Paul Sorensen said:
Maybe this is a good excuse to buy a new 35mm or medium format camera?
You might try it out and see. Ask Denis P about his experience doing 4X5 in a film drum as if it were a print drum. He was happy with the outcome. Except for the obvious quantity limitations you will face, it might be pretty darned good.
Yep, I have Jobo CPE (
not the CPE-2, which is newer, but plain old CPE) - but with lift... I think a Jobo unit without lift is just too much hassle - taking the drum off, etc... BTW, do you have to pour the chemistry in the drums with magnets (without cog gears) in the dark? That's another downside, if true...
Anyway, I have 2 large drums - 2551 (film drum for 5 reels of 35mm film or 3 reels of 120 format), and a print drum #4531 (which I haven't used yet....).
The reason why an Expert drum won't fit is that it's physically bigger (bigger diameter!).
However, you can still get good results with CPE (or CPE2) and 8x10 negatives, with a little ingenuity - like the link I already posted - see here:
http://www.galerie-photo.com/porte-film-jobo.html
BTW, that print drum is the same one I have....
I also have a smaller drum (#2523, courtesy of Paul Sorensen

), with which I got excellent results without a reel of any kind - just sticking the 2 negs to the inner wall of the drum. The development came out perfect. See the thread here:
(there was a url link here which no longer exists)
Since I seem to be having some problems with 2509N reel for 4x5, I just might make a DIY variation of that DIY link I provided above - only for the smaller 2523 drum, so that I can develop 3 negs (4x5) at once.
Another possibility, if you want to be able to do more negs at once, is to use a similar gadget in one of the larger drums - film or print drums.
So, you don't have to get rid of the CPE-2 and spend a fortune on an Expert drum.
Check out the link I provided above (in French, but you'll get the idea) and make something like that yourself, or have something like that made - the link shows neg "carrier" for 5x7 negs, if I'm not mistaken. The same principle (with different measures, of course) should apply to 8x10 negs.
HTH,
Denis