My Jobo CPE2 died yesterday, right in the middle of developing four rolls of 135 film. The death was sudden, I was leaning against the darkroom sink when the motor noise changed, then slowed down, really slowed down; we are talking about ten seconds here.
I figured it was dead almost immediately, but I had other priorities to worry about. I had four rolls of film from a university graduation ceremony; that was my priority. The Jobo was dead, keeping the film alive was immediately my number one aim.
Fortunately I was able to pull the film drum off from the cogs, turn it around and lay it down on the single roller wheel set and hand turn it back and forth. Making sure I didn’t lose too much developing solution along the way. As I only had around 500ml of solution, standing the tank up; which requires 1000ml of solution, was not going to work. Eventually I filled in the stop bath, rotated it for 30 or so seconds then poured the fixer in.
Once the fixer was in for a few rotations, back and forth, et cetera. I stood the tank up, pulled the cog lid off, and then replaced it with a funnel lid. From then on I wasn’t worried about losing the solution and as temperature wasn’t that important, I rolled the tank on the two red holding rings in the sink to finish off. I finished the washing the same way. Fortunately the cold water temperature at the moment is around 20.5ºC; perfect.
The film was perfect, well, to me anyway, the negatives looked pretty good on the light box.
Back to the Jobo. I figured it was going to die sooner rather than later. I purchased it brand spanking new in 1987. It has literally done thousands upon thousands of rolls of 135 film, a handful of 120 film, along with thousands of 4x5” sheet film. Not to mention the 100 or so 30cm x 40cm Duratrans sheets along with a couple of thousand or so colour prints from some wedding stuff I did back then, prior to switching to RA4 and a Durst Printo paper processor.
I have processed, C41, E6, EP2, RA4, B&W lithographic line film, B&W lithographic half tone film, B&W lithographic duplicating film and finally, normal B&W film. I’ve cross processed both C41 and E6 film, reversal processed B&W film, made Duratrans for backlit displays. Plus, there is other weird stuff that I have fiddled with but cannot remember off the top of my head.
The Jobo owes me nothing and I was gradually moving away from using it, switching to the SP445 tank for all of my 4x5” film work since the kickstarter project release of that tank. All of my printing is with RC paper and the Durst Printo did all of my colour work before I ceased printing colour. These days I use the Durst Printo for B&W printing, which it is marvellous at doing. So my Jobo was only doing 135 format film.
I have a spare CPE2 Jobo processor as a parts bin, I’m not sure if I can get my old one working, but I’m not that worried about it. Being retired and now not doing any photography for commissioned work, my throughput is now greatly reduced. Film developing happens when it happens.
Just thought people would like to know how hard a Jobo processor can work, before quietly shutting down.
It has been a magical ride!
Mick.
I figured it was dead almost immediately, but I had other priorities to worry about. I had four rolls of film from a university graduation ceremony; that was my priority. The Jobo was dead, keeping the film alive was immediately my number one aim.
Fortunately I was able to pull the film drum off from the cogs, turn it around and lay it down on the single roller wheel set and hand turn it back and forth. Making sure I didn’t lose too much developing solution along the way. As I only had around 500ml of solution, standing the tank up; which requires 1000ml of solution, was not going to work. Eventually I filled in the stop bath, rotated it for 30 or so seconds then poured the fixer in.
Once the fixer was in for a few rotations, back and forth, et cetera. I stood the tank up, pulled the cog lid off, and then replaced it with a funnel lid. From then on I wasn’t worried about losing the solution and as temperature wasn’t that important, I rolled the tank on the two red holding rings in the sink to finish off. I finished the washing the same way. Fortunately the cold water temperature at the moment is around 20.5ºC; perfect.
The film was perfect, well, to me anyway, the negatives looked pretty good on the light box.
Back to the Jobo. I figured it was going to die sooner rather than later. I purchased it brand spanking new in 1987. It has literally done thousands upon thousands of rolls of 135 film, a handful of 120 film, along with thousands of 4x5” sheet film. Not to mention the 100 or so 30cm x 40cm Duratrans sheets along with a couple of thousand or so colour prints from some wedding stuff I did back then, prior to switching to RA4 and a Durst Printo paper processor.
I have processed, C41, E6, EP2, RA4, B&W lithographic line film, B&W lithographic half tone film, B&W lithographic duplicating film and finally, normal B&W film. I’ve cross processed both C41 and E6 film, reversal processed B&W film, made Duratrans for backlit displays. Plus, there is other weird stuff that I have fiddled with but cannot remember off the top of my head.
The Jobo owes me nothing and I was gradually moving away from using it, switching to the SP445 tank for all of my 4x5” film work since the kickstarter project release of that tank. All of my printing is with RC paper and the Durst Printo did all of my colour work before I ceased printing colour. These days I use the Durst Printo for B&W printing, which it is marvellous at doing. So my Jobo was only doing 135 format film.
I have a spare CPE2 Jobo processor as a parts bin, I’m not sure if I can get my old one working, but I’m not that worried about it. Being retired and now not doing any photography for commissioned work, my throughput is now greatly reduced. Film developing happens when it happens.
Just thought people would like to know how hard a Jobo processor can work, before quietly shutting down.
It has been a magical ride!
Mick.