haagen_dazs said:
is dev negs through the minilab processor any different from a dip/dunk done by a pro lab?
that is, is the extra price worth it?
i am trying to find a way to keep costs relatively low since the this hobby is getting very costly at times! 🙁
It depends (mainly on the lab).
A dip/dunk processor has two advantages over a roller-transport processor. The first is the amount of surface-contact between film and processor: there's a good deal more physical contact in the case of the roller-transport processor. This is where you're pretty much at the mercy of whoever's in charge of maintaining that machine, including pulling the racks from the processor and hosing them down (I've done my share of working with bog old Kreonites and sparkling-new Noritsus). Even when yu think you're running a squeaky-tight ship, there's always the risk of a roller sprocket jamming or breaking if things aren't kept tweaked (over a year ago, I had three out of four color rolls of a mostly b/w wedding shoot ruined when the r-t processor of a nearby lab "decided" to stop in the middle of a run). The second is the freshness, and number of, water baths (see below).
Dip/dunk processors pretty much work as their name describes: film is loaded onto a metal rack (roll film – 135 or 120 – is wrapped around the rack, while sheet film is clipped in place), in total darkness, then loaded into place for the processor to "grab" and dip into a line of chemistry/wash tanks. The only contact the film has, besides the chemicals, is with the rack itself (and only by the edges, unlike "full-contact" roller-transports).
Why are d/d processors far less common than r-t processors? Size, price and complexity. Sinced the racks have to be loaded in absolute darkness, you need a light-tight space to load them up in, and that requires space. In addition, the tanks, by necessity, are much deeper than r-t tanks, adding further to size. Thirdly, those racks need to be hoisted really high to clear one tank and dip into the next; most d/d processors, as a result, are floor-to-ceiling jobs. Next, while d/d processors are theoretically mechanically simpler than r-t processors, they come with their own set of particulars: tight-tolerance temperature-control for chemistry (especially E6), nitrogen-burst aeration for some chemicals (usually just for E6), extra plubming for fresh water baths (usually more than one...another potential advantage over r-t's), and the need to carefully monitor the process (raise your hand if you survived Kodak's Q-Lab program training). Oh, yeah, price: you could buy a Ferrari for the price of something like a Hostert or Refrema d/d processor; a stand-alone Noritsu roller would cost a fraction of that (the agency I used to work for e-mailed me not long ago about
giving me the Noritsu we got, and I was put in charge of, for our in-house work, particularly our coverage of the 1996 Olympica in Atlanta; I turned them down...wouldn't fit in the basement
😛).
A note about wash baths: some minilabs have fresh water running in their r-t machines, but most don't. There's controversy about whether this cuts into the archival keeping qualities of color neg film (which otherwise has improved many-fold ove the stuff our parents used). This can be the deal-breaker for a number of people, so my mantra is: Get To Know Your Lab, pro or not.
Now you know
much more than you wanted to...
(Edit: while d/d processors are generally stone-reliable, they can have their moments: one time, inthe middle of a run at a midtown pro lab, we heard a horrifying crunching and grinding of metal. It turned out that, somehow, one of the racks ended up "swinging" while being lowered into the bleach bath. The rack caught the dividing wall between the tanks and got wedged between it and the rack transport above...and we had three racks of studio 4x5s going. I had to don night-vision goggles to save what film I could [and see what the hell I was trying to do]. Fun.)
- Barrett
