4x5" daylight tank?

[RoyK]

hi

does anyone know if it's possible to get a (stand) development daylight tank for 4x5" sheets?

roy

 

[Ole]

Yes.

Jobo 2521 is what I usually use, but I also have a "Johnson Cutplate & Film Developing Tank" which is utterly useless for anything but stand development. There are several other makes.

 

[VoidoidRamone]

I just got an HP Combiplan T that works really nicely.
-Grant

 

[Paul Sorensen]

That is probably the only way I can think of to get decent results from a daylight 4X5 tank (not counting the Combiplan which I have not tried and I have heard good things about). The cheapest is probably the Yankee. The Combipan would be good also, especially if you are planning on doing normal development with regular agitation, but it costs much more.

 

[Paul Howell]

I have and use a Yankee under dire cicumstances. But it really takes a long time to fill, and there several parts that are added after the film is inserted to keep the film in place, so the film does not float, which I find a little tricky to put on in the dark. When I do use the Yankee I use very long developing times to reduce uneven development.

 

[Baxter Bradford]

The Combi-plan takes 1 litre of fluid for 6 sheets (although apparently you can double up back-to-back, I've never tried). The yankee uses much more as far as I can recall. If you are using one-shot developers, then this is a big advantage for the Combi-Plan.

It takes a while to decide how to use the Combi-plan to overcome long filling time of 30-40s. I fill and empty through the nozzle on lid figuring that this ought to go some way to even up development.

Once fixed, it pays to remove lid and do wash fill/empty with the lid off.

I've used it for normal agitation and Semi-stand with DiXactol, always getting nice even processing.

I moved to this from a Nikor where I seemed to scratch the emulsion on the neg cage.

 

[Paul Howell]

Good point about the amount of developer, the Yankee takes over 50 oz for 4X5. What I cant recall is how many sheets can be developed at one time.

 

[panchromatic]

Good point about the amount of developer, the Yankee takes over 50 oz for 4X5. What I cant recall is how many sheets can be developed at one time.

I have one, I'm at work so I can't check, but I believe its 55 oz, and its 10 or 12 sheets of 4x5

 

[RoyK]

Yes.

Jobo 2521 is what I usually use, but I also have a "Johnson Cutplate & Film Developing Tank" which is utterly useless for anything but stand development. There are several other makes.

Any idea who sells this? I couldn't find it anywhere.....
Preferably in Oslo, of course

 

[gwatson]

I use CombiPlan and have found that since the tank takes a fairly long time to fill/empty, you really need more than one tank, particularly if you are using short dev times.

3 tanks is perfect (you can buy just the tanks for £20 in the UK without all the film holders etc.). Fill with dev, stop, and fix, and just move the film holder from one tank to another. I wouldn't suggest using one tank unless you are using l-o-n-g dev times. I've tried various techniques, and this is, for me at least, the easiest and most consistant way of deving 5x4. Just make sure your agitation method is consistant, and you're laughing.

Geoff

 

[Baxter Bradford]

I don't feel that you need to go to those lengths Geoff.

I use my single tank in daylight with dev times 10-14 min with PMK, previously using Exactol, DiXactol and Rodinal and have achieved even development using the technique described above by emptying out of the lid nozzle.

I agree that your method is easier, but requires more kit and being in a darkroom. Having more film holding racks would be beneficial since it is a lot of hassle for procesing just 6 sheets in a single tank, whereas you could have a nice little production line going.

 

[Amund]

Any idea who sells this? I couldn't find it anywhere.....
Preferably in Oslo, of course

No-one has this in Oslo, forget it.....

I got mine from B&H....


But you can process in a normal 35mm tank, I`ve used a 35mm tank for 4x5 stand development several times.....

 

[reellis67]

If you want to process 1 sheet at a time, you can use any film developing tank in which the sheet will fit, ie, Paterson, or various SS tanks. I do up to 4 sheets at a time in my Paterson tank by binding each sheet with a rubber band, into a "U"-shape.

Jay

Interesting idea. I think I read another post where you mentioned this technique. I'll have to give it a try with my 2.25x3.25 since it doesn't fit the Combi tank.

- Randy

 

[MikeS]

I don't feel that you need to go to those lengths Geoff.

I use my single tank in daylight with dev times 10-14 min with PMK, previously using Exactol, DiXactol and Rodinal and have achieved even development using the technique described above by emptying out of the lid nozzle.

The issue of quick fill/empty doesn't have to be an issue. I have a Combiplan-T tank, and when I'm worried about even development I just fill it with developer before I load it, then load the rack, drop it in the tank, start timer, put lid on. With PMK or other dilute developers where the development time is longer it's nice to be able to work in light. And with one shot developers, at the end of the development cycle, you can shut off the lights again, open tank, and dump into the sink. I use a water rinse, so I just dump the developer, fill tank from sink, put top back on, and go from there. For the next couple of water changes there's no need to dump quickly so using the daylight filler works fine. Same for fixer.

Depending on what developer I'm using, I'll even do the same thing when using my Nikor 4x5 tank (which is still the best daylight 4x5 tank IMHO).

-Mike

 

[Ole]

Any idea who sells this? I couldn't find it anywhere.....
Preferably in Oslo, of course

Mine came off ebay along with a lot of other darkroom stuff including the lens that I was really after. I got it all cheap since noone else wanted all that junk along with a 135mm Rodagon...

 

[colrehogan]

I have a Yankee tank that I haven't used in a couple of years that I would be willing to part with. It holds up to 12 4x5 sheets though I never developed more than six at any one time with it.

 

[Earl Dunbar]

I have one, I'm at work so I can't check, but I believe its 55 oz, and its 10 or 12 sheets of 4x5

My recollection is 12 sheets. I never liked it much due to uneven development. The amount of chemistry needed was an issue, as well, but I didn't mind that as I unsed Rodinal and other low-cost 1-shot developers such as FG-7.

For stand development (i.e. long times), the Yankee might work. It's certainly inexpensive.

Earl

 

[ggriffi]

I would have to vote for the Combiplan as well. I have one as while it might take a little time to drain, I still think it is the way to go if you need to use a daylight tank. i haven't used a Yankee tank, though.

 

[dphphoto]

I had a Yankee tank and got rid of it. I found it very hard to get even agitation. It did 12 sheets at a time, but as mention above used a lot of chemistry. Of course, you'd avoid the sorts of problems I describe in the thread I started today, "stupid darkroom tricks." Dean