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Using JOBO at work, and at play...
Sometimes we come to photography through unusual routes. For Sam Proud, the introduction came when at 5 years of age his parents went on a two year-long worldwide tour, and didn’t bring him along. Instead he stayed in Buffalo, New York, with his grandfather. Grandpa was an avid photographer, and when Sam saw all those neat looking items down in the basement, he was intrigued, and Grandpa saw an opportunity to bond with Sam. For the next two years Sam took pictures using an old Argus twin lens reflex, and watched them being processed in Grandpa’s darkroom.
When his Mom and Dad returned from the world-wide tour, Sam had become thoroughly entrenched in photography and convinced the folks to convert the spare bathroom into a darkroom. The tub was covered with a board to support the trays, and the sink was covered to support the enlarger, and the adventure continued.
By the time Sam finished eighth grade, he had graduated to a Pentax Spotmatic as his first 35mm SLR. Now traveling with his parents he took some great photos which ended up being published in the AAA magazine. He also became the yearbook photographer for his high school, and worked part-time for the Police Department photographing crime scenes. There was even some freelance work for a couple local newspapers and the Associated Press.
After graduating from college, Sam closed down the darkroom for about 15 years. During that time he remained active in photography, but only behind the camera. Finally while working at a radio station, Sam began shooting publicity shots for the staff and processing them again. With his renewed interest in the darkroom, Sam landed a job at Calumet Photo in Bensenville, Illinois. Here he became one of the phone salesmen and had the opportunity to handle all kinds of great photographic equipment.
It was at this time that one of the sales reps introduced Sam to the JOBO line of rotary processors. Sam suddenly recognized that this type of equipment could open up new opportunities to him in his home darkroom. Soon he purchased a CPA-2 for himself. When he got it home he found he had virtually no limits on what he could do. One evening he might be processing color prints and the next black and white film. The CPA-2 became the focal point of his darkroom
About that time JOBO introduced the Nova line of slot-type print processors. When he saw this, he realized he could keep the Nova set up for RA-4 prints, and be ready to make a print whenever he wanted with virtually no set up time. Most of his prints were 8x10’s so he bought the Nova 8x10 Clubmate, and used the CPA-2 whenever he needed larger prints.
Here at JOBO we began noticing a pattern developing in Sam’s Life. More and more his darkroom was turning into a JOBO room. And quite a few customers purchasing from Calumet were mentioning Sam’s name to us. So when we had an opening in the Customer Service Department a couple years ago, we invited Sam to join the JOBO team. Now Sam has access to all of the JOBO products.
In spite of working as a salesman and technical representative of photographic equipment for the last 6 years or so, Sam has kept his love of photography. Often, he and his wife will take off for a drive around Michigan to find a tired old barn or a covered bridge, and spend half the day photographing it. Last year he found an interesting railroad trestle just a short drive from the office. Occasionally Sam will call in with the message, "I’ll be in after the 7:53 goes by!"
Sam continues to enjoy the art and the craft of photography, and occasionally has the opportunity to meet with some great photographers and share ideas and techniques with them. He’s a little like a kid in a candy shop. There’s just so much around to enjoy, it’s hard to know what to select first.
Nostalgia, Yesterdays Photo Gear
By Paul Rowe
"Hey, Joe, do you remember—?"
Often this is heard when two or more photographers get together. I hear it in phone conversations, at photo stores, and whenever more than one photo buff gets together. Just in case you doubted that we at JOBO would involve ourselves in such time-wasting activity, let me assure you we are no different from other photographers. After a meeting a few weeks ago, four of us started talking about historical gear. I made notes, thinking that it might be of interest to many of you. There was nearly 135 years of photographic experience sitting at the table, which only means that we have been around long enough that our memory grows hazy. (Publishers note: They forgot they were suppose to be working.) I have made no attempt to organize this by time or type of merchandise. The list is much like our conversation, the result of free association .
