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Garry Black Photography

Question:

I'd really appreciate your advice/guidance on whether or not I should be developing my own slides.

My slides from Europe are still in the freezer. While over there, I was thinking about the system you were using to develop slides at Grand Manan. I figured that by processing my European stuff myself (after a learning curve, etc.), I could pay for a quarter or more of a JOBO processor.

Do you still use your JOBO? If so, how do you buy your chemistry and what is your average cost per film processed? Is it worth doing it yourself financially? (I just found a new lab--an offshoot from the lab I've been using for several years--and they are charging about $6.50 per roll mounted. Not sure, of course, how long that will last--the old lab charges about $9.50. At that $6 price, is it still more economical to do it yourself?)

I have the time and patience to do this. I also had a fair bit of darkroom experience (B&W only) back in the days of doing baby photography, so I have no illusions about that aspect. The only question is, is it worth investing $2295 CDN (at Vistek for the CPP-2) in a processor, plus a slide mounter (I would go for a less expensive version than you have--I've been talking to Dale Clark at Askus), plus a small drying cabinet (again, I might go the cheap route for a while with this and just squeegee the films, then hang them in a dust-free area)?

I have over 150 rolls of unexposed Fuji in the freezer that I'm shooting out of, so when you add the cost of sending that much out to a processor over the next few months in addition to what is already exposed, I will be making a sizeable investment no matter which way I go.

Answer:

The initial set up costs for doing your own slide processing is high, but if you shoot a lot of film it will pay for it's self in the long run.

The film processor that I have is the JOBO CPP-2 with the JOBO Lift, approx. cost $3000.00. This is the best JOBO processor for slides as it has the most accurate temperature control. There is a fully automatic processor that JOBO makes, but it is at least twice the price and then some.

The film drying cabinet is an ARKAY that I bought at Vistek, it cost around $750.00. If you are doing all of your processing at home you can make a cabinet for much less.

The slide mounter is a PAKON MM100 which costs about $3000.00. Before buying it we used the PAKON SNAPPY MOUNTER which is entirely manual but is very time consuming, but they only cost $100.00 We have 2 of them, it seem less daunting of a task to mount the slides if both Val and I were tackling the job.

The chemicals cost $100.00 for a gallon kit, which processes 40 Rolls of 35mm film, the slide mounts cost .04 each.

I started out with the processor and hung the film to air dry and had the snappy mounters to mount the film. Then because of the workshops I bought the film drying cabinet and still used the snappy mounters. Then I bought the slide mounter. If I were only going to be doing the processing at home, I would have skipped the film drying cabinet, and built my own.

The only ways that you can reduce your costs is to find a place where you can get the chemistry cheaper (if you find one, let me know), and also to reuse your slide mounts. NOTE - don't forget to add taxes to all the prices listed above. Prices above are in Canadian dollars.

Hope that these notes will help you with your decision on which way to go. If you need more info or suggestions, just ask!