Topic: Jobo CPE-2 Processor - Any thoughts?

[Emma]

One of these has recently been offered to me, along with some other bits and pieces. Has anyone ever used one, and are they any good?

Thanks 

[jojonas~]

I haven't used one but my previous darkroom had a broken one that i always thought looked mighty impressive. the guy that had the darkroom used to use it for developing slide or negative colour films, said it was perfect for that.

[Greg Bartley]

processing film or paper is about being consistant and  a Jobo is brilliant for that and there are so many bits available where ever you are !
I have never looked back and I use the big brother of the CPE, mines a CPP2
Embrace it !

[DonkeyDave]

I use mine almost every day. I do 35, 120 and the majority 45. I do C41, E6 and B+W. I have almost worn it out but it's still going. I'd be really stuck without it.

[Emma]

Wow! Looks like a great piece of kit.

[KevinAllan]

I've had one about six months. At first there were some teething problems which were resolved by, errr, reading the manual 

Use of the Jobo has improved my C41 processing a lot, by maintaining the required temperature and standardising the agitation pattern. Same would be true for E6, but I'm not doing my own E6 processing at the moment. Economically, you have to have a reasonable throughput of films needing processing so that you use up the chemicals before they are expired; and splitting between C41 and E6 reduces the useage of the each set of chemicals.

If you're only doing black and white, a Jobo is probably overkill, although if you get one to do colour, you might use it for B&W as well.

The only downside is that I personally find the Jobo reels a lot harder to load than the AP reels which I have for use in a Patterson tank. The AP reels have a broad platform at the point that the film enters the spiral which makes things a lot easier. Oh, and this is a minority interest, bu my Jobo reels don't have  a spacing option for 127 film so I'm still using the AP/Patterson combo for 127; even then the Jobo kit can be used to get the temperature of the chemicals right.

[Francois]

Jobo used to make the best gear you can get for low volume processing.

[KevinAllan]

Here's examples of images taken with C41 film which I've developed using my Jobo:

http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=33186310@N03&q=jobo

[original_ann]

I use the CPP-2 and love it.  I would agree with what was said about black and white probably being overkill.  In fact, you could really overagitate on a JOBO.  But despite that, I've used it on occasion for 4x5 at one of the lowest rotation settings. 

Having the JOBO in my cold basement means that I need extra help maintaining consistent temperatures - particularly for how short each stage is when developing C-41.  This is one of the reasons I love the CPP-2, because it handles automatically.  Even when I pull a chemical bottle or beaker out of the 'drink' to use and then put it back, sometimes that's all I need to watch the temperature start to fall.  But JOBO quickly corrects and also allows me to manually up the temp to try to speed things along.  I am not that well-versed on the CPE-2: does it have automatic temperature control, as well? 

Cat Labs is now the official supplier.  Perhaps they'll have information that will help you make the best decision for you.  Good Luck!  http://www.catlabs.info/how-to-choose-the-right-jobo-processor

[Emma]

It's a freecycle offer, the same place as I got my developing bag. I've picked up a Polaroid as well, it seems to be my lucky week!

Ann that link was brilliant. The CPE2 sounds right; small and simpler. I use b/w and colour, so I'll see how it works!