Leslie Wyatt
Film Photography
Acquiring mechanical dexterity with your eyes shut takes a lot of practice...and
I mean A LOT of practice! Trying to thread a film into a Patterson reel in a changing
bag or darkroon can be a very frustrating experience if you have never done it before.
Sure, if you expose and develop several films a day or even a week it becomes second
nature. But, I am not a professional and I think I am doing well if I expose and
develop one film a month! So, enter the Ars Imago LAB_BOX.
It is what it says, a lab in a box. No need for a darkroom or changing bag as the
film is introduced to the reel in daylight from an attached light tight feed box.
Once the leader is set into the film guide, the light tight top is placed on the
box and the film wound on to the reel using a knob or handle on the side which
connects to the spindle holding the reel. Unlike the Patterson reel, the film in
the Lab-Box is threaded into the centre of the reel and gradually wound outward
towards the edge. The developing tank connects to either a 35mm cassette feed box
or a 120 roll film feed box. The images show the tank connected to a 120 feed box.
So, frustration free film development. But there are a few caveats to using this
box which need to be addressed if the process is to go smoothly and produce good
results.
In the user manual ( yes, it comes with a printed user manual! ) it is recommended
to fill the tank half full and agitate continuously. But being profligate with my
developer I decided that surely it would be better to cover the entire roll with
developer and just agitate intermittantly. But no, I was occasionally getting
negatives with bromide drag streaks and it seems that a full tank doesn't allow
the by-products of development to be properly washed away frrom the film. The fact
that the loaded reel sits in the tank in an upright position instead of flat like
in the Paterson tank probably contributes to the problem. So, half full with
continuous agitation seems to do the trick. Using a handle rather than the knob
makes continuous agitation easier.
Unlike the Paterson tank it can only hold one film cassette or roll at a time but
for me that is not a problem. Hanging the film up to dry without curling or
twisting is helped by leaving the film clipped to the reel which acts as a
convenient weight.
A tricky problem with the Lab-Box is the way in which a 120 film is wound onto the
reel. When removing the backing paper through the feed box slot the film is
effectively rewound into the light tight feed box. Thus, when picking up the
end of the film to fix the reel guide clip you are connecting the clip to the
start of the film. The length of 120 film is not over generous and so unless
you only access the first one or at most two centimetres of the film to attach
the clip it is possible to destroy the first frame. Connecting the clip can
therefore be a bit fiddly.
The main criticism of the Lab-Box is that it is very expensive
compared to the Paterson tanks especially if you want both types of film feed box.
This is undoubtedly true but if you are worried about cost perhaps you should stay
with digital photography because film is not particularly cheap either and if you
develop large quantities of film then the Lab-Box is not an ideal choice. But as
an amateur photographer wanting a tactile, contemplative and creative process of
producing art images using beautifully crafted cameras then I enjoy this frustration
free method of developing film.
