Regarding purchasing Automatic film processor

[btaylor]

I don’t know if the OP is still watching this thread, but I hope he has an alert set up on Craigslist for the Jobo or Phototherm machines. I scored a Jobo ATL2+ that way recently.

 

[Michael Firstlight]

The Phototherm Sidekick is a good deal considering how rare they are becoming - that one includes a rare 8 reel tank. If I didn't own one already I'd snap it up if the Phototherm engineer (Jerry) is still privately servicing/rebuilding these machines and have him refurbish it to new condition, That's what I did - he turned the standard Sidekick 8 I bought on eBay into a brand new Super Sidekick 8 - the only thing that was original afterwards was the cover.

Regards,
Mike

 

[sruddy]

Old thread but my vote would be the SSK. Like Mike said parts are still available and the machine seems well engineered. If I had an unlimited budget I would look into the filmomat. If it had the features I like I would purchase it sans future issues. FWIW I own an SSK-8 and love it.

 

[Randy Stewart]

The Jobo and Photothem are poor choices for the various reasons mentioned. The Filmomat is too expense and suffers poor design by reason of its 3 bath limit. That may not be a limit if you plan to only use the 2 or 3 bath DIY kits for at-home use, but their quality (or lack) doesn't really justify a need for this sort of automatic equipment. I assume you have already figured out that given the costs involve and your volume of use, you are going to be expiring out about half of your chemicals and wasting that cost, and it will take you a decade to amortize these expenses compared to using a top quality lab. All that said, go to YouTube and a few back videos of Nico's Photo News, looking for updates on a new machine being developed by a guy in New Zealand. Physically its a dead ringer for a SideKick, but uses modern technology, will service a fully 6 bath E-6 process, fully user programable if necessary, and projects at around $2,500. Initial products should be out the door in 60-90 days. One nice thing about it is that seems to be built from parts which should be available for a long time, should there be any problems later.

 

[mshchem]

The Jobo and Photothem are poor choices for the various reasons mentioned. The Filmomat is too expense and suffers poor design by reason of its 3 bath limit. That may not be a limit if you plan to only use the 2 or 3 bath DIY kits for at-home use, but their quality (or lack) doesn't really justify a need for this sort of automatic equipment. I assume you have already figured out that given the costs involve and your volume of use, you are going to be expiring out about half of your chemicals and wasting that cost, and it will take you a decade to amortize these expenses compared to using a top quality lab. All that said, go to YouTube and a few back videos of Nico's Photo News, looking for updates on a new machine being developed by a guy in New Zealand. Physically its a dead ringer for a SideKick, but uses modern technology, will service a fully 6 bath E-6 process, fully user programable if necessary, and projects at around $2,500. Initial products should be out the door in 60-90 days. One nice thing about it is that seems to be built from parts which should be available for a long time, should there be any problems later.

Midtonemachines.com

http://midtonemachines.com/

 

[btaylor]

I have been following the Midtone Machines story as well. I think 60-90 days is pretty optimistic, this project has been going on for years. And the $2500 price is, well, at best a guesstimate. That said, I think it’s a very exciting project and I hope it all comes true! I agree with Randy that if it does all come about it would certainly check all the boxes the OP desires.

 

[AndrewBurns]

Hi just thought I'd chime into this thread (I'm the Midtone Machines guy). I can't give an exact timeframe for delivery of machines, as btaylor says the Chromabox-4 has been in development for about 1.5 years now and it's getting very close to being done, but I'm also not going to sell something that I'm not entirely happy with because I don't want to have machines out in the wild that people have problems with. I'm aware of the concept of perfection being the enemy of good so I'm trying to strike a balance between adequate development and testing and time to market.

As you might have seen from my website/social media pages I'm taking the prototype machine to a local film lab next weekend and I'll be spending all day developing people's film for free to get some decent testing done. I also have some interest in trialing beta machines from quite a few people and labs around the place so I've been ordering parts to build up to 10 of these beta machines which I hope to send out to get more real-world user feedback. I'm in the process of all of the detail work which takes so much time towards the end of a project, for example writing user and maintenance manuals, organising shipping and packaging options etc.

If you have any questions feel free to ask here or email me, I might make a thread elsewhere on the forum specifically about my company/product because I don't think there is one yet.

 

[alanrockwood]

Hi just thought I'd chime into this thread (I'm the Midtone Machines guy). I can't give an exact timeframe for delivery of machines, as btaylor says the Chromabox-4 has been in development for about 1.5 years now and it's getting very close to being done, but I'm also not going to sell something that I'm not entirely happy with because I don't want to have machines out in the wild that people have problems with. I'm aware of the concept of perfection being the enemy of good so I'm trying to strike a balance between adequate development and testing and time to market.

As you might have seen from my website/social media pages I'm taking the prototype machine to a local film lab next weekend and I'll be spending all day developing people's film for free to get some decent testing done. I also have some interest in trialing beta machines from quite a few people and labs around the place so I've been ordering parts to build up to 10 of these beta machines which I hope to send out to get more real-world user feedback. I'm in the process of all of the detail work which takes so much time towards the end of a project, for example writing user and maintenance manuals, organising shipping and packaging options etc.

If you have any questions feel free to ask here or email me, I might make a thread elsewhere on the forum specifically about my company/product because I don't think there is one yet.

Anybody know what happened to midtones? the link isn't working any more.

 

[AndrewBurns]

Hmm I'm still around (although currently on holiday until tomorrow). It could be that the domain hasn't been paid for, my partner booked it originally so she would be the one getting the emails about that. Thanks for bringing it up, I'll have to look into it!