Old plastic processing tanks, like the Ansco and "FR", with lock-on type tops and swizzle sticks to turn for agitation. (My first was an Ansco). There are also two by Kodak that are worthy of mentioning. The Daylight Load for 35mm, and the discontinued but still lamented "plastic apron" model.
How many of you have used contact frames? I saw some at a swap meet last month that were so beautiful because of the wood and an impeccable finish that I had to restrain myself. No use for them, just beauty and memories.
When we graduated from contact prints the world of the enlarger opened to us. Depending on our age our first enlarger may have been a "Federal", or a "Testrite", or perhaps a "Bogen". I don’t remember many of the products, but Testrite and Bogen both had a good list of darkroom items for the home worker. Easels were one of the products I remember. While struggling along with an old used Federal, we secretly lusted for an Omega or, later, a Beseler.
Immediately, the films come to mind. There were three major players, Kodak, Agfa, and Ansco, as well as some minor ones. Kodak’s Super XX, Super Ortho Press, and Ortho X were three from the early 50’s. Agfa contributed several, but two black and whites that I remember using were Plenachrome and ISS. The latter was a slow speed (ASA 20), fine grained emulsion that seemed to look like heaven when developed in Rodinal. In the 60’s Agfa also gave us CT-18, a color transparency film worth noting. Ansco furnished a number of films, but their Super Hypan made a big splash as an ultra fast black and white. If memory serves it was a speed of 400 or 500, and this in the early 1960’s. One wag made some derogatory comments, like one grain per frame, but it was truly amazing for its time. Ansco also gave us a color transparency film, Anscochrome. Since I have mentioned two transparency films, I would be remiss for not including the standard by which these films are judged, Kodachrome.
When film and developer combinations are mentioned, we all remember our search for fine grain, and no list would be complete without "H & W Control", both film and developer. For the most part developers seemed to have little change until the advent of T-Max in the mid-80’s. We all struggled along with D-76, D-23, Rodinol, Ansco Hyfinol, Microdol-X, etc. There was a flurry of activity with divided development, and two part developers. For the beginner there was the famous Kodak Tri-chem Pack. Developer, Stop, and Fixer in an easy to mix package. (I still have one of the measuring vials from this package on my bookcase.) There were other packages of tanks, reels, and chemicals put together for the beginning darkroom worker. Remember the "Cherryvale" with the red safelight bulbs-just great for orthochromatic emulsions.
In our search for print quality there were a plethora of papers, most of which have been forgotten, but some whose passing is still lamented. Kodak Vitava Opel and Projection, Velox, Azo, Medalist. One of my favorites was Ansco Cykora. Then the sterling list from Agfa, especially Brovira and Portriga. Today we take variable contrast papers for granted, but when we review the past we must remember Dupont, who along with other papers gave us Varigam. It was revolutionary! (Remember, with all the flap today about green boxes, Dupont was first with the green—long before Fuji.)
Color negatives, and the printing of color negatives brought forth an avalanche of inventions, caused mostly by the fact that the color print process was so long (Just under an hour to find out that you were 4 points off and had to do it all over again). There was the Kodak K-11 Drum Processor. The print was placed on the outside of a large stainless steel drum, held in place with a fabric net, and the drum rotated in and out of the processing solution. Bob Mitchell gave us the "Color Canoe", which not only aided agitation of the print, but kept our hands out of so much chemical. Bob also came up with the "Duo-Cube", a great aid in determining color balance. While mentioning Bob Mitchell, there was also a timer and a color analyzer which he produced with Heathkit. No list of color print processing would be complete with pout the mention of the "Agnecolor Laminar Flow" processor. Many of you will remember this one, and I will say no more!
Specialty items were remembered in our session. One, the Hansen Cyloset, was a unit which offered automated hand inversion of your tank for film processing. Another was the Arrow Print System, a wire rack to rest your exposed paper on, and spray cans to give you developer and fixer.
