Thermometer for Color Processing?

[Roger Cole]

A good alcohol (or mercury) in glass thermometer will be fine for color. Countless people have proven that, and it's all I ever used and I had totally satisfactory results. The dial type thermometers are pretty much useless and I think those who say you get what you pay for in electronic instruments are mostly right, I'm just not sure that you really need to pay THAT much, especially if you have an accurate liquid thermometer to calibrate with (using the electronic one for convenience and quick response.)

 

[DREW WILEY]

Roger - good mercury thermometers have always cost more than electronic ones. I have one or two excellent electronic thermometers which
I never seem to use them because they are not only slow, inconvenient (tethered to something that has to be kept dry and needs batteries), need recalibration, and have to be recalibrated from time to time. I guess I kept them just in case I needed a remote probe inside some recirculating bath monitoring things there - like in that automated RA4 processor I've never even bothered to set up yet. If you were purchasing
them new, the equivalent to the Kodak Type III process thermometer would probably cost around three hundred bucks today. But if you can
stumble on a used one in good condition for the typical fifty bucks or so, why would anyone resist? This whole line of argument reminds me
of what happened yesterday. A contractor neighbor of mine walks in a buys a quart of one of the finest Euro varnishes you can buy to treat
someone's front door with multiple coats of the stuff. But then he also buys a two dollar paint brush to go with it. Just doesn't make sense.
I told him he would have better luck using his cat to apply the finish because it would probably shed less!

 

[Mick Fagan]

I have been doing my own home colour processing for film, C41, E6 and colour paper printing RA4 and prior to that EP2 colour printing. I also had to operate and control Dip N Dunk E6, C41 and D76 film processors in a professional lab in another world last century.

Rather luckily for myself, when we closed one of our pro-labs down, I was able to purchase for a pittance, one of the calibrated and calibratable electronic thermometers.

I also have a very good recently purchased thermometer that is currently sold worldwide, is electronic, calibrated and able to be re-calibrated by the owner and is very fast and quite accurate between 0ºC to 100ºC. Compared to my super duper thermometer, it’s very close and in some instances almost concurs exactly.

I was able to purchase mine, delivered to my door for $65 AUD via one of the factory re-furbished units off Ebay.

I’m talking about the UK manufactured Thermapen, which is generally sold as a cooking thermometer for its extreme speed of obtaining a temperature reading and its very good accuracy.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SuperFast...urement_Equipment_ET&var=&hash=item4175b9e23a

Scroll down to read the specification stuff. You can also go to the UK manufacturers site and read about it there, plus you can search online for independent you-tube stuff where it is tested against similar claiming thermometers.

To be honest, I believe one of these thermometers will certainly enable a home processor to monitor a pretty close temperature setting for a very reasonable outlay of money.

I have one of these thermometers and its speed is breathtakingly fast, something like under 5 seconds for a secure accurate reading, with the initial reading coming up in just under 2 seconds.

One of the best features is the probe is it is only required to be inserted to about 5mm maximum for a reading. If you look at the advertisement picture, you will see that the probe has a finer section at the tip. Basically if that finer point of the probe is under the solution, then thermometer is working accurately.

The thermometer is so sensitive, that as you wave it around in the air, the temperature readout is always changing; it is measuring the air around the probe and giving a constant readout it is that sensitive. My super duper thermometer is the only other thermometer I have used that does that.

Some food for thought.

Mick.

 

[JaZ99]

I’m talking about the UK manufactured Thermapen, which is generally sold as a cooking thermometer for its extreme speed of obtaining a temperature reading and its very good accuracy.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SuperFast...urement_Equipment_ET&var=&hash=item4175b9e23a

Scroll down to read the specification stuff.

The specification is not so impressive:

Accuracy: ±0.4 °C (-49.9 to 199.9°C) otherwise±1 °C

I can buy a thermometer with a true ±0.1 °C accuracy for less than half of this price.

