Midtone Machines Chromabox Automatic Processor

[mshchem]

Looks good! I've been processing a bit of E-6 lately. Using a newer Jobo. It works great, however it's huge to accommodate upto a 20x24 inch print. The idea of a automated smaller unit is definitely attractive.
Best Regards Mike

 

[AndrewBurns]

Looks good! I've been processing a bit of E-6 lately. Using a newer Jobo. It works great, however it's huge to accommodate upto a 20x24 inch print. The idea of a automated smaller unit is definitely attractive.
Best Regards Mike

Cheers, yeah I've got no intention of getting into the really large machines to process prints at this point, hats off to JOBO for the enormous range of products they've put out over the years (and highly regarded too).

 

[test_realm]

Mate those photos look brilliant. It's so rare to see someone bring an ambitious idea through from conception to product. Consider me impressed.

 

[test_realm]

On the scanner side - I think something that does roll film quickly and with great Colour AND b&w would sell fairly well. Pakons go for a mint and they're the Contax T3 of the scanner world. If it breaks you're cooked. The software is also terrible and god forbid you're running a Mac!

Tall order but I think you can do it.

My best mate is stuck over there in Auckland at the moment. Stay strong Andrew.

 

[AndrewBurns]

Cheers! It's been a long and difficult road to get here, and by no means done yet, but it's good to be at the point where I've got a working product! There are worse places in the world to be stuck right now at least...

Yeah my current idea for the scanner will do 35mm and 120 roll film with auto-advance. Unfortunately the postal system here has totally collapsed and I've been waiting for weeks now for some components I need for testing to leave the local depot...

Edit: Oh and here are some more photos I developed in the machine a few days ago, with the same chemicals as the previous batch.

 

[test_realm]

Andrew do you have a price point in mind for the chroma box? Apologies if it's been discussed and I've missed it.

 

[AndrewBurns]

Andrew do you have a price point in mind for the chroma box? Apologies if it's been discussed and I've missed it.

I've said before I'm aiming for a retail price of around $3500 USD, however ultimately that will come down to the distributor. I'm also unsure of the impact of supply shortages and shipping issues currently, prices have definitely gone up in the last year but I can't say what impact that will have until I start my first production run.

 

[AndrewBurns]

The new Midtone Machines website is now live! Check it out here:

Midtone Machines

Midtone Machines is a manufacturer of photographic film equipment for the 21st century.

www.midtonemachines.com

There's all the info you'd ever want on there. If you're based in the USA (or Canada I suppose) then most of the first batch is going to go to Freestyle Photo and Imaging, so hit them up if you're interested. If you're elsewhere in the world then hang tight because I'll hopefully be getting other global distributors on-board for the next batch.

 

[McDiesel]

@AndrewBurns Love this! For your upcoming FAQ, here's a few I have:

• How does it control for temperature loss when pouring chemicals into a cold tank? How about natural cooling that happens during development without a tempering bath? In my experience a 500ml tank loses almost a 1C in 4 minutes.
• Are chemicals heated in real time during pumping?
• How much time does it take to fill up the tank? Is tank rotating during pouring?
• Will JOBO reels fit? Asking because they allow for two 120 rolls per reel.

Also, my understanding that the pump used is similar to what's in espresso machines? What is the expected lifetime in terms of cycles? I've had those fail on me in the past.

Thank you.

 

[AndrewBurns]

@AndrewBurns Love this! For your upcoming FAQ, here's a few I have:

• How does it control for temperature loss when pouring chemicals into a cold tank? How about natural cooling that happens during development without a tempering bath? In my experience a 500ml tank loses almost a 1C in 4 minutes.
• Are chemicals heated in real time during pumping?
• How much time does it take to fill up the tank? Is tank rotating during pouring?
• Will JOBO reels fit? Asking because they allow for two 120 rolls per reel.

Also, my understanding that the pump used is similar to what's in espresso machines? What is the expected lifetime in terms of cycles? I've had those fail on me in the past.

Thank you.

McDiesel,

To answer your questions (good idea, yes I should think about an FAQ page!):

• The machine measures temperature in the developing tank and over-heats (or under-heats) the next chemical to compensate for temperature lost during pumping and for temperature lost (or gained!) if the tank and film are at a different temperature to the target. The developing tank sits on a silicone heat pad which is controlled to maintain a constant temperature in the developing tank during the cycle regardless of how long it is (it doesn't need to do much, just make up the heat lost to the environment).
• The chemicals are heated in an internal tank prior to pumping, the next chemical in the process is being heated while the current chemical is in contact with the film. That way when the current chemical time is up the next chemical is ready to go at temperature.
• Filling the tank takes about 20 seconds, the film is rotating while the tank is filling (or draining). I haven't noticed any uneven development with 135, 120 or 4x5 in B&W or C41. Rotation is selectable between three different speeds and you can also select either single-direction or two-direction rotation.
• The current shaft size only fits Patterson type reels, but I have plans to also offer a smaller diameter shaft that will take JOBO 1500-series reels in the future. Also I believe there are some aftermarket Patterson-compatible reels available that have the 'film gate' like the JOBO ones so that you can load 2 x 120 rolls onto a single reel.
• The machine doesn't use a vibration-type pump like the Phototherm or domestic coffee machines, it uses a gear pump (with stainless steel body and PEEK gears) which should be good for a minimum of a few thousand hours continuous operation. Given that pumping is only a small fraction of the total cycle time this should work out to many years of solid use even at a lab. One lab using my prototype machine has done a bit over 300 hours operation in 6 months solid use, but of that the pump might have only been running for maybe 100 hours so it's not breaking a sweat.

 

[McDiesel]

@AndrewBurns Thank you! Here you go, you have a v1 of your FAQ, the answers are so well-written, they can just be copy-pasted!

 

[dutchsteammachine]

Hello Andrew,

This machine looks great, it must have taken so much engineering.

It is very cool to see in recent years more home and pro/prosumer automatic developer machines being released to the market.

I am thinking of building my own also using pumps and valves.

I have seen in photos the rinse and chemicals are put in normal bottles from the top with the hose all the way down. Had this proved to work better than a hose going into the bottle just a tiny bit from the bottom? The latter was my initial thought how to do it, because then I can also make the bottom curve down towards the hose piece so 100% of the chemical can be pumped out.

When it comes to colour developing, how do you deal with chemical contamination between pumping different baths? How do you make sure all the tubing is cleared of the previous chemical bath residue before pumping through the next bath?

Regards,
Niels

 

[Steven Lee]

What happened to this processor? The website is dead but I have not seen any announcements anywhere online.

 

[Steven Lee]

@AndrewBurns ?

 

[Tom Kershaw]

What happened to this processor? The website is dead but I have not seen any announcements anywhere online.

Not sure. The dev.a processor has had more publicity, at least here in the UK. Andrew's personal website is still in operation.

Andrew Burns

New Zealand landscape photography gallery and prints.

www.andrewburnsnz.com

 

[AndrewBurns]

Yeah sorry, Midtone Machines as a company doesn't exist any more. I sold one batch of the machines about 2 years ago but ultimately it didn't seem like there was enough of a market that I could even get close to earning minimum wage making and selling the machines. That's not to say that there wasn't demand for them, but I didn't feel I could charge what they really cost to make and the amount of additional effort I'd have to put into making them really reliable/bulletproof was going to be pretty high. I've got a mortgage to pay now so had to drop back into full-time salaried work, and keep my photography as a hobby.