Sabotage? Old age? wtf?

[nullfinder]

I think it goes without saying that I've had enough of the QSS-2511 at my store... but this is absolutely mind bending, not to mention frustrating beyong all belief. A tech came out to service the machine, and remixed the dev. After the first two rolls the Dmax had gotten quite faded, but then popped back up to an "process only if the customer insists" level. Our densitometer still is quite an effective paperweight, so all evaluations were subjective. The initial prints came out with acceptable contrast and colour, but now after 10 or so rolls the edge markings are severely faded, contrast is extremely low and the "exposed" part is a see-thru dark brown. It got worse, got a little better and then evened off, but now it's gone to hell and it looks like the developer is dead. AGAIN. The replenisher is within date and from a qualex tote, nothing unsual. What in the good lord's name would cause this problem????? i cannot in good conscience run customer film if i know that the quality will be inconsistent throughout the day or won't remain steady at all. i've had it with "the tech will be here later probably." I respond with "yeah, later this year." No support, no supplies, no time allowed to restore the ruins of my beloved department.

[scott levine]

I'm a little rusty, but you may want to try looking at 4 things. First see if the poppet filters

are clean, second, make sure the sprayer bar in the dev tank is clean and all the holes are

moving chemistry evenly, third make sure the replenishment pump is actually dispensing the

proper replenisher rate of developer, and 4th make sure that the temp in the tank is correct

at the top as well as the bottom.

 

Good luck!

[nullfinder]

I'll check the poppet filters the next time I work. I recalibrated the dev replenish rate when I went and totally cleaned the machine so I don't think it's that. *sigh*.... I'll just quit and go somewhere else; I have been hung out to dry.

[josphy]

Since you mention recalibrating the replenishment rates, are you sure you got it correct?

 

You seem determined to take a lot on yourself, but instead of just constantly throwing your hands up in frustration, get on the phone and call the Kodak customer support number (there's one specific to CVS now -- which I'm sure you know since you mentioned a tech coming out), call your "regional category specialist" for photo (I think I know the one for your region, so I can give you the name/# off here if you want) and he can help you like even with stuff such as setting up your densitometer or getting you another densitometer, and you could even talk to your district manager if your store manager isn't giving you support.

[scott_eaton]

<I>What in the good lord's name would cause this problem?</i> <P>check replinishment pumps and then look for back-splash from BLIX tank. The only things that cause that rapid a developer problem.

[robert himmelright]

once...a long time ago....at a photo lab far far away....there was a crack in the wall between the blix tank and the dev tank

[William Kahn]

Jesse, I know nothing about your equipment or what the problem might be. I just wanted to tell you that I'm really impressed that you would take the trouble, and obviously care about your work enough to come here and ask the question. My opinion of the folks who run the one-hour labs just went up a couple of big notches - thanks for that!

[robert himmelright]

I REALLY think that either your replensisher line is clogged, OR there is a crack in the wall between your dev and bleach tank.

[j._morrison]

It sounds like your managers are passively letting the "old" processor go to hell (sooner

than later) so they can get a new all-digital machine installed. I can hear them now telling

their bosses, "that unreliable piece of crap (the machine, not you) is costing us customers!"

 

I love analog film photography myself and hope that my Jobo Rotary processors are

around long after affordable and reliable commercial film processing is no longer

available.

[nullfinder]

The crack between blix and dev sounds about right... but the machine's been off for 7-8 days now. I woke it up today to refill the solutions to their proper levels to avoid concentration. I ran a control strip through just for xxxxx and giggles, and the look was still the same. If there was a crack would not the 2 solutions have mingled totally, after 7-8 days of standing still?

 

As for getting a new digital one, that thought has been tossed around, but if so, they will take the lazy way out and put the machine upstairs where it will be invisible to customers. (We have an upstairs that's on street level and a "downstairs" which is on river level below the street). They'd have to get a barge and bring in the new machine, or take it apart and fit it in the tiny elevator. The upstairs is offlimits to customers and is not seen. I resent the idea of the photo lab being hidden away like something to be ashamed of, where customers cannot see me or someone else qualified in action, taking care of their work and doing the business in plain sight. This machine can make AMAZING prints, I really like the "analog" look and hope to all heavens they can finally fix it and get things right. Lord knows I've helped them 95% of the way with the total cleaning and rehabilitation I did.