| Date: Sun, 26 Jan 1997 21:31:49 -0500
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From: peter zimmerman <peterz@E...>
Subject: darkroom apparatus
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I promised a report on the NovaPod by Jobo, the $99.00 slot processor
for
ambient temp. I have not gotten around to trying it with color paper,
but
have been doing B&W for 3 weeks now and think I know the little
gadget's
strengths and weaknesses. I've been working in total dark for practice,
so
in terms of operation it is just like color would be.
1) You have to pull up the paper ('present' it) at almost the vertical
on
order for it to drop into the developer slot cleanly. This takes
practice
and is counter-intuitive. But you can learn.
2) I truly like the fact that the floating lids work as advertised.
It
means that I can print for an hour, quit, and go back the next day
w/out
wasting most of a liter of mixed developer and fix. Not a big deal
for B&W
chemicals, but a major consideration for color. I think there is
less air
penetration than through the walls and big mouths of Jobo's plastic
bottles.
You know that the lids work because there are no crystals on the
edges from
fix or developer.
3) Cleanup is easy. Even crystalized fix seems to come right off
the
plastic. you do get some fix on the outside face of the fix slot
when you
take the paper out of the slot and transfer it to the wash or a
holding tray.
I'm happy. It does what I want it to at a tolerable price. Obviously,
if I
want to migrate from drums to slots, I will have to bite the bullet
and buy
a 3 or 4 slot temperature-controlled 11x14 processor. when I get
rich.
On another subject, the Riga film developing tank.
Heckmann makes a big point in pictures and text of the 'fact' that
the
inside of the spiral drum is white. I don't know how many were made
with a
white insert (seems an expensive and not particularly useful addition),
but
I have a Riga tank which I found in a junk camera shop in Germany
and nearly
fainted when I saw it (it is in, however, very bad shape, and the
store
manager knew exactly what he had. So I paid the price. His question
to me
when I commented that he should reduce the price because the tank
was
missing its clip was 'And just how many Riga tanks have you seen,
with or
without the clip?'). The spiral drum has the same narrow thermometer
hole
which is just barely visible in the Heckmann pix (you can't use
a modern
minox thermometer in it; the original must have been the size of
a fever
thermometer), and the same flat grooves without the 'dishing' of
the current
model.
But there is no white plastic anywhere in sight. Does Heckmann
show a
prototype, or did the design change?
pete
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