RA4 second hand processor

[giancatarina]

Here i am, i'm going to make my own colour lab, i think i will by a durst L1200, and i need a RA4 processor. I would like to make prints up to 50 or if possible 60cmx80cm. I will use it quite a lot, but not as a pro lab, shall i by a thermaphot or a metaform table machine or a bigger hope or equivalent ? will spent around 6000 euros max. for all the stuff... For that price, i will have : real contact sheets, pro and archival prints from my 6x6 to 4x5 negs up to 50x60 or 60x80, and i will by able to make largers prints at pro lab if needed. In digital (scan for 6x6 to 4x5 and archival printer, fortunatly i have a G4 already), i don't have a lot for that amount of money. Anyway, i prefer real prints for now !

[jantman]

What is "a lot"? Most of these machines require a steady amount of prints at a high volume. The first thing I'd look into is a tabletop machine. Fuji makes some that look good. I'm not sure if they're available on the european market. The most important thing to look at is capacity in number of prints per day or whatever.

As to archival, then why RA4? I'm not sure about others, but I consider Ilfochrome Classic (Cibachrome) to be the only "Archival" color process (well, standard color process).

I'd check on Ebay first. Also, I'm not sure about Europe, but here in the US there are a number of businesses scattered around the country which specialize in selling new and used photo lab equipment. You could try to look around for someplace like that and give them a call.

[Robert Ley]

I have been using a Fujimoto CP-51 for several years, and can Highly recommend this machine. It can be used for both RA-4 color and B&W just by switching chemistry and temperature of the dev and Blix/fix. It has a 20" throat and stands about 30cm high by 110cm long by 85cm wide. This includes the wash/dry module (higly recommend) It can be placed against a wall as the prints exit the machine to the front. It has an auto replenishmnet system that works great. With the addition of a separate module it can be adapted to Ilfochrome if you desired, although the present RA-4 materials (Fuji Crystal Archive and the newer Kodak Endura porducts) are the equal or better of Ilfochrome according to Wilhelm. Whatever processor you get, you will find that once you go over 20x24 in print size, the area required in you darkroom increases dramaticly. Good luck with your new darkroom, thats were the magic happens!