joel_pickford1

Thanks, Peter. Since posting my query, I've gotten the JOBO running

smoothly with excellent results. The problem I was having turned out

to have an amusing solution. It turned out that the manual

incorrectly specified inserting 5x7 sheets with the 7" dimension

straight and the 5" dimension curved around the wall of the cylinder

(all other formats go in this way). The tech support guy at JOBO had

quite a laugh when he figured out on his own that it needed to go in

the other way around (with the 7" dimension curved around the

cylinder).

Why not try T-max 3200 instead of trying to push 400 ISO films to 1600? Its base speed is 1600 and it can be exposed at 3200 or even 6400 with increased development. Its got the biggest, coarsest grain I've ever seen! I once shot it at 3200 (hand-held, with candles as the only light source), followed Kodak's recomendation for development and got rather dense, beefy negs with suprisingly good shadow detail and HUGE, pervasive grain. High values will run together a bit, but that's par for the course at 4-digit ISO's.

I finally broke down and bought a JOBO CPP-2 with expert drums for my 5x7 sheet film and am in the midst of doing new zone system tests. I have a few questions for experienced JOBO/sheetfilm users:

 

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1. The manual says to use a rotary speed of 4 for the 3006 drum. Do I dare slow it down? 4 seems awfully fast and my times are running a little on the short side.

 

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2. The manual says to use a 5-minute pre-soak. This seems like unecessary wet time to me, since I have always used a 1-minute pre-soak.

 

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3. Any drum leveling tips? I find that when I level it, take it off the lift mechanism, then put it back on, the level has changed...

 

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Any other tips from experienced users would be greatly appreciated.

For years I tray processed my sheet film, but no longer have time (and want cleaner negs). For the last two years I've used Ivey-Seright in Seattle, a high-volume lab with crews at work round-the-clock. The last time I sent them 450 sheets of 5x7 from a shooting trip, a technician turned on the light in the changing room and fogged 25 sheets. I should've demanded the whole order at no charge, but wimped out and accepted a modest discount. My unfogged negs from Ivey-Seright are not the cleanest, either.

 

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I need to find a smaller volume lab with a nitrogen-burst line where the staff care about quality. I expect to run tests, use variable development times and get archival washing and careful handling.

Testimonials welcome!