Developing slides DIY

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I want to develop my own slides.What do I need? Any good websites that will help me to develop good tannies?

I don't want to print them,I will be doing all this on a Canoscan 4000us and Epson printer.

-- Fran Gossling (frangossling@firestar.com), March 09, 2002

Answers

You need to buy my automatic JOBO ATL 1500 processor :)))) (Seriously, it does a very good job, and it is for sale cheap... Alternatively you can do it by hand, but constant chemical temperature (read tempered H2O bath), exact processing time and reliable agitation (read motorized) is critical for consistent results. When I did it, I preferred the 6-bath E6 to the 3-bath E6 for quality.

With the JOBO, you just pour the chemistry in the tanks, fill the bath with water, insert the film drum, set your processing cycle, and turn the machine on. Come back an hour later and it's done.

:-),

-- Jack Flesher (jbflesher@msn.com), March 09, 2002.


Jack, do you recall the approximate cost per roll for developing it by hand. I don't mind $5.50/roll for high-quality, consistent standard processing, but a two-stop push brings the cost up to $10/roll. Since the hard push results in color shifts and I'm usually shooting under strange, mixed lighting for that stuff anyway, I was wondering how much I could save by doing the push processing myself.

-- Mike Dixon (mike@mikedixonphotography.com), March 09, 2002.

Last time I checked, if you did a lot of rolls you were looking at ~ $1 per roll.

Lower quantity was closer to $2 per roll, assuming you used the chemistry up within a week (couple days?) of making it.

-- Derek Zeanah (derek@zeanah.com), March 09, 2002.


The thing to remember is that unlike B&W chemistry, where you might be tempted to push your luck and use a cheap solution that's possibly a little ripe, you'll be stuck between throwing away E-6 chemistry and using it, and eventually ALWAYS decide to throw it away if it's on the edge, because you can't fudge the printing as with B&W. So in order to justify it, you really have to do it all the time, so you don't end up throwing stuff away and really pumping up the price. When I was actively doing this--20 years ago with E-4--it was one of my least favorite darkroom processes, and the one I was the most willing to pay someone else to do.

-- Michael Darnton (mdarnton@hotmail.com), March 09, 2002.

http://kodak.com/cluster/global/en/professional/support/techPubs/j83/j 83.shtml#1059706

-- Michael Darnton (mdarnton@hotmail.com), March 09, 2002.


jack, how much for the jobo? i have been looking into getting one for a while for chromes as well as 4x5 b&w but toooooo much money. let me know. i'm interested, if you live in the states.

dave

-- dave s. (dws69880@cmsu2.cmsu.edu), March 09, 2002.


Mike D: You can buy 5 Liters of E6 for about $50, and a liter will process 5 36-exposure rolls of 35, 6 120's, 3 220's, or 6 sheets of 4x5. (You can do smaller batches with less chemistry. So figure about $2/roll, but the push is free!

As Michael D said, the chemistry does have a relatively short shelf- life once opened, like 30 - 60 days. You can get it to store longer if you top the containers with nitrogen before you re-seal them, or use the "squish" bottles...

For those interested:

My JOBO unit includes 4 large tanks, 2 small tanks, 12 (twelve!) 35/120/220 combo reels, 1 4x5 reel, and 1 reel insert to save chemistry on small runs. Having multiple tanks helps prevent cross- contamination between different processing chemistry; ie B&W, E6 and C41. I will also include a JOBO water tempering and flow control panel. This is about $1000 of accessories for the machine, and the machine itself costs about $4000 new! I would like to get $1650 for all of it, but I'll listen to any offer. I am located in Los Altos, California. I can ship it almost anywhere in the US via FedEx, but it will probably cost about $100 to do so because of the size. The unit is well used, but in good condition. If I were to keep it, I would order a new complete set of gaskets and seals and replace them. (They dry out with age, so are a regular maintenance item and not very expensive -- I may even have a spare set with the unit.) The tanks and reels are all in very good shape. The tempering panel is ugly and may need a few gaskets replaced, but it works. Click on this link for details on the processor: JOBO ATL 1500

;-),

-- Jack Flesher (jbflesher@msn.com), March 09, 2002.


FWIW, there is this one on eBay, but no accessories...

:-),

-- Jack Flesher (jbflesher@msn.com), March 09, 2002.


I'm not even a bit interested, and it still looks cool :-)

-- Michael Darnton (mdarnton@hotmail.com), March 09, 2002.

Fran,

There are a few alternatives between the automatic bliss of the ATL and the hellish toil of hand processing. I use a Jobo CPE2+ for instance, and I find it produces results superior to my local ‘pro’ labs on a consistent basis. CPE’s with the lift attachment (recommended) are for sale on EBay anywhere from US$300 to US$400. Throw in a tank, bottles, thermometers, you should be able to get started for around US$500 fixed cost. The CPE2+ is the preferred unit in the CPE line as it has an improved motor and thermal protection for the heater.

Besides the CPE Jobo also makes the CPA and CPP processors which have tighter temp controls than the CPE, and stronger motors for swinging larger tanks. Any of them can do E6 quite well, though they are manual processors compared to the ATL series. (See http://www.jobo- usa.com/products/processor_comparison.htm for more info.)

C41 is easy to do with the CPx processors as well. B&W, in my opinion, is easier done by hand.

Mike, I’ve run maybe 16 rolls of pushed Provia and I’ve never noticed a color shift. I’ve never pushed any other emulsion. I rate the film EI160 and process a nominal N+1, or EI320 and N+2. I also tweak the 2nd developer, though this is an attempt to manage saturation somewhat, not color balance. My only complaint pushing Provia is the blue layer gets severely underexposed in tungsten light, and it gets pretty twitchy trying to correct it after the exposure. I now use a blue filter for pushed Provia in tungsten light (which negates the extra speed, but whadyagonnado?) Unfiltered florescent light is easier to post-process.

Using JOBO’s 1520 tank I use 250 ml solution for two 35mm rolls. That’s 40 rolls per 5 liter kit. Kodak’s 6-bath 5-liter goes for ~US$50 and Tetenal (with some creative purchasing) about the same. The 1520 will also do two 120 rolls or one 220 I think, I don’t shoot 6cm film. I have used up most of one Tetenal kit which is now 5+ months old and I haven’t noticed any degradation in quality due to oxidation of the concentrates.

I started doing my own E6 because I was disappointed in the local labs (including two Q-Star labs) and mailers were unattractive. I continue because I get good results and I enjoy it. The money you may save (or not) is small compared to the time invested. I wouldn’t want to do it for a living, but as recreational entertainment, it is good fun. And as Phil Greenspun says in his tutorial on Photo.net, when you set eyes on a clean dry roll of slide film you developed yourself, you feel like a hero.

Cheers,

-- Jeff Stuart (jstuart1@tampabay.rr.com), March 10, 2002.



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