Prints from slides have always been a fascination for photographers. Cibachrome (pardon me—Ilfochrome) has had a long and appreciated life. Kodak has offered a process which has evolved over the years. Most will remember R-14, and then R-22, both as forerunners of the current R-3/R-3000. But these were successful print from slide processes. The two which have been dropped, Ektaflex from Kodak, and Agfachrome Speed from, of course, Agfa, both required special paper and developers. Ektaflex, in addition, had its own processor.
Now if this article is working like I hope it will, you are saying to yourself "They forgot _____, and ______, and I know I can think of some other items!!". Have a good time with it, and write to us and help us reminisce. You can reach us by regular mail, or an e-mail address is tech@jobo-usa.com.
Analyzing The New ColorLine 5100
by Ken Owen
In August of 1996 JOBO introduced the ColorLine 5000 analyzer. It was crammed with more features and capabilities than any prior analyzer in its price range. Now JOBO has done it again with an updated version answering many customer requests.
First, a review of the features found in the ColorLine 5000.
*It reads all 3 colors plus the exposure simultaneously. This gives you faster operation.
*It features a built-in densitometer. This is handy for zone system and contrast evaluation in black and white work, and enables the analyzer to be used for process control in color as well. It is actually the basis for many of its other features.
*ColorLine analyzers are the very first in the industry to automatically indicate the correct color filtration for black and white variable contrast printing. Just turn your color filters until the ColorLine is "zeroed out" and you have the correct color for the contrast grade selected. And better yet, these settings can be re-programmed by the user to match their choice of papers or results.
*99 channels of memory are available and they can be individually assigned to any of the 4 master channels, for color negatives, color slides, BW graded papers or BW variable contrast paper.
*Master channels allow you to re-program any group of channels for changes in the chemicals, such as might occur when the chemicals are several days old. This way you won’t have to go back and re-program all those individual channels.
*Each channel also has its own slope settings. What this really means is that you can program each channel to match the reciprocity characteristics of the paper being used with that channel. In BW papers for instance, slope control is hardly necessary. When you change the f-stop and adjust the exposure time to correspond with that change, the exposure still works just fine. But in color papers, changing exposure times doesn’t always work as expected, and can also affect the color characteristics of the results. Programming the slope of the paper into each channel, allows the analyzer to give reliable results for you every time.
*The ColorLine displays logD numbers for easy exposure modification. As long as you can remember that 30 points of log Density are equal to a 1 f-stop change in exposure, then you can take advantage of this feature. For example, after you make a print you decide that you want to increase its exposure by 1/3, you simply turn the control wheel on the side of the analyzer to add 10 points of log Density to your exposure time. (1/3 of 30 points = 10 points of logD) The ColorLine automatically adjusts the time for you to match the logD change. You don’t have to do any additional calculations. (It will even include the necessary slope corrections into the calculation.)
NEW IN THE COLORLINE 5100
All of these features mentioned above were found in the ColorLine 5000 and are still used in the new ColorLine 5100. So what can possibly be new?
*Footswitch — One of the most frequent requests for additional features in the ColorLine has been a footswitch. Now the ColorLine 5100 is capable of working with a footswitch, and it is included with the analyzer as standard equipment; not an extra cost item! Now you can start and stop the exposures while dodging and burning without having to use your hands to switch the timer on and off.
*Smaller spot sensor —The spot sensor has been reduced in size from 6 mm to 4mm. This makes it easier to work with smaller size prints or smaller areas of large prints.
*Multiple Contrast Channels — The BW contrast and variable contrast settings have been increased from a single programmable set to three sets. This way you can program for different brands of papers or papers with different
characteristics. For instance, you may prefer Agfa, Kodak and Ilford variable contrast papers for different types of images, in order to take advantage of specific characteristics of each paper. Well, it so happens that each of these three manufacturers have selected different contrast range settings. That means that an image that needs a #3 grade in one brand of paper, might need a 3½ grade in a second brand and only #2½ in the third brand. Now you can program all three sets of characteristics into the memory of the analyzer, and when you switch from one paper to another, simply switch to the matching set of characteristics. It’s a little complicated to describe, but simply put, you can keep the standards for each paper, programmed and ready to use. This feature applies both to the contrast settings and to the color settings needed for variable contrast filtration.
