Category: da net

JOBO Patents

Posted on Posted in da net, labnotes, minimum daily requirement

Many have expired. JOBO wasn’t generous in their search for prior art, particularly on reels and water jackets.

Hobby men bragging about their tool raised the question. Germany or China: who do you think is their favorite maker of things mechanical? As always, consider their fear of foreign languages.

When searching, use :JOBO LABORTECH.

idpublication datetitle
US-4448365-A1984-05-15Film developing spool 
FR-2503403-A11982-10-08DEVELOPMENT DRUM FOR PHOTOGRAPHIC EMULSION MEDIA 
DE-3941492-A11991-06-20DEVICE FOR DEVELOPING PHOTOMATERIAL 
DE-3208968-A11983-09-22
Device for developing photographic paper 
EP-0076869-A11983-04-20Device for the development of photographic material in a rotatably driven cylindrical drum 
US-4473283-A1984-09-25Arrangement for developing photomaterials in rotatable drum 
DE-3101706-A11982-08-26Device for developing photographic material having a rotating drum 
DE-3143635-C21983-10-27Discharge device for treatment liquids of a device for developing photographic material 
DE-3113465-A11982-10-14Processing spool for holding a photographic film strip in spiral form 
DE-3102074-A11982-08-19Device for developing photo material having a cylindrical drum which is driven to rotate 
JOBO Patents

Key personnel: Helmut Petsching, Walter Kremer, Rainer Bernhardt, Johannes J. Bockemuehl-Simon

2010 “insolvency”

Some Past concerns

  • Jul, ’08 [among first posts on Forum] “I think the tempering part of my Jobo CPP-2 is busted.I’ve noticed that lately it doesn’t seem to warm up the water.
    Anything I can do to fix it?”

  • Aug, ’08 “The fabrication of parts was discontinued in November of 2006,and Omega-Satter USA took over the assets of Jobo photo processing products. I have no idea where you would get a “repair.” The usual fault was the circuit board, which was easy and cheap to replace some years ago. Now, whatever parts you can buy is dependent on wherever you can find them. After using a Jobo for some time you will realize that it would not be the end of the world if it gave out, and lots of film people have never used one”

  • Sep, ’23 “when you want a reliable machine working for 30+ years, you have to pay a certain amount of money.Also if you consider that the JOBO products are produced in Germany with highest environmental standards and protection + social standards for the workers (none of that is given in China).“

  • Sep, ’23 “I have a CPP3 Jobo unit that is not working properly right now. the control panel is not operating and I am told by Cat Labs who sold it to me that its probably the fuse. Problem in this unit some genius in the factory decided to put the fuses in the guts of the motor unit and taking it apart is not a user friendly issue. I am being told a new motor is going to cost me $3000 to replace which is 2/3 the cost of the machine when I bought it. “

Amateur Quest.ions

Posted on Posted in babl, da net, overnight notes, the LabTagged ,

The outpost of the bachelor herd. Those old timers who didn’t do the stuff they will be asked about; they’ve become the experts.

  • they ask shopping questions. They use the forum as if it were a sales counter on Saturday, the day the weekend warriors get to pretend they do THIS for real.
  • the same group rejects, out of ignorance and arrogance, the question of a newcomer. New in the process, not in imagination– at least imagination prompted by broader reference imagery than the Snobby Hobby.

Stages of the meaning of amateur: what do they provide us? How can the task of understanding be accelerated? Follow a thread, re-constructed for revelation of the question-response cycle of early participants in an online community of practice.

One person. the OP, is a professional lab printer with many years of experience. As he ventures further away from the longtime standard darkroom print, he seeks out answers from the unknown members of a forum. [this took place in 2016 (over 2 days) ] The general topic filters doesn’t seem to be retained; it becomes a topic in which expertise dissolves — it doesn’t stay with the group, no matter how many times it is repeated — the group mind has no memory. They don’t learn.

Oddly, the professional lacks the knowledge, therefore, must ask a group of unknowns. He, likely, assumes they have more experience than they do– he is, even more likely, hoping they have more experience than he does.

Why would he assume that they know how to make studio photographs with filters that will be solarized? None of them exhibits solarized work. Few of them show anything other than landscapes; typical outdoor scenics of the great west.

Effect of filter. Effect of solarization.

Effect of lacking foundation skills to be a professional: will rely upon those of lesser skills. Probably meaning you haven’t become an independent, valuable provider to those with ability to pay well. Your chances of survival go down if the skill in your market rises. As widespread darkroom skill declines, you get to survive. Luckily, that is the course of the century. The lights are being turned off.

// success is timed. Multiply your costs factor. A well defined question provides pathway to correct, useable answer. They are right about one thing: a book is better than them.

