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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 19 ส.ค. 2024
- Automate agitation, timing and temperature control when developing film at home!
Available for purchase here: darkroomhelper...
Compatible with Paterson-style tanks, it features a unique magnetically-coupled agitation technique. This means that the tank itself can remain stationary enabling a number of advantages, like: Small footprint, heated enclosure and spill-free agitation.
Make no compromises. Thanks to real temperature control there’s no need for complicated software compensation routines or tables. Develop virtually any film with any chemistry just by following the manufacturer’s instructions.
Product page:
darkroomhelper...
Man, I’m looking forward to this. Great design.
This is exactly what I’ve been looking for! Looking forward to ordering when they’re restocked
Placed an order and very excited to try this. Have a bunch of rolls ready.
That's a job well done.
You can count me among your customers
Super excited for this!
Are you still looking for testers for this? I develop out of a community darkroom in Beaumont Texas, and anything to increase efficiency of developing for all of the darkroom users would be fantastic. We're currently moving to begin educational courses and increasing the amount of beginners in the darkroom and this seems like a really good tool for that. Let me know if we can be of any assistance :)
Super Cool
Genius
Need one rn
I've looked a lot of home grown devices to power and control photo processing, usually color. As a concept, this is the first one to cause me to reconsider the similar type of system I've used for almost 40 years. Since the market for anything like this is quite small, as is the whole DIY film processing community, its success seems dependent on price, availability and durability. Price seems a toss-up, as there really is nothing to compare on the market. If the timeline stated on their website holds true, then we'll know in a few weeks what that will be. With the minimal number of moving parts, I'd expect its mechanicals to be durable. It is totally dependent on its electronics, and only time will tell there.
Opening price is about $200. That makes it one-third the price of the cheesy, unprogrammed, unheated, water bath system from Filmomat. It's $100 less than the APO unit which just mounts to the top of a Paterson tank, programmed but unheated, and uses battery power for its agitation system. For me, its short-coming is that it seems to require use of a Paterson tank, which I hold to be the cheapest form of poorly made crap. I suspect that some other brands of tank might fit it, the critical issue being diameter such that the tank fits down into "hole". Since the diameter of Paterson and other reels are basically the same, I expect that the unique magnetic adapter fitted inside the tank to provide agitation will work with other tanks or can be modified to fit. Finally, an automatic tank processor which seems to have it all and does so at a reasonable price.
Seems like the agitation with the magnets might ware out the tank at some point but maybe not.
Good question!
Actually the bottom of the magnet disc is flat and the pulling force doesn't need to be that strong.
So after 100+ tests with a single tank I see maybe some slight circular scratches at the most, but nothing that would affect the long term operation: no groove getting digged at the bottom or anything like that.
This is awesome. Congrats! Can you setup the agitation? Whats the default agitation setting?
Thanks! The default agitation mode is intermittent, so that you can use the same instructions as for manual developing, like: agitate 10s every minute, etc
But you can also set it for continuous rotation, which is more commonly used in large format (sheet) film.
i need this :b
I notice you swipe the negs with paper(?) towel. Is that a particular type of towel, or will any be ok?
That looks to be Kimtech tissue or Pec Pads.
@@qmigui Thank you
Pec Pads, they don't scratch the film and are lint-free.
They're also great for removing remjet residue when developing ECN-2 movie film.
@@pira_mx Despite fotoflo and a finger swipe, I still get drying marks sometimes. I’m going to try these. Cheers.
@@mynewcolour Your problem is that you are using hard tap water in your Photoflo mix, so the dissolved chemicals in that water are leaving a dried residue on the film. Pec Pads are not going to solve that problem. Just mix the final rinse (Photoflo) with distilled or deionized water, and skip wiping your wet emulsions.