Demand for Ultra Large format daylight tray

gbroadbridge said:

But that would be an IR monocle, not UV, right?

Click to expand...

My apologies. Yes, IR. Too much carbon printing on my brain.

Any tray larger that 16x20 is ridiculous. That's why god created tubes.

I looked because I do shoot ultra-large format xray film...which I process in flat-bottomed trays in the darkroom, under a safelight. If I could afford to use pan film of that size, I would probably still use trays in the dark, and rely on time/temperature.

A friend came up last week and spent a few days with me photographing locally. I had an 8x10 for him to try out (2D) and take home. He brought up an 8x10 daylite tray developing system so he could process a few sheets to check out the camera and 8x10 for the first time. I was impressed with the system and it seems to be a great on-the-road way for developing as one goes. I use 3005 drums and am quite happy with them.

A daylite tray developing system that can handle a sheet of 11x14 would be fun to have...I have a few sheets of 11x14 FP4+ to develop tonight...open trays. I'll think about it more when I am in the dark this evening. For around $450, a Jobo Drum 3062 takes two 11x14 sheets of film. It would a bit more of a balancing act on the motor base!

I've both bought and fabricated trays bigger than 30X40 inch. It's fairly easy to design an automated rocker system for something big like that. But in terms of conserving darkroom sink space and solution volume, drums do make more sense; so I have two complete rotary systems capable of handling up to 30X40 inch drums. I use these in relation to color paper. At my age, any 16X20 ULF film camera would require some assistance to lug around. But I'm content to stick with 8x10 anyway, as my largest film option.