Developing tanks

[Fixer]

I am planning to get developing tanks for classroom use. I am currently looking at the Jobo (Expert and 2421) and BTZS tubes. Which would be the most user friendly option? We are currently using Jobo/Paterson tanks for 135 work. We will be primarily working with B&W films.

 

[nworth]

I haven't used the BZTS tubes, but they look a bit clumsy. The Jobo tanks work great on a Jobo processor, and I hear you can use them on a Uniroller, but you can't use them in a conventional way. For instruction, I would tend to favor conventional tanks. For rolls, the Patterson tanks are excellent. For sheet film, most of the available tanks use a lot of solution, which may be a factor for you. The Combiplan tank (available from Freestyle and possibly others) will handle six sheets and use only a liter, however. The out of production Nikkor sheet film tank also used only a liter of solution. If you go the roller way, the old Unidrum could process four sheets in only 200 ml.

 

[Fixer]

how is the expert tank used? is it the normal agitation approach or does it have to be used with a CPE\A?

 

[BrianPhotog]

how is the expert tank used? is it the normal agitation approach or does it have to be used with a CPE\A?

You mean the combiplan or nikkor tanks? You agitate them the same way as 35/120mm tanks.

 

[Lee L]

how is the expert tank used? is it the normal agitation approach or does it have to be used with a CPE\A?

The Jobo Expert tank has to be used with either a Jobo processor (not all can take the Expert tanks) or a motorized or manual roller base. As far as I'm aware, it's not suited for hand inversion agitation, and certainly wouldn't be worth the price in that application anyway. You could use a Jobo roller base (just rods and rollers, and much cheaper than a full processor) or other roller base by Unicolor, Beseler, or similar at room temperature. Some motorized bases may need to be switched or rewired to be unidirectional if you get less than one rotation of the drum before the motor reverses. You could also make your own manual roller base with rods and bearings.

Lee

 

[coops]

For what it's worth, I am fairly new to film developing and goit the BTZS tubes. I like em. Uses only a small amt. chemicals, easy to use and nice even results so far.

 

[Trevor Crone]

When using the Jobo Expert 3005 and 2830 drums I use the 1509 manual roller base (pic. attached). Certainly not as sophisticated as their CPP-2 processor but a lot cheaper and does the job just fine. Although it does get monotonous rolling the drum for minutes on end .A motorised roller like the ones mentioned by Lee would be a great help.

The roller wheels have adjustable positions to accommodate the various drums. In this picture they are set for the 2800 drums.

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

If you've got people using them regularly, and if you have space in the darkroom, why not set up a tank line? You can use deep tanks with sheet film on hangers or rollfilm on reels in a cage or with lift rods, if you only need to do a few rolls at a time. You'll want to be using replenishable chemistry with this kind of system (Xtol or D-76 would be good choices), and the whole process needs to be done in the dark, but it's a fairly efficient and inexpensive way to process a lot of film without a lot of setup and breakdown/cleanup time.

 

[Colin Corneau]

How much of a compensation do you have to make for agitation on the Jobo, with it being rolled continuously throughout the development?

 

[Huub]

How much of a compensation do you have to make for agitation on the Jobo, with it being rolled continuously throughout the development?

That depents on your developer, film, water quality and prerinse. With a 2 minute prerinse a 10% shorter development time seems to be a good starting point, though some people don't have to compensate at all and others have to compensate more than a 33% of the development time. Personally i use
HP5+ in 1+2 XTOL with a development time of 6.5 minutes at 21 C for the N-development after a 2 minutes prerinse. This is almost 50% shorter than the time with normal agitation.

 

[Fixer]

Hi David,

A tank line would be really cost effective but we have a lot of users making use of the darkroom and as a result space is at a premium. Currently we are making use of a print dryer to dry our RC print, however it seems that the drum is contaminated. Say does anyone know what product can we use to cleanthe print dryerś rubber rollers?