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5x7 multi-sheet daylight developing tank and reel

blee1996

Subscriber
Joined
Jul 25, 2008
Messages
1,609
Location
SF Bay Area, California
Format
Multi Format
For daylight multiple sheet 5x7 film development, I have two solutions currently. But I'm wondering if there are other better options.

1) Stearman Press SP810: develop two sheets of 5x7 side by side. Use 500ML chemicals, but only two sheets.

2) Jobo 3005: develop 5 sheets of 5x7, use 1000ML chemicals. A bit big and overkill.

Are there any solution that looks like bigger version of Mod54 reels for Paterson tanks? Or any metal cage looking reels for 5x7?
 
Back in the day I used 5x7 hangers and a 1 gallon hard rubber tank, worked great. There are 2 5x7s on a 8x10 hanger that works well in the narrow 1 gallon SS 8x10 tanks. The way it was done standard for decades.
 

Back in the day, almost everyone used full strength, replenished tank developers like D23.

Might be worth exploring if you like that signature replenished, stock developer look.

Those one gallon, solid rubber tanks look crazy to "current wisdom" photography practices; one shot and done. However, they were the prevailing wisdom in their time...
 
I use Unicolor drums on a self reversing Unicolor motor base for all my LF processing. I can only run two sheets of 5x7 per drum, but I have several drums.
 
There's also the Jobo 3006 that's the same size as the 3010, not the 3005.
 

I've got every piece of equipment known to man. Hardly ever use it. Jobo, deep tanks. I love this stuff.
 
I have both the 3005 and 3006 drums that I use for 5x7. Unless using a very dilute developer, one does not need a liter of developer for the 3005…my 3005 is labeled “ Chemical: variable, minimum 270 ml”, and the 3006 is half the size and has 210 - 450 ml written on it.
 
Thanks for all the suggestions. I prefer daylight processing, so it seems the choices are more limited. I will try to live with what I already have and accept the limitations.
 
There is also the B/W King stainless steel tank and reel, similar to the vintage Nikor setup.
I used one for a while, and subsequently changed to the Stearman Press SP-810 tray setup, (3 of them!), since I have been shooting more 8x10, and they do triple duty...4x5, 5x7 & 8x10.
 
blee1996 said:
Thanks for all the suggestions. I prefer daylight processing, so it seems the choices are more limited. I will try to live with what I already have and accept the limitations.
Click to expand...

If forgot to mention B's 5x7 insert for a large Patterson 5 tank that will process 4 sheets at once.

B's large format reels Mk3 — Bounet-Photography

Here is the third generation of B’s reel! Now with completely new geometry, soft easy loading, integrated spring and the best development performance in rotation on B’s processor.
www.bounetphoto.com
 

Thanks I totally forgot B's!
 
There is also the Ago 5x7 reel that fits Patterson tanks. B&H and Freestyle have them. The reel only, I've had no need for the bundle with the red paper basket. Easy to load, and just excellent processing quality of the films. I have a couple of these and really like them for E-6 processing.

I have one of B's Mk3 5x7 as well, four sheets at once is really convenient for saving time. I will say the B's reel requires some pretty significant gymnastics of the film to get them all to fit, but the processing quality is equally excellent.

I must stress I'm using rotary on all of them, with only 500ml of chemistry for both reels. To fit them in a Paterson 5 for regular inversion would be 1.5 liters normally.

My favorite however is the Stearman Press 8x10 tray. Probably the simplest setup there is and needs the least amount of chemistry.
 
I've been in a similar search since I started shooting 5x7 last fall. I love the SP-445 for 4x5 but have had heaps of trouble with developing 5x7 and 8x10 film in the SP-810 (uneven development along the edges), which I'm assuming just comes down to not having found the right agitation technique (or it could be my choice of developer and dilution, Pyrocat-HD 1:1:100). I also purchased the updated version of the Poilot 5x7 reel for Jobo 2500 tanks mentioned in post #12 above, but unfortunately, that gave me uneven rotary development along the spot where the auxiliary film support touches the 5" edges of the film. Again, this could just be an issue of developer choice, and perhaps the reel would be perfectly fine with another B&W developer and/or C41/E6 (the gentleman in the video seems to get unblemished results). The SP-810 tank and the Poilot 5x7 reel are both very well made, and people clearly use them with success, so don't let me put anyone off trying them. They just haven't worked out for my specific application.

During my search, I came across the Zebra Dry Plates Kickstarter to build what amounts to a reimagined version of the SP-445, but for 5x7 and 8x10 sizes. Their Kickstarter ended several months ago, but you can still view it here: .

The guy who runs Zebra, Nejc, is active on their Instagram page, so I contacted him and placed an order for the 5x7 and 8x10 versions. They haven't shipped yet because Zebra is reportedly still in the process of fulfilling orders to Kickstarter backers, but Nejc said he thought new orders for non-backers might start shipping in March. I haven't received mine yet so can't comment on usability. The 5x7 version has a 4-sheet capacity and reportedly uses 790 mL of working solution.

I remember Stearman Press experimented several years ago with producing an 8x10 version of the SP-445 (the SP-2810?) that was intended to also develop 5x7, but they abandoned it because they thought it was too costly to produce and unwieldy to handle. That's what eventually gave birth to the SP-810. The videos I've seen of the large Zebra tanks look pretty impressive, but again, I have no direct experience with them and haven't seen anything in the way of a user report. I'll report back when I receive mine and have had a chance to run some film through them.
 
Well just for the sake of completeness, there is the Morse 5x7 daylight processing tank system that uses the normal 5x7 Kodak film hangers. The light baffle that the chemistry flows through is at the bottom of the daylight processing tank, just dip and dunk! Biggest drawback is the amount of solution needed for each tank.

 
One vote for Jobo. It's just a fantastic system once you get to know it. Add a CPP2/3 and you're off to the darkroom races.
 
I haven't used it much but I did process 2 sheets of 5x7 in a Paterson Orbital that I bought on Ebay. It doesn't take a lot of chemicals to operate.
 
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