Question: which tanks/drums are useable on a Jobo CPA

[youngcoby]

Hello all,
I just bought myself some darkroom equipment, a Jobo CPA, TBE-2 and a Durst F60, together with lots of accessoires.

Concerning the CPA: it came with 2 drums for wet printing. However, i would also try to develop color film with it, and I cannot find anywhere information concerning the drums which are compatible with the magnet-style coupling.

So, is the series 1510, 1520, 1540 compatible, or are these only for the CPA-2/CPE-2/CPP-2 series?

Thanks for the info,

Filip

 

[tlitody]

Hello all,
I just bought myself some darkroom equipment, a Jobo CPA, TBE-2 and a Durst F60, together with lots of accessoires.

Concerning the CPA: it came with 2 drums for wet printing. However, i would also try to develop color film with it, and I cannot find anywhere information concerning the drums which are compatible with the magnet-style coupling.

So, is the series 1510, 1520, 1540 compatible, or are these only for the CPA-2/CPE-2/CPP-2 series?

Thanks for the info,

Filip

The print drums are the same diameter as 2500 series tanks unless they are very old ones.
In the base of the unit there are some rollers. I forget if they are adjustable for different diameter tanks. You should check. But either way the unit will also work with 1500 series tanks. When there is water in the base and you put a tank in, the weight is largely supported through floatation unless you have too much fluid in the tank.

 

[youngcoby]

Thanks for your answer, Tlitody.

I can start the search for the 1510/1520 drums then.

 

[Fotohuis]

You can use all drums on the CPA processor. The roller bock can be adjusted for 15xx, 25xx and 30xx series. But for regular 35mm and roll film development I can only recommend the 25xx series and the 2502 reels. The 15xx series in rotary development are more critical. So if you have an elevator: 2523 tank (with cog wheel) with 2x 2502 reels. Only magnet 2521 tank with 2x 2502 reels.
Works fine in B&W and C41/E6.
If you're doing B&W without water you have to change the roller to "easy rollers" Leicht Rollers, to have less torque on the CPA motor unit.

Regards,

Robert

 

[youngcoby]

Thanks a lot, Fotohuis.

This is the info I needed.

Filip

 

[Fotohuis]

With the 25XX tank system put the rotary speed on F (Film) for C41 development during the C41 developer and on P (Paper) for Blix (or Bleach and Fix).
Measure the temperature on the first bottle +0,5C above the exact C41 developing temperature (37,8C), especially important when doing E6 which is very critical in temperature.

The re-circulation pump will do the rest. C41 in rotary Jobo development: A piece of cake. B&W: It depends on the developer. High acutance developers a pretty bad in a Jobo rotary system. So in this way better do inverse processing.

I do BOTH: In a Jobo CPA-2 (2523 tank) and a Heiland TAS inverse processing system with Jobo 1510 and 1520 tanks.

 

[sevo]

The original CPA has no lift, and cannot be retrofit with it - so you'll need drums with a base magnet and without cog lid. That is, Expert Drums won't do, and you'll have to hunt down the (rather rare, as most later processors were sold with lift) inversion lids and caps, and magnet versions of the drums.

2xxx/3xxx with base magnet should do if you already have older paper drums, as they are the same size. For 1xxx drums you need extenders to raise the rollers - if these are missing, Jobo still sell spares (the current ones do fit the first series CPx even if that is not mentioned anywhere).

 

[Fotohuis]

Yes, modifications still can be carried out. For an elevator the CPA-2 version is necessary.
In the elevator for the CPA-2 or CPP-2 there are two connections for the drums. The upper is for the 3xxx series. The not used outlet should be blocked.

 

[bwcolor]

You can use all drums on the CPA processor. The roller bock can be adjusted for 15xx, 25xx and 30xx series. But for regular 35mm and roll film development I can only recommend the 25xx series and the 2502 reels. The 15xx series in rotary development are more critical. So if you have an elevator: 2523 tank (with cog wheel) with 2x 2502 reels. Only magnet 2521 tank with 2x 2502 reels.
Works fine in B&W and C41/E6.
If you're doing B&W without water you have to change the roller to "easy rollers" Leicht Rollers, to have less torque on the CPA motor unit.

Regards,

Robert

I just picked up a CPE-2 and CPE2+ with Lift and a bunch of 15xx tanks with lots of reels and 25xx tanks setup for prints.. no reels. I'm only doing film, so I'm curious as to what you mean when you mention that the 15xx tanks are more critical?

 

[sevo]

15xx tanks are a bit narrow - they must be filled almost to the central funnel tube. This creates quite different relative velocities across the film length, causing uneven development with critical processes. Besides, even small errors with the fill volume will underfill (so that the film near the centre is not submerged) or overfill (so that chemistry spills out of the cog, which is not sealed during rotation).

 

[Fotohuis]

15xx tanks are a bit narrow - they must be filled almost to the central funnel tube. This creates quite different relative velocities across the film length, causing uneven development with critical processes.

Exactly how it is.
The 25xx film tanks are developed for rotary development so do yourself a favor when doing B&W, C41 and E6 in a Jobo rotary development: Choose the 25xx tanks with the 2502 reels which you can adapt to 35mm, 120/220 and 127 roll film. With the 2509N insert reel you can also do 6x 4x5" sheet film development.

If you have a lot of sheet film take the 30xx series Expert drums: Expensive but they are the best for sheet film development but can only fit with elevator on the CPA-2 or the CPP-2 or the very big ATL machines.

Here is how it works :

About the choice of a B&W developer: Normally not a high acutance type because in rotary continuous agitation interferes with the formation of sharpness enhancing edge effects. So you choose a higher dilution and increase the developing time. Xtol 1+1 - 1+3, AM74/RHS 1+9-1+19, CG-512/RLS (24C) 1+4 etc. Good type rotary developers are also the 2 bath types.
In Summer an Ultra Fine Grain type like the liquid CG-512/RLS is easy to maintain on 24C during the development. It still gives a wide tonal scale and for 35mm a very fine grain. However you have to over expose +1F stop (at least) when using these type of developers. So a regular iso 100 film must have an E.I. of 50.

Here are the minimum volumes for the different Jobo tank systems ( 15xx, 25xx/28xx and 30xx Expert):