20 Exposure Roll Of Kodak Tri-X

chuckroast said:

Here is my general open tank approach - assumes everything is at a nominal 68F but a few degrees off will not be a huge difference:

1. Turn out the lights/close blinds in the room next to your darkroom so I can walk in an out with minimal light leaking into the darkroom.
2. Prewash in running water for 3min
3. Wearing nitrile gloves, place the loaded reel over an inverted funnel and run the lift rod through it. That's to suspend the reel above the bottom of the tank to minimize the tendency toward bromide drag - the nasties get pulled to the bottom via gravity.
4. Drop the reel/inverted funnel/lift rod into a 2l tank of Pyrocat-HD mixed 1.5:1:200
5. Agitate continuously for 2 min - lift and spin in the direction of the film wind so it doesn't come off the reel
6. Cover that tank to make it light resistant. I use the black plastic trays that they deliver food in.
7. Exit the darkroom an the let film sit/stand in the developer
8. Reenter the darkroom and - at 31 min - again wearing nitriles, give the reel twisting and lifting agitation for 15 seconds
9. Cover and exit as before
10. Reenter the darkroom and pull the film at 60 min
11. Wash for 30 seconds in running water
12. Into the fixer for 5 min
13. Lights on
14. Wash for 25min
15. Rinse in PhotoFlo 200 with 25ml of 91% isopropyl alcohol added to 500ml of working solution
16. Hang and dry

Although this is more cumbersome than a closed tank, I find the larger tank and developer volume gives me very good consistency.

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I processed a lot of film in open hard rubber tanks. It's easy to work in the dark when you are acclimated. I need to try this sometime

mshchem said:

I processed a lot of film in open hard rubber tanks. It's easy to work in the dark when you are acclimated. I need to try this sometime

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Here is a scan of print made from a 35mm Fomapan 200 negative exposed at box speed processed that way:



Note that you can increase mid tone contrast and edge sharpness somewhat by doing 2 or 3 intermediate agitations after the initial one and diluting Pyrocat-HD to 1.5:1:250. For really long SBRs you can even go to 1.5:1:300.

I used this method of saving film in my Leica Barnack C III and had no issues with it.

The taped ends also have the benefit of stopping cut or broken tabs confetti, from bulk loaded films and trimmed tongues of factory rolls, which my camera was full of when i got it.

But I do see why you'd be reluctant to chance misadventure with your Barnack, etc.