine can do this.
Cine machines operate with a continuous web of film, so all must be spliced together ahead of time onto reels of substantial film length, perhaps one or two thousand feet. At the end of a processing run a special leader is spliced to the end so that the machine always remains strung. So in operation the machine is "started up" by splicing a fresh reel to the pre-strung leader and starting it. Each new reel is spliced in as needed, to be replaced by leader at the end of the processing run.
Much of the elegance has to do with the film tension control as well as with the film emulsion barely touching anything. It uses a spiral wind around the upper and lower spools on each rack, but with emulsion facing out, so only the base side of the film touches the spools. And then only near the edges of the dished spools.
But again, this is off topic here... this is not something a normal sort of smallish lab would use.
.
