1980 foto-sell Slot Processor

[Keith Haithwaite]

I finally reached the dark and dusty recesses of my garage/workshop yesterday and look what I found hiding there. I last used this in 1980 to process 10x8 colour prints. The heater still works but the thermostat is kaput.

 

[Ian Grant]

Interesting Keith. Back around 1987 when I was building Gold Refining machines I dealt with a plastics fabricator in the Black Country, he made my tanks etc. He was making something similar in a couple of sizes but was under contract so couldn't tell me who for, one was floor standing with the tank tops at table height, they were sold for industrial use I think for Xray film used for NDT, I never saw them advertised. It would have been easy to add extra tanks. Unfortunately he wasn't allowed to sell me one.

I don't remember seeing that model. We looked into making a laminar print processor but became too busy to pursue it.

Ian

 

[Keith Haithwaite]

Sadly Ian specific memories of this era are somewhat better hidden that the processor was and my recollections are very sketchy indeed and I can't find any reference to the company on the internet. I do remember using Photocolor II chemicals and I found this reference on the 'net: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id...#v=onepage&q=photo color ii chemicals&f=false
I know I used this processor in my business for at least two or three years and I suspect that the on-going high cost of personal colour printing was the reason I abandoned it and reverted to commercial printing by a company based in Warwick if memory serves.

 

[Ian Grant]

Was it Stoneleigh Colour Laboratories, I think they are/were in Laemington Spa near Warwick, I used Colab in Coventry by post and 3H in Birmingham (a satellite lab of Colab) when in the city. Colab was owned and run by the Hartley Brothers maybe taht's where the H in 3H came from.

The Photocolor kits were superb I used the C41, RA-4 and E6 kits, they went out of production because Tetenal were awarded the contract to manufacture Kodak colour chemistry and that obliged them to cease manufacture for Ilford and Paterson (who by then owned Photocolor).

The issue was you needed to use the kit's on a regular basis to be economical or you wasted chemistry. I was regularly processing XP1/2 in Photocolour II most weekends as labs wouldn'tor were very reluctant to push process the films and it made sense to do my own E6, again often with the specialist Kodak and Fuji push process films.

Ian

 

[Keith Haithwaite]

Was it Stoneleigh Colour Laboratories, I think they are/were in Laemington Spa near Warwick,
Ian

The name doesn't ring a bell Ian however, should my on-going expedition into my dingy storage areas reveal any of my old business records then all will be revealed - I hope.