*More useful functions — Another pair of unique features are the print counter and surface area calculator. Now if you need to print a quantity of photos, the analyzer will actually keep count of how many you have made. Plus, if you are manually replenishing your chemicals (as you might with a Nova processor or Fujimoto CP31 without the replenisher module) it keeps track of the amount of paper you have used so that you can determine how much replenisher you need. You go into the "statistics" screen and set the size of the prints you are making and the analyzer will accumulate the totals for you. It will also beep every time you use a square meter of paper (about 19 8x10’s) to remind you of the accumulated area.
With all these new features, you might think the price of the new ColorLine has jumped enormously, but it hasn’t. It has a suggested list price of $1165.00. And that is accompanied by a reduction in the price of the ColorLine 5000, now at just $965.00. If you don’t need all of these new features, the 5000 offers a lot of analyzer for the money. If you think that either of these models might be right for you, but you need further explanation of some specific feature, please call JOBO’s Customer Service Department at 1-800-664-0344, extension 4721. We’ll be glad to help you with any questions you may have.
By Paul Rowe
Bob Mitchell:
This is my first attempt to write an obituary, and it is not a task that I relish. It is all the harder because of the fine obituary that Photo Techniques (Mike Johnston and Tinsley Preston) produced in their magazine. I can do no more than reiterate their sentiments, and perhaps put a slightly different spin on the impression of Bob and his life.
Long before meeting Bob Mitchell for the first time, I knew his name. His reputation certainly preceded him, and many items carrying his name were familiar. To meet him, and over the years get to know him, certainly yielded a multi-faceted individual. He was all the things that his reputation and articles had led me to believe, but that was on a professional level. As a man I found him to be warm and caring, full of good humor, and always ready with a funny story or a joke. ("Say, have you heard the one about.....?" was certainly Bob’s byline.)
Countless people who may never even recognize the name Bob Mitchell will, never the less, profit by the many contributions that Bob made to photography. The industry and the hobby has lost an unselfish contributor, and more importantly, a friend. Thanks, Bob!
Articles by Bob can be found in the following issues of the JOBO Quarterly: Issue # 12 - JQ9604, Issue # 9 - JQ9601, and Issue # 4 - JQ9404
Tony Weedon:
In the last issue of the JOBO Quarterly we spotlighted a gentleman from Australia, a long time darkroom worker and JOBO user. Tony Weedon started to correspond with me last June, and we kept up a steady sharing of ideas over the summer and fall. Tony was retired, the darkroom consultant for an Australian photo magazine, and an experimenter who seemed to have a number of contributions to be made. We planned to have Tony begin to write some for the JOBO Quarterly.
Because , over the years, Tony had met and corresponded with Bob Mitchell, I faxed Tony to advise him of Bob’s death. By return fax I received the information from Mrs. Weedon that Tony had also passed away just before Christmas.
We never had the chance to know Tony well, but in the few short months I was impressed with him, and I am sorry that our friendship was so short lived.
The User Profile of Tony can be found in the following issue of the JOBO Quarterly: Issue # 16 - JQ9704
From Customer Service
Keeping your Cool:
During the warm months many customers have a problem with keeping the water bath of the processor cool enough to handle black and white processing. Ambient water temperature is higher than the process temperature, and the cost of a water cooler is generally prohibitive. Many have discovered that using a plastic bag filled with ice cubes and placed in the water bath will keep the temperature low enough to process. The processor will work against the ice so that the temperature will not fall below your setpoint for the heat control. If you have one of the larger processors (CPP/CPA or AutoLab) an alternative is to freeze water in the unused bottles and place them in the unused slots in the water bath. If this method is employed be sure that you freeze the water with the bottle caps off the bottle. It prevents splitting!
