AGO Film Processor

I was super stoked when Dave from Flic Flim told me he would be distributing the AGO Film Processor in Canada! That meant I could give it a whirl. The AGO is like a film developing minder, to be sure things are accurately executed – with regulated agitation and built in timer. A great tool to help you with consistent developing techniques. And now you can develop film while experiencing tiredness or if you have trouble focusing…

As soon as I unboxed the AGO I immediately charged it up fully. Once that was finished I loaded the latest firmware, which introduced a host of useful new features. It does come with default developing ‘recipes’ or settings, however I like to do things my way so I programmed in my preferred developing specifics (using a handy browser-based interface), so I don’t need to set my specifics manually every time, I can just choose one of my own custom settings and go for it.

My favourite feature of the AGO is that if the water’s slightly off temp it calculates and compensates developing times based on temperature. I do appreciate that type of baby sitting, as I definitely need it.

I loaded my BW film in the Paterson tank as usual – the system is designed to work exclusively with Paterson tanks. It does come with a 2 reel tank and a custom funnel top. The funnel top is standard Paterson funnel with three holes drilled in it for chemicals to flow in and out of the tank. Conveniently, the package also comes with a little template for drilling holes into a tank funnel you might already own. An additional donut like piece is also provided, which fits around the bottom of the Paterson tank, allowing it to rotate evenly.

Because the tank orients horizontally (like a Jobo) it’s meant to be used with less chemicals than the old manual tank tipping method – 350ml is the min amount for a 2 reel tank. I used 400ml. The tank can also be used full, with the motor on top, and programmed to emulate the stir stick method. As well, it can be used in a semi stand mode, where it does a gentle agitation once in a while… I did not try either of these methods.

Side note: I used a magnetic stirrer for mixing the chemicals, and it was extremely cool, I now feel like everyone should own one.

The AGO and the tank fit together nicely. Make sure the funnel’s three holes are oriented toward the bottom of the horizontal tank, and pour in the chemical. Don’t get too over zealous and pour too fast or you might overflow the well. The nice thing about this system is I got zero chemicals on my hands the entire time!

Then just push the button to fire up the selected program. It was fun because you could see it adjusting itself based to the chemical temperature. At each stage, the AGO prompts you to drain the chemistry and move to the next phase.

Another reason your hands stay clean is there’s no lid to peel up off the tank, so no splashing or puffing droplets of chemical get on your hands while struggling to get the lid off. It pours very cleanly out of the tank with the AGO attached.

I really appreciated that the machine is powered by a rechargeable battery, meaning there’s no cord to get in the way when you’re lifting it and dumping chemicals. After 6 rolls of film, the battery indicator is still at full power, so it’ll be awhile until I need to charge it again.

I’m really not that person who gets nerdy over this stuff so techy specifics aren’t me, but suffice to say it did work rather well repeatedly on many rolls and did make life cleaner and easier. So if you are a high-output type of BW shooter (especially one who likes to push and doesn’t like standing around inverting tanks for an eternity) or if your using colour film, where time/temperature is even more critical, then it is totally worth it. Maybe the AGO isn’t the zen process that hand developing can be for some, but for people like me (and my attention span) it’s cleaner, easier, faster and far more consistent.

They are available to purchase via special order which takes (usually with out postal strikes happening) three days, they sell for $680 plus tax. Send me an email if you’d like to order: film@beauphoto.com

Here are a few photos, from the roll I developed with the AGO. I used the Minolta TC-1, just to avoid the possible error of my bad exposures. These photos are from our last Gallery 881 event!