 

[Mick Fagan]

The specification is not so impressive:

Accuracy: ±0.4 °C (-49.9 to 199.9°C) otherwise±1 °C

I can buy a thermometer with a true ±0.1 °C accuracy for less than half of this price.

Terrific, can you supply a link showing that your thermometer comes with a traceable certificate of calibration?

Also, where in the world is this thermometer?

What is the delivered to your door, cost of this thermometer?

When discussing equipment, many people forget there is a whole wide world of people trying to find stuff that is procurable for them, in their particular part of the world.

I have a traceable certificate from the manufacturer, it shows the day of the test, the laboratory that did the test, the instrument serial number and the conditions that the test was undertaken in.

It certifies that my instrument has been calibrated against laboratory standards which are traceable, via International Agreement to all National Standards, including the NPL and NIST.

What certification comes with the unit you are proposing?

Mick.

 

[JaZ99]

Terrific, can you supply a link showing that your thermometer comes with a traceable certificate of calibration?

Also, where in the world is this thermometer?

What is the delivered to your door, cost of this thermometer?

When discussing equipment, many people forget there is a whole wide world of people trying to find stuff that is procurable for them, in their particular part of the world.

I have a traceable certificate from the manufacturer, it shows the day of the test, the laboratory that did the test, the instrument serial number and the conditions that the test was undertaken in.

It certifies that my instrument has been calibrated against laboratory standards which are traceable, via International Agreement to all National Standards, including the NPL and NIST.

What certification comes with the unit you are proposing?

Mick.

Sure, I can. It is in Poland, Europe.
It is made by a small company which makes industrial/lab thermometers/higrometers only (http://www.termoprodukt.com.pl/).
They make real stuff. They obey ISO/IEC 17025:2005. You can find the example of certification here: Dead Link Removed (sorry, in Polish only, but you can scan it for device names and serial numbers).

I'm using DT-1 thermometer which is calibrated at factory, and can be purchased with all required legal paperwork confirming the calibration.
DT-1 costs 166 zł (40 EUR, without paperwork), which is equivalent of 6 rolls (120) of Fuji Provia 100F.

The same company is manufacturing 100-TP thermometer, which is delivered with all certification paperwork, and accuracy is ±0.03 °C (no typo here: zero point zero three).
And it costs 800 zł (190 EUR), which is equivalent of 30 rolls (120) of Fuji Provia 100F.

I assume the factory can be contacted directly and probably they will ship worldwide. I do not work for them, so I don't know.
And the paperwork is legally valid in Poland (perhaps in all of the EU), probably it is not valid eslewhere.

I've just found on their webpage, they will happy to calibrate any thermometer, not only their own, for 60 zł (14 EUR) at 4 data points selectable by customer.

The factory is in a small city very close to charming mountains (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owl_Mountains), very nice place to visit ;-)

 

[AgX]

Those links do not open for me (blocked by safety-software, which somehow can't be disabled).

Thus so far I shall remain with my recommendation from the end of post #35.

 

[Mick Fagan]

JaZ99, I checked out your link, what is available there seems reasonable, I would never have found that without your link. Looks like a source for some quite good equipment for the home darkroom worker; thanks for the link.

Developing film correctly is the hardest part of colour work, unlike colour printing you only get one shot at it. Anyone who has done it in a professional environment will understand that, but when doing it at home there will always be a compromise, we just have to live with it. About 99.9% of home colour film developers will be very satisfied with the sources linked to from this thread, the 0.1% who cannot be satisfied, well, not much we can do about that.

As for colour negative printing in RA4, there is a wider latitude and as long as one is consistent and continuously stays on a given temperature and processing regime, virtually all who practice this most satisfying hobby, will be pleased with their efforts.

Mick.

 

[DREW WILEY]

I don't believe in compromise. If I can't do it better than a Pro Lab, then why do it at all? The whole point of "home cookin" is that you can
put the time and dedication into it that the high-volume fastfood joints can't.