Black and white photo equipment

I have a garage full of darkroom equipment. I have never been interested in photography but I figure if I have

the equipment I should use it. This is a list of stuff I have:

Ilford Cibachrome IWD 42 Wash/Dry unit;

Ilford CIbachrome ICP 42 Processing unit;

Jobo Autolab 1000;

Umax transperancy unit;

Durst modular 70 A5630, A5809.

 

Does anyone know what this equipment is worth? Does anyone know where I can find information about this

equipment? The equipment was originally used in the United Kingdom, how do I convert to make sure it works in the

U.S.?

 

Any help would be appreciated.

 

Patrick

Hello, the materials for Ilfochrome/Cibachrome are in short supply now and very expensive. In other words there is not a market for this type of equipment anymore because the materials are in the process of going out of production.

 

Jon

For starters, Cibachrome/Ilfochrome is a completely analog process for making color prints directly from color slides. It is currently the only method for doing this sort of work that is commercially available. The process is difficult to master, time intensive to execute, and the materials expensive. With the advent of good and affordable film scanners, the process is no longer as popular as it once was. Kodak also had a process and and materials for a similar process, but these products were discontinued several years ago. Before the advent of film scanners and digital output printers these processes were the only ways to do this sort of work. Now it is possible to make a very good print from color transparency materials for pennies when in the past, it was a very expensive proposition. Because of this, Cibrachrome / Ilfochrome is today far less popular than it once was. However, I do not believe that it is, or will be in the near future, completely dead.

 

Of course, none of this addresses the OP's question, namely what is this stuff worth? I'm afraid I don't have a good answer for you except to say, probably not much. I'd check completed Ebay auctions for similar equipment to see what it has fetched.

The Durst modular 70 and Jobo Autolab 1000 should be useful for b&w photography applications. In a review a few years ago photography writer Mike Johnston rated the Durst Modular 70 as among the best of its type. If I had the space and could find one at a good price I'd happily replace my M605 with it.

"Ilford CIbachrome ICP 42 Processing unit"

 

I paid about $150 on eBay for this unit, but some that were in better shape went for much more. I saw some as high as $400 or more, but that was 4 years ago. Jon and Frank are right Cibachrome processing is very expensive, however there are still some hold-outs that are either offering these services, or doing it as a hobby, I prefer to do it as a hobby.

 

The only place you can get chemicals for this process is at B&H in NYC and they don't ship hazadours materials over state lines, you have to pick them up. Ilford in England also sells Cibachrome chemicals, but they are located in England and are very low key about finding US distributors. The ICP 42 is a big heavy noisy machine. Mine went bad a couple of years ago, so I put in storage until I found some parts for it. Right now I use a Durst and Jobo to do my Cibachrome printing.

 

Back in the pre-digital days, Museums only accepted Cibachrome prints for their Color display work, because of their archival properties and their quality. Even now, there are only a few processes that can match or beat a Cibachrome Color print in terms of quality. These processes are also very exensive and are not suited for home use.

 

The JOBO Autolab 1000 was a good machine if you had a mini-lab and were processing loads of color and B&W film on a daily/monthly basis. It was one of the fully automatic processors Jobo offered. I think it has since been discontinued and replaced with the 1500. I think the price was in the $4000/5000 range when it was brand new.

Sorry the JOBO Autolab 1000 went for about $3000 new(1994-1998) .