Development tank for 8x10"

Falkenberg · Jul 7, 2008

I have a small tank for developing 6 sheets of 4x5". I am looking for something similar, just for 8x10" film.

Jim Fitzgerald · Jul 7, 2008

I found my 8x10 1 gallon tanks on e-bay. Actually I use 3800ml in mine and do normal and minimal agitation with mine. You can get 5 sheets in the tanks and they are stainless steel. I usually do four sheets at a time. Easier to handle. It is rare if I have a development problem. Use them with Pyrocat-HD and love them. They come up from time to time. Keep an eye on the German site for them.

Jim

9circles · Jul 7, 2008

I use a slightly modified paterson orbital - originally for paper. you can do 4 sheets of 4x5, 2 5x7 or 1 8x10 in it. 3800ml! good grief - the orbital takes about 250mls. given it only does 1 sheet at a time, but that suits me anyway with 8x10.

Falkenberg · Jul 7, 2008

I would like to do 6-10 sheets at a time. I have some old Kodak tanks that take all kinds of formats. But I have no 5x7 or 8x10 stainless holders. I only have for 24x35mm, 120 film and 4x5 sheets. The tank will take at least 30 4x5" in holders with 10 at a time. They are a little to large for my "darkroom"

colrehogan · Jul 7, 2008

Falkenberg said:
I would like to do 6-10 sheets at a time. I have some old Kodak tanks that take all kinds of formats. But I have no 5x7 or 8x10 stainless holders. I only have for 24x35mm, 120 film and 4x5 sheets. The tank will take at least 30 4x5" in holders with 10 at a time. They are a little to large for my "darkroom"

I have an old Kodak rubber (I think it's rubber - not sure) 8x10 tank (no lid) and some Kodak 5x7 stainless holders. I can email you pictures if you like later today.

How many 5x7 stainless holders are you interested in?

Diane

PHOTOTONE · Jul 7, 2008

There "were" some stainless steel 1 gallon tanks made that would take 3 or 4 8x10 SS film hangers, but the most common "tank" for developing moderate quantities of sheet film up to 8x10 is the 3.5 gallon "deep" tank. Kodak made several models, and Cesco had their Cesco-lite ones. These tanks have lids, and are designed to be kept full of chemicals. You would need 4 tanks...Developer, Stop, Fix, and Wash. These types of tanks can take up to about 12 film hangers at once, if you can handle that many at once in the dark. So you could develop up to 12 sheets of 8x10, or with double 5x7 hangers, you could do 24 sheets of 5x7, or with quadruple 4x5 hangers you could do 48 sheets of 4x5 in one processing run. You choose a developer that has a long "tank" life, and one that can be replenished after each use to extend the life. HC-110 is one such developer.

The wash tank does double-duty as a water pre-soak tank prior to the developer. After the film is in the fix for a minute or two, you turn on the lights, dump presoak water and rinse the wash tank out and start filling with wash water.

Jim Fitzgerald · Jul 7, 2008

9circles said:
I use a slightly modified paterson orbital - originally for paper. you can do 4 sheets of 4x5, 2 5x7 or 1 8x10 in it. 3800ml! good grief - the orbital takes about 250mls. given it only does 1 sheet at a time, but that suits me anyway with 8x10.

The great thing about using Pyrocat-HD is that the developer is cheap and gives great control and results.

Jim

2F/2F · Jul 7, 2008

Jobo expert drum and manual roller base is about as convenient and chemical efficient as it gets for doing batches of 8x10.

Dave Miller · Jul 8, 2008

9circles said:
I use a slightly modified paterson orbital - originally for paper. you can do 4 sheets of 4x5, 2 5x7 or 1 8x10 in it. 3800ml! good grief - the orbital takes about 250mls. given it only does 1 sheet at a time, but that suits me anyway with 8x10.

I'm with you there, but 250ml is a bit extravagant. I use 200ml of Precsysol.

As