On April 12th the new Jobo Processor that I ordered, was delivered to the house. It was quite expensive and represents a significant investment in my photography. But I made the decision to do it as I expect to be shooting and processing film for the rest of my life.
For those not familiar with what a Jobo is, I will offer a brief explanation. It is a semi automated machine used to process film. It can also be used to process prints, but my use is limited strictly to film. There is a large water reservoir in the base of the unit. It has a circulating pump to move water into an upper trough and keep it moving. There is a heater, as well as a cooling solenoid, that keep the water accurately at process temperature. A special processing tank is positioned on the head of unit. The film that is being processed needs to be loaded into the tank in total darkness, but once the tank is closed the processing can take place in room light. There are various sizes and types of tanks. Some hold reels onto which roll film can be spooled for processing. Others hold various sizes of sheet film.
Once the tank is positioned on the head of the unit, the base of it rests in the trough filled with circulating water, at the proper temperature. Chemistry can be dumped into the the tanks through the head, and then the head can be lifted and drained of the chemistry, prior to advancing to the next step in the processing regimen. All the while there is a motor that agitates the tank back and forth.
There are numerous advantages to this system. The agitation is very consistent and even... the process temperature is accurately and consistently maintained... once the film has been loaded, processing takes place in room light... and only small amounts of chemistry are needed as the agitation of the drum keeps fresh chemistry in contact with the film. Really the only disadvantages are the cost of the equipment, and the large amount of space it takes up.
I bought my first Jobo about 20 years ago. It was well used when I bought it from my friend Tom Webb. Tom was an exceptional wildlife photographer and won countless awards for his photographs of birds. At that time he was quite elderly and was moving out of his home into long term care. He has since passed away but is fondly remembered by the local photo community. He would have run hundreds of rolls of color transparency film, mostly medium format, on that Jobo before I bought it from him. It lasted me for about 20 years before the agitation motor finally wore out. During the time that I used it, I also bought a second used Jobo. That one was purchased from a private seller in Montreal, and I have no idea how much use it saw before I got it. This past winter I switched over to that second Jobo Processor and I ran about a dozen batches of film on it. For me a batch consists of 20 sheets of 4x5 film, or 10 sheets of 8x10 film. I ran some 4x5 black and white, including Ilford Delta 100 in PMK Developer, Kodak Tri-X Pan 320 in PMK, and Ilford FP4 125 in Perceptol Developer. Once that black and white stuff was done I did a batch of 4x5 color negative film using the C-41 process, and a batch of 4x5 color transparency film using the E-6 process. With the 4x5 stuff behind me, I moved on to some 8x10 film and it was while running those larger sheets that the motor of my backup processor also packed it in.
The Jobo system is manufactured in Germany. It dates back to the days before the Berlin wall came down and was originally manufactured in what was then East Germany. There were some known design issues with the units, and parts were difficult to obtain. Since then the units have been upgraded, and are much more readily available, though still very expensive.
The Jobo 1500 and 2500 series tanks are around 5 or 6 inches in diameter. There were all sorts of different sizes and configurations that were available for processing various sizes and quantities of roll film. Mostly this involved spooling the film onto a reel and inserting it in the tank. Jobo also manufactured some 3000 series tanks, called Expert drums. These are considerably larger at about 8 inches in diameter. The inner compartments of the tanks were tube like, and a sheet of film was rolled up and inserted into them. There was an outer compartment to the tank, that was separate from the tubes, and into this the process water could enter and maintain a water jacket around the tubes, to better control the water temperature. But the large diameter of these tanks, and the added weight of the water jacket, put a lot of stress on the rotational motor and they were know to easily burn out. This is what ended up eventually happening to both of mine. The smaller 3010 Expert Drum for 4x5 sheet film wasn't too bad, but the larger and heavier 3005 Expert Drum for 8x10 film really seemed to strain the motor.
The new CPP-3 Processor that I just purchased, looks very similar to the older CPP-2 Processors that I previously used. But it is redesigned and now includes a more modern electronic timer, and a stronger motor that is supposed to stand up to the power and torque requirements of the larger Expert Drums.
I will be parting out my two old ones and selling the pieces on Ebay to try to recover some of my investment in the new unit. Even used parts still command a rather high price, so I hope to be able to do fairly well at this. The drums, tanks and reels are all very costly too, with most items selling for hundreds of dollars. But all of the original components fit the new processor, so fortunately I already have these items, and won't need to buy anything beyond the processor itself.
Here are some snap shots of the various drums and my old Jobo Processors. The last photo is the new CPP-3 unit, set up and ready in my darkroom sink.
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