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<p>Can anyone recommend what gear is required to process colour slides at home...velvia, provia?<br>

I've read a little about it and the posts are getting old. Did Jobo sell an automatic unit?<br>

I've done the math and the total costs including scanning at a lab like Costco all up comes to about $15 per roll, including the purchase price of the film.<br>

The costs of me migrating to a digital solution works out this way:<br>

FX DSLR camera that can use all my lenses: $2500<br>

Upgrade to my computer: $1500<br>

Software: $1000<br>

Hi Res home printer: $500+<br>

Ink cartridges: Who knows<br>

Total: $5500++</p>

<p>That buys an aweful lot of developing and scanning, and surely a small slide developer for home (or a second hand commercial one) would not cost as much?</p>

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<p>You can have a lot of film developed for what it would cost you to get into digital! If you plan on shooting thousands of photos a year it might be cost effective, otherwise film is the way to go. Of course I might be a bit biased! (See my post Goodbye Digital SLR)</p>
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<p>I think the prices yopu quote are on the high side and you seem intent on Going "FIRST CLASS"<br>

I always liked slides. and the range of brighness is wonderful.<br>

But it seems to be clear thqat the era of slide film and possibly even film in general is ending.<br>

The one remaining process for making oprintws from slides is Ciba / ilfa chrome.<br>

Kodak and Fuji gave upo on reversal paper a while ago.<br>

( there supposedly is a work around and digital enlargers)<br>

Color negative film has radically improved.<br>

Scanning color negatives might even be easier of more productive then scanning slides.<br>

and you have the option of printing that scanned image on a variety of inkjet printers<br>

OR wet printing on photo paper directly from the negative., with VERY inexpensive equipment.<br>

The downside of using an older computer is that you may have to wait<br>

a few seconds more. With sufficient memory ( ram) and a 7200 or 10,000 rpm hard sdrive, the differences between a $1000.00 and a $4000.00 computer is slight.<br>

Knowledge of what you can and cannot do is more important than just "throwing money at the problem"<br>

I know that this "throwing money-thing" seems to be the most popular way.<br>

but great photographers often had super results with less than the greatest.<br>

the high film/processing prices you mention are sharply reduced when you develop only and scan negatives.<br>

Printing at home can cost more than you get.<br>

try using the machines at the big stores and make prints for much less.<br>

If they do not come out right, you often do not have to pay for them.<br>

Yopu can preview the images at home and print only what you like.<br>

These are all "work arounds" If one part cramps your style buy whet you need to do that part yourself.<br>

and don';t try to set up a "semi-pro" lab at home as the first step.</p>

<p> </p>

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<p>Kill joy :) I love doing my slides in the bath tub but I find that just sending them off to Dwayne's and scanning them on my old flatbed V700 is fine for me as I prefer seeing them on my screen from my projector as they were meant to be seen.<br>

Doing Slides is cheap and automatic is a pain in the ass as you always have to worry about the machine. In my first post I spoke of a minilab. I had one had it runing and was taking orders. they dried up and I scrapped the machine I got it for the price of putting it into my truck and hauling it to a place to set it up.</p>

<p> All of life is not pretty but some is cheap.</p>

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<p>The few times I did 4x5 C41, E6 will be very similar, I put a 14 x24x6 pan half full of 110<sup>0</sup>F water on the counter with another pan of the same size half full of 100<sup>0</sup>F water into which I put the Jobo roller base and a 2500 series tank with 18 sheets of film. I used consistent manual rotation and followed the chemical kit instructions. I got as good as if I had a lab do them. If it had been Transparency film the results would have been the same. The room was approximately 62<sup>0</sup>F and the counter was ceramic tile at about 50<sup>0</sup>F or colder. The temperature of the top pan water dropped less than 1<sup>0 </sup>thorough the entire 20 ~ 30 minute processing session.</p>

<p>If you are doing 35mm then a Jobo 1500 series tank, reel(s), and roller base + temperature control + chemicals is all that you need. A roller base can easily be made from a piece of wood or plastic and 4 plate casters if the Jobo is not readily available.</p>

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<p>You can get a used JOBO CPE2 for less than $200 on eBay if you want to go the automated route, but it's not necessary unless you are developing lots of rolls. The only thing the JOBO processor does is keep the water bath stable which you can easily do with an aquarium heater. Also the JOBO tanks rotate the film consistently. Again this is not allways neccessary and at times makes things more complicated, because you are constantly trying to keep up with the machine. All that fiilling the tank and dumping the chemicals can drive you nuts. </p>
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<p>I hope I did not sound negative ( no pun intended) about shooting or developing slides.<br>

I did a lot of slide duping in e-4 days. and some regular e-4.<br>

I have a slide cutter and sealing press.<br>

I have a viewmaster II and cutter, and mountingreels are again available.<br>

I even, at one time printed slides.<br>

But time passes. and things change, You cannot buy slide film locally.<br>

I think even "us" who shoot film at all are considered "luddites"<br>

( wait 'till I bring out the speed graphic) ( or the USMC Combat Graphic)<br>

a friend, who was really into photography, first Exacta's and then about every Canon ever made.<br>

Now says digital is far better. Maybe I am an old fashioned guy.<br>

but I tend to not oppose what has changed and decided and shoot color neg.</p>

 

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<p>Thanks all. I see the solution and have the product.<br>

I'm only interested in developing slides this way. I already do my B&W negatives. I'll have a look around for a Jobo.<br>

I bought a Canon MP810 all in one printer a couple of years back and its already set up to scan 35mm film and 6x6.<br>

I tried it out and was astonished how good the images came out just using the Canoscan software. Sometime I think we make things more complicated than they need be.</p>

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<p>THIS is what you need:<br>

A Jobo CPA-2 or CPP-2 with elevator and the right film drums (35mm/roll film, 2523 or Expert drums (30XX) for sheet film). Specification of the PT-100 element +/- 0,3C.<br>

If you want a full automatic system I can recomment the ATL-1500 or 800.<br>

E6 processing needs precise temperature so you need a calibrated thermometer too. Put the unit 1 1/2H in advance on the right temperature. All chemicals in the bottles. Measure near the outlet of the re-cycling pump, 37,8C and add +0,5C due to the deviation/ temperature fall inside the first bottle of the Jobo.<br>

Then process according E6 standard.<br>

<img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4076/4825785067_b73058cb7b.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="375" /></p>

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