[Leica] Spiratone Stabilizer Processor

[ricc at mindspring.com (Ric Carter)]

I used one for years making halftones for our newspaper. We went  
straight from neg to halftone using enlarger. Ah, the smelly old days.

I also used it for contact sheets. Ilford's Multigrade RC paper and  
Kodak Stabilization chemicals. I found a tendency to have uneven tone  
unless chemicals were very fresh. Contrast also tended to be pretty  
low. Followed with standard Rapid Fix and wash routine.

I also used Kodak's stabilization processor. It held much more  
chemistry and was much more expensive. I found it less reliable and  
needing more maintenance.

IMO - Suitable for some quick prints and contacts, but not high grade  
prints.

Ric Carter
Garner, NC
http://gallery.leica-users.org/Passing-Fancies



On Jun 22, 2005, at 11:29 PM, lug-request@leica-users.org wrote:

> Date: Wed, 22 Jun 2005 21:28:07 EDT
> From: Afterswift@aol.com
> Subject: [Leica] Spiratone Stabilizer Processor
> To: lug@leica-users.org
> Message-ID: <1f1.3e38759d.2feb6a27@aol.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
>
> Re traditional darkroom, has anyone had experience using the Spiratone
> Processor, a machine that mass produced RC prints up to about  
> 11x16? Kodak still
> makes the Activator chemical for one of their stabilizer models.  
> These machines
> used two chemicals, but I used only the activator with a stop bath  
> in the
> second tray. Back in the 70's when I used the Spiratone for a  
> college TV course, I
> fixed the prints in a standard tray, followed by the usual short  
> wash times
> for RC prints.
>
> Bob R
>