Don't get frustrated. Just take each hurdle in turn. After awhile it becomes easy.
Don't get frustrated. Just take each hurdle in turn. After awhile it becomes easy.
Thanks Drew - I'll keep that in mind ;-)
For processing in the Jobo, I'd go to 1M development times for your developer and Blix--that's as per Jobo's documentation. If you are not drying out your drum in-between processing runs, use a 30sec water bath in the drum, drain and then go to your developer run. A dry drum is not necessary for c-print processing. A quick wipe down of excess water with your Jobo sponge is enough.then developed for 1 min 45 sec and blixed for 1 min 45 sec (probably a bit more for both).
The 3005 drum is probably not ideal for print processing. It's really designed for negatives. It would be better to get a print drum. Options here:
http://www.jobo-usa.com/images/manua...capacities.pdf
If you squeegee your print, you're probably fine for ball park color correcting. If you stick with RA4 long term, it would be good to get a RC print dryer so you can go from dry to dry and then do your color correcting.
Jobo drums fill and drain slow, meaning the amount time involved doing that is going to be an undue proportion of your overall Dev step if you're in a hurry. Therefore I strongly disagree with agregov's advice above. My own drums fill and drain much faster than Jobo ones, even the big 30X40 inch one, and I still feel more comfortable with a full 2 min times. Anything less seems rushed. Jobo made some good products, for sure, but certainly didn't do everything right. And "official advice" or not, it doesn't make much sense.
And there is no need for a fancy print dryer. They can be air dried on ordinary fiberglass window screens just like black and white prints. To evaluate test strips, just briefly use a hair dryer or heat gun on low setting. Even small entire prints can be rapidly done that way. Big automated roller-transport processors are a different scenario because they potentially crank out prints much faster in relation to large volume printing, so automated dryers are often attached to the bigger units, but are also huge wattage consumers. Anyone using a drum is obviously not in that category.
The fill and drain time of the Jobo drums is why I tried with trays. With the 3005 drums you pretty much have to start draining as soon as youve filled it up. Particularly if you are timing as instructed by Tetenal... from papers first contact with chemistry until next first contact with chemistry/water. I agree agregov, a paper drum is probably better. And I do have paper drums with the paper lid... these may fill and empty faster. I’ll test it with water... Drew - what kind of drums are you using?
I have several kinds of drum, but the best were made by CPI, which are now very hard to find. But I've somewhat modified even these. They were made of Noryl rather than ordinary ABS; this is an expensive plastic which holds heat inside much better. Large sizes were also available.
They fill via fluid access to the entire rim rather than a small central port or funnel like Jobo. Even a big 30X40 drum can be filled with sufficient fluid with the drum rotating within about 5 seconds. Drain is equally fast. One could make their own analogous design if they have basic plastics skills.
I can't speak to using custom drums with Jobo processors. With respect to Jobo print drums, I've processed 20x24 prints in the large drums and you're only expelling 500ml of chemistry--less chemistry in smaller drums. It comes out almost instantly--most of your time is spent lifting and returning down the print drum. I think drum drain time is largely a non-issue. With respect to chemistry development times, I start with the manufacturer's recommendations. Comparing my own results processing in the Jobo versus professional grade RA4 processors, the Jobo recommended 1M dev/blix times showed perfect results so I saw no reason to change over Jobo's recommended time. Also, Fuji recommends 45sec develop/blix times for their chemistry in processors at 35C, therefore the Jobo recommendations are in the general vicinity and seem to take into account chemistry load/drain time at 1M. 2M+ dev times at 35C in a processor sound too long to me. But with the use of custom drums, those numbers could change. Finally, with respect to print dryers, in theory I suppose you don't need them. Like in B&W wet darkroom printing, you have dry down and no one worries about using a dryer with fiber prints. But when I work in a professional lab environment with high quality lighting board to review prints, doing serious RA4 color work you have to have dry prints to judge 1pt color shifts. Waiting for prints to dry and drying test strips by say a hair dryer aren't the same as viewing a full sized dry print next to your last print to diff results so you know where to go next. For casual work, Drew's suggestions are fine, that's why I suggested the RC dryer only if you get more serious about RA4 color printing. No sense in spending extra money for initial experiments. For high quality color work, you'll eventually want to go dry-to-dry.
My print standards are HIGHER than any commercial lab I've run into, and there were once a number of very big successful ones around here. The owners were even my friends. But no commercial lab can afford the time to do real home cookin', so to speak. I sometimes farmed out basic commercial output to labs, but never personal work. "Dry to dry" has absolutely nothing to do with it. I also want my personal RA4 prints washed much longer than roller-transport allows if they come out already dried. There are reasons I turned down a free mint condition Kreonite 50inch RA4 processor complete with dryer. Numerical volume is not my priority, quality is. Any more equipment myths?
I don’t know, Kreonite was good enough for Christopher Burkett.
Everything that has been said is good advice. I would use your Jobo. Maybe get a couple 2830 tubes. I still use ancient Kodak drum processors, I run at 100F/38C. You are using a dichro colorhead, so the filters should be fine. Once you get on the target, just make small tweaks and write everything down in a notebook.
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