That's it! I'm designing and building my own film processor.

[semi-ambivalent]

Nothing wrong with hand processing, but I process too much film for that not to become a chore.

There's a huge difference between the "zen-like" appeal of wet printing compared to boring old development (with 35mm anyway).

Maybe if you open the tank up you can watch the image develop, just like with printing. That should make it more zen-like...

s-a

 

[Kosta]

bit of a shame that this didn't take off, i was rather keen to see the output and it looked like it would've been a great accomplishment. whatever you are doing, enjoy yourself Tony!

 

[losheng]

Don't give up on Tony yet - I'm sure working part time on a project like this is not easy. I myself have also been exploring the possibility of building a automatic processor for E6. Since I don't have any baggage of sticking to the Jobo drums, I have less constraints to work with.

I like Phototherm's approach of using a direct heating pan instead of using a water bath really speeds things up, and helps to reduce the footprint of the design. I have been thinking about modifying the paterson tank to do the job - by placing it on the side, adding an inlet valve to the top, and an outlet valve at the bottom, and drilling a hole through the top cover to allow the shaft of a stepper motor to rotate the spindle. Solutions can either be fed via gravity and controlled by solenoid valves. Or a pump can be used to deliver the chemicals into the tank. I am hoping this approach will have less number of moving parts, and less complex coupling mechanism.

One hurdle of the prototype is the fabrication of custom parts and brackets - something that I'm not sure how to do cheaply in Singapore (that's probably also because I'm not in the line of hardware prototyping).

Well, we will see! With the dwindling number of wet labs, someone will eventually crack this problem - otherwise E6 might really go away in due course!

 

[losheng]

BTW - if anyone is interested, there's a group of Chinese tinkerers that have made a replacement JOBO processor that is able to do temperature control, agitation, and it also has the option of adding a film washing unit. You can see photos and descriptions here:

FILMXILE

For those that needs a little help with reading Chinese posts, here's the Google Translate version:

<http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fforum.xitek.com%2Fthread-963050-1-1-2.html>

From the description, it looks like it has better features compared to the CPP/CPA/CPE Jobo series.

 

[segedi]

Jobo appears to be building a CPP3:
http://www.ephotozine.com/article/new-jobo-cpp3-film-and-print-processor-18905

 

[O HanraHanrahan]

BTW - if anyone is interested, there's a group of Chinese tinkerers that have made a replacement JOBO processor that is able to do temperature control, agitation, and it also has the option of adding a film washing unit. You can see photos and descriptions here:


From the description, it looks like it has better features compared to the CPP/CPA/CPE Jobo series.

I like it, do you know how much they are being sold for?

 

[Mark_S]

I have fantasized about building a processor. One thing that could be done would be to have an IR emitter/detector that would examine part of the film while it was being developed - you could potentially set it to automatically develop until you reach some target contast ratio......

Processor would automatically adjust for variations in temperature developer concentration etc.

 

[usuthu65]

I like it, do you know how much they are being sold for?

I received an email from the person listed on the Chinese website:

Price = 4800 Yuan ($761 USD as of today). This of course would not include shipping, customs, etc.

 

[rawhead]

The fact that it doesn't look like it can handle Expert Drums is a deal-breaker for me >>FILMXILE