8x11 film developing reel

qqphot · Jan 13, 2024

I just paid probably too much money for an actual Minox daylight tank and it's a pain to use, especially with reloaded cassettes, but it definitely does develop uniformly across the width of the film. It seems like to use it "correctly" you need to use only films of a very specific length, but i've managed just by taping the loose end to the spiral instead. I'd still much rather use regular reels but this does work.

Minox · Jan 14, 2024

The thing to do is to cut your films at 40 frames, give or take, and this is easily feasible if you develop your own method of measuring the film when cutting. Mine are never the same length, but they are very close in the vicinity of 40 frames in length. When cutting the film, less is more.

When loading the tank, stop rotating when the tank spool reaches bottom. Of course, if the film is too long, the excess will remain in the cassette, and you can take it out and discard after developing. I know, a few frames wasted, but I can live with it.

qqphot · Jan 14, 2024

Minox said:
The thing to do is to cut your films at 40 frames, give or take, and this is easily feasible if you develop your own method of measuring the film when cutting. Mine are never the same length, but they are very close in the vicinity of 40 frames in length. When cutting the film, less is more.

When loading the tank, stop rotating when the tank spool reaches bottom. Of course, if the film is too long, the excess will remain in the cassette, and you can take it out and discard after developing. I know, a few frames wasted, but I can live with it.

I suppose that's fine. I don't like to waste film but it's so small there's not much lost. On the other hand, I don't really want to put the cassettes in the tank where they'll get wet with chemicals, since I only have a few and need to reuse them many times.

Patrick Robert James · Jan 27, 2024

I haven't seen this thread in a while.

I've developed film by taping it to a fixed out 35mm roll. That works fine. In fact it is the easiest way to develop Minox if you just want to use what you already have. Tape it towards the outside of the film so tension keeps it in place. And tape both ends. I would hang up the 35mm film, tape the Minox to it then load it onto the reel. Plastic reels like my JOBO seemed to work the easiest. Metal reels are more difficult because of the bending involved.

If you are having problems with undeveloped sides with bespoke plastic reels you need to agitate more. Don't fill your tank with reels so the reels have space to move. And give it really good agitation. That will get the developer moving around in there. I had the problem especially with rotary processing so I stopped doing that and now just do the ol' invert method. I have some Unicolor reels I modified to fit into stainless tanks so I can just do the film with everything else.

I'm sure a better reel can be fabricated. If I had a 3D printer I'd do them myself.

I had a problem for the longest time of the film moving way inside the reel (my reels are glued together) then I'd have to spin the reel really fast in water to get it out of the reel which always resulted in scratches. Then I finally gave myself a dopeslap and started bending back the edge so it wouldn't work it's way into the reel. Problems solved...

I still think the best way would be to tape the film to the outside of a tube. That should result in perfect negs. I plan on making something like that if I ever get around to it. Plus it could also be used for 16mm. Win win.

qqphot · Jan 27, 2024

Degree of agitation didn't make an appreciable difference for me, there's still a sharp delineation between where the film was in contact with the plastic and where it wasn't. It isn't possible to agitate enough to make that line invisible.

The minox tank works well for me even though it's a bit fiddly. I assume taping the minox film to other film would work too as long as the tape doesn't come unstuck.

Minox · Jan 28, 2024

Surely it must be a decent way of devising a type of reel for 35mm tank, which would take a Minox film strip and hold it correctly for a proper developing.

Actually, I believe there is. The answer has been right in front of my/our eyes the whole time. I just need some more fiddling...

Donald Qualls · Jan 31, 2024

I've done 16mm by taping the film (emulsion out) onto an ABS pipe section with caps, then putting that inside a next size larger pipe with caps and a daylight filler fabricated into one cap. Works great -- and with my dimensions, it also uses only a couple ounces (~50 ml) of liquid to fill. Making the tank requires a little work, but it would work equally well for Minox as for 16 mm.

A little antihalation dye still shows after fixing and washing, just give it a bath in sodium sulfite solution to wash out the remaining dye -- it'll need very little additional washing afterward.

xkaes · Jan 31, 2024

As I mentioned before, the easiest solution is a SIMPLE modification of a Yankee 16mm reel. These are EASY to get and inexpensive.

There a lots of other ideas for submini reels at:

http://www.subclub.org/creative/reel.htm

Donald Qualls · Jan 31, 2024

xkaes said:
the easiest solution is a SIMPLE modification of a Yankee 16mm reel.

Folks are complaining, however, that processing 8x11 film in a plastic reel leads to uneven development.

ic-racer · Jan 31, 2024

Two more 36 exposure MINOX films processed (HP5) yesterday with Jobo modified reels and loading the film reverse curl. They came out fine, no un-even development.

ic-racer · Jan 31, 2024

Three recent prints from HP5 Minox loaded reverse curl in the Jobo reels.

xkaes · Feb 8, 2024

Donald Qualls said:
Folks are complaining, however, that processing 8x11 film in a plastic reel leads to uneven development.

I don't see why 8x11 film would be allergic to plastic. It works fine for every other submini format.

xya · Feb 9, 2024

xkaes said:
I don't see why 8x11 film would be allergic to plastic. It works fine for every other submini format.

and even the original Minox tank is all plastic...

Minox · Feb 9, 2024

I thought they're made of ebonite, the earlier ones.

xya · Feb 10, 2024

Minox said:
I thought they're made of ebonite, the earlier ones.

AFAIK they are all made of Bakelite. That is the earliest of all plastics, but it's plastic material (resin). Mine is from the 50s.

xkaes · Feb 10, 2024

The ones I've seen have the look and feel of Bakelite -- which I avoid like the plague. It's much more brittle than "modern" plastic -- and prone to cracking -- although I've cracked my share of modern Paterson tanks, I must admit. My Yankee tanks seem more pliant.

Minox · Feb 11, 2024

I have 4 of them NIB, with a fifth which I still use since 1994, bought it already used (the old type, 50 exp). Still in good working order after all these years.

qqphot · Feb 13, 2024

The minox tank doesn't touch the edges of the film at all, since it just lies flat in a channel, emulsion out. With plastic push-in reels unless you're both careful and lucky, the emulsion will in places lie in direct contact with one or the other inner surface of the reel's film channel. This is less likely to happen with ones with V-shaped channels, but some of the currently available 3D-printed ones seem to have square channels where the film really can touch plastic over a pretty big area. And since the film is already so narrow, it impinges pretty far into the image area.

Minox · Mar 12, 2024

My solution to the problem of film margins undeveloped, with this 8x11 reel.

https://juliantanase.com/when-needs-must-taming-the-jobo-8x11-reel/

8x11 film developing reel

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