Fixing It:
The ability to reuse fixer, and the existence of both hardening and non-hardening black and white fixer seems to spawn many questions. If you don’t want to get into chemically checking your fixer by the use of Hypo-check you can use a rule of thumb and reuse your black and white fixer 1 or 2 times before discarding. This practice will keep you from ending with a retained silver problem because your fixer was not strong enough to remove all of the silver in its last use. I know many people reuse fixer more times than this, but they are not oxidizing the solution with constant agitation as we do using a JOBO. The corollary question is "Should I use a hardening fixer?"
Years ago black and white emulsions were soft and easily scratched. A hardening fixer was preferred because it hardened the emulsion and helped prevent accidental damage. Modern emulsions do not suffer from these problems, and it is actually preferable to use a non-hardening fixer. The non-hardening fixer takes less time to fix the film, and can be removed faster in the final wash. In addition, if you are planning to use a toner on the negative the non-hardening fixer should be your choice. It will do nothing to impede the absorption of the toner, while a hardening fixer can resist the toning, and/or cause streaking.
Pushing It:
Over-developing an under-exposed film (Pushing the development) is an area fraught with doubt for most darkroom workers. The "rules" that have circulated for years become confused when you are faced with the decision. "Black and white is a 30% increase per stop, E-6 is "X" minutes per stop, and C-41 is ????, and what heck do I do ?" Well, the best rule of thumb for black and white is a 30% increase for each stop of push you need. Your alternative in this situation is to follow the film manufacturer's suggestions for developer time when the film is exposed at various ISO’s. Our personal experience is to err on the side of an over development, so the 30% figure is generally a little longer than the manufacturers suggested time.
As soon as we talk E-6, the length of the thumb is called into question. Depending on the film, a one stop push is between 2 and 3 minutes additional First Developer time. A two stop push is between 3 and 4 minutes additional time over the one stop time. It is best to check with the film manufacturer to be sure what times they are suggesting for their product.
Finally we come to C-41 films. These, in
general, have the greatest latitude of any type of film available. Often they are
engineered for amateur point and shoot cameras that have minimal or no exposure control, and the variation in illumination (exposure) must be accommodated by the latitude of the film. Plus or minus two stops of exposure from the aim point is easily within its parameters.You might want to note that Kodak claims a seven stop range for their new "Gold" films. Attempts to push C-41 films are generally not as successful as with other types of film, and you often only succeed in increasing density of the negative by "pushing" or overdeveloping. If you feel that your situation is such that you must try the push, remember that 3:15 is normal developer time. For a one stop push use 3:45 (adding 30 seconds to normal). For a two stop push use 4:15.
Do not attempt to go past this two stop limit.
What about Water:
Over the past sixteen years (since JOBO started their own distribution in the U.S.) we have seen a continual decline in water quality throughout the states. Of course the corollary to this is a continual increase in the number of calls regarding processing problems. More and more of these calls are traced to water quality problems.
First, it is good to know that the vast majority of the municipal water systems produce a product that is totally acceptable for photographic processing. The quality of a local water supply can vary with seasons of the year, a great deal dependent on the water source used. There is one area in the eastern U.S. that has a frenzy of problems every fall (November), and another one in early Spring (April).
You have two areas of concern if there are suspected water quality problems. One is in the area of physical particulates (dirt) or undissolved chemical suspended in the water. The other is the chemical and biological facet (dissolved matter, pH, softness or hardness, etc.) If you suspect a problem with your water, it is a good idea to have your water supply tested. This can normally be carried out by the authority that supplies your water. If you suspect that there is a seasonal variation, then tests of the water several times a year would be appropriate.
As a general safeguard it is appropriate to install in-line water filters in the supply lines to your darkroom. At JOBO we use a standard 5 micron charcoal filter in both the hot and cold lines, and have found no necessity to carry out further precautions. Do not overlook the effect that old and rusty or sediment-caked plumbing lines may have on your water supply.
If you suspect that your water may be a culprit you can perform a "preemptive strike" even without testing of your supply. Simply mix your chemicals, especially developers, with distilled water. Some people will mix all of the chemicals with distilled water. Using distilled water to mix chemicals and filtered water for the washes will normally overcome your problems.
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This page last updated on 03/20/02