Daylight developing options for paper and/or sheet film?

Hi all,

I currently develop my own 35mm and 120 film using daylight tanks, and am thinking about moving up to sheet film and paper. I've read on the web about people constructing daylight developing options out of PVC or similar pipe, with some light tight way of getting the chemicals in (valve, light trap, etc). The advantage to these methods is the smaller amount of chemistry they use, compared to using a daylight tank designed for roll film and putting 2 sheets in it instead. Presumably with these options you curve the film or paper and slide it in with the base side against the pipe. How much can you curve film or paper to do this without damaging it? By my calculations it seems like a 2.5" to 3" diameter would be enough to fit 8x10 without overlapping itself, but is it ok to bend it in a circle like this?

Also, for these options, what steps are light sensitive? Clearly development is, but is the fix and final rinse as well? I would imagine that the final rinse could be done in the light, and thus the film/paper could flatten out in the water.

Also, a lot of what I've read about paper developing seems to be by inspection. Is this required? For example, reading Ilford's paper developing PDF, it appears that you can go by time alone.

Apologies for the newbish questions, and thanks!

Hi
I usually process my 5x4 film 4 sheets at a time in a standard roll film processing tank and have had great results. There is a thread on flickr that includes a picture of a loaded tank
http://www.flickr.com/groups/largeformat/discuss/72157594305554218/
If you have a spare sheet of film you can use it to gauge the fill line. (I have to use 800ml of brew to make sure the top of the film is covered.)
I hope this helps.

The problems I have with the taco method are 1) the amount of chemistry it uses, and 2) if I wanted to do 8x10 film or paper, I would need a huge tank. It's possible I could fit 4x5 in the tank I use for 120 at the moment, never tried, but there's no way I could do 8x10.

If you had a room that you could make light-tight then you could try tray processing.

Print drums. Unicolor, Beseler, Ilford, etc.

Hello, I recently got myself a LF camera that actually works, and for the moment I do 2 4x5" sheets standing up in a SS tank (which I usually use for 120, both B&W and C41). It works pretty good. No problems with uneven developing. Only issue I have is the time it takes to develop all the sheets I shoot in a day. Regarding volumes I don't really care for the moment, as I'm souping in diafine. I'm gonna try rotating development with rodinal some day now. I bought my self 4 small cart wheels that I have planned to mount on some sort of plate. Maybe even motorise it. A later goal is to try to solder myself a 4x5" reel, like the ones Nikor used to offer, although mine will probably look like crap. I'm gonna aim for 6 sheets though, instead of 12 as the original has. There is one going on the english version of the auction site. 16h left and £32. A bit too much for me now, this months photobudget was spent on the new cam.

Find Nikkor 4x5 tank, twelve sheets with 36 oz chemistry.

Jobo large tank, 6 sheets with 1400 cc of liquid.

Single sheets in a tray are easy and impossible to screw up.

All these have some quirks, but can be made to work perfectly once you know how. When you decide, I will write it all out.

I use the combiplan for 4x5 developing. 6 sheets per tank. I can do two tanks at once, second tank staggered a minute behind the first for development, so I can do 12 sheets at a time. Each tank uses about 1L.

Load it in the dark. Turn on the lights, pre-rinse, develop, stopbath, start fixing with the film dark inside the tank. After a few minutes of fixing, I remove the top and finish the the rest of the fixing, rinsing, etc.. in light.

When I get around to 8x10, I'll probably use a tray in the dark as I suspect volume would lower.

one solution in my opinion:

Jobo drum for film OR paper. if you're exposing the paper in the darkroom, why not just have a few trays? The only think I could think of is just a simple lack of space, if you already have a Jobo processor, then use that.

otherwise, a a Unicolor self-reversing motor base works for me for film developing for 4x5(8 sheets at a time, 2-4x5 reels), 120, 35mm AND 8X10(1 sheet at a time). all done in 1 drum(2551). Saves on space, and chemistry costs too.

if you print LITHO, you'll want trays(snatch development). doing this in a light-tight drum is impossible.

use trays, or a slot-processor(NOVA). every step 'til the end of the 1st fix is done in the dark(darkroom, not pitch black)

-Dan

I have upon occasion used a paper safe as a daylight developing tank for one or two sheets of film. Agitate by rocking the tray. These paper safes are inexpensive.

If you don't have a lot of money, you must learn the art of perversion.

Have a look for a Paterson Orbital. It's basically a light-proof tray, and uses small quantities of developing chemicals.

You can do four 4x5/9x12, two 5x7 or one 8x10 at a time.

gainer said:

I have upon occasion used a paper safe as a daylight developing tank for one or two sheets of film. Agitate by rocking the tray. These paper safes are inexpensive.

If you don't have a lot of money, you must learn the art of perversion.

Click to expand...

All these years, and I finally find out why!
Thanks gainer, now I dont need my therapist any more!

Rick

Jobo

John Powers

gainer said:

I have upon occasion used a paper safe as a daylight developing tank for one or two sheets of film. Agitate by rocking the tray. These paper safes are inexpensive.

If you don't have a lot of money, you must learn the art of perversion.

Click to expand...

All things considered, a Good Idea.