Wratten 12 (Y)
Wratten 11
Wratten 44 (cyan)
Wratten 25 (red)
contrast with BW film is relative to other colors.

Light source matters, as does color sensitivity of the BW film.

along similar lines, at least in the same quadrant of that (above) 2 year old note: we get another request for information from the same professional.

an adage pops up: you can lead a horse to water…

The person who can’t find information on their own, isn’t the person who will use the information well. Locating a vendor is an elementary part of running a business. Asking the hobby world makes you a hobbyist — and a foolish one, in this case.

Reliance upon a small group makes you either on the advance or the decline. The hobby forums are not the leading edge of chemical photography.

The conversation is complete. My observation: the newcomer should leave, so should the old timers.

Advise, constant, recurring: don’t ask the forums. In old ‘cology it was said: “don’t give away your eyes.”

You will learn more about your work by doing it. Don’t ask them, they really never did succeed. The Fromm’s and Friends are only noticed because they hang out in a space someone else provided. The tour bus drops you off where they can park, not where you need be.

Photo Gossip

Posted on Posted in da net, the fora

Why don’t they know. What is it they don’t know.

The main component of the amateur’s knowledge is the craft. They spend time and money in the buying of things to make pictures. Their conversations are about the modes and methods of making a photograph. They seek rules. They arm themselves with instruments and instruction material. These are their first steps; in most cases these are the only steps they will make. They will do the same week a thousand times over, having never learned the next thing.

Eliot Porter gets a thousand dollars, yet we are told that “my own brother” got $4,000 for a one time use. This at a time when the BEA reported median per capita was less than $4k in 1965. brother Wiley must have been doing well.

Analog Bullies

[My own brother got over $4,000 for one-time rights to publish a particular 4X5 image or another, which was a helluva lot of money back in the mid-60’s] Wayne J. Wiley 1940-1995 [55]– 1965 Wayne would have been 25.

what was the bragger doing during those years? had a job selling paint etc.  did he have a 4×5 then? he has said his first camera was 6×7, for many years—

over 10,000 miles backpacking with a sinar (norma) … we can assume it was 4×5. tst this — how many hours are needed to walk 10,000 miles. assume you are military advanced patrol conditioned — typically males between the age of 20 and 40; they can travel, with load, through uncut, rough, hilly terrain, at around 1 to 3 miles per hour. Figure how you would fit those thousands of hours into your spare time, vacations, weekends during your time with a 4×5. The rationale for making these claims: to counter someone suggesting the novice should buy a wooden field camera instead of a metal one.

Did you figure in the stop time to make pictures: “up to 4 hours” waiting for the “light,” “the wind,” the “clouds to…” Or, how about the known case: travel time to the mountain. “I don’t just drive to..” In that 8 days, he was on the mountain maybe 3 days. Did he climb, walk in the night? Doubtful. On the one trip we can extrapolate from, he walked about 18 hours in a week. Then, not again for a couple years.

Of course there are the tourist paths around the Bay. Maybe that is where he does all this alpine climbing under heavy load.

AND I have insider knowledge. I saw him exhaust himself carrying some 20×24 prints no more than 15 steps across a sidewalk and hotel lobby. Worn pant legs dragging on the floor.

the range of knowledge.. experience he didn’t have, provides the examples he calls up… like a child’s early learning about the size of the world, his numbers are wrong. in an attempt to convince you of his great experience based knowledge of the topic, he gives examples out of probable proportion, moreover, he can’t site references for the proclamations.

why are his estimates so wrong? maybe just bad memory of a 70 something. i think it more likely he has false memory: he wants it to be true. in his need to claim your attention, along with subtle denigration of opponents, he lays claim to big knowledge. And like pubescent teens making claims in the locker, it is beyond their experience. he isn’t close to the world; his numbers are false glories. 

they talk about chromes in studios; of doing things they never did. naively, you will repeat the story. warriors at the bowling alley, just telling lies for beers.

Chromes in studios could be evaluated by the client, the art director, the photographer during the shoot. The lab could push or pull in small increments. The studio experience is what drove the use of chromes and Polaroids. A big orange blob can’t be evaluated on a light box. Of course, we could have made densitometer readings and announced them to the client. What would that have done? What type of experience would that be? Even a paint store salesman should understand that.

The Whys

  • to overpower you. gain control of a conversation using facts from a past they didn’t have. they tell the story, even someone else’s to impress you with something that would have impressed them.
  • reclamation of a past they failed to realize. rather than tell you what they did, they make great examples of themselves. Indeed.
  • Photo Macho: they conquer mountains and women. In end of years, they turn to you.

Even the worst of us, can serve as a horrible example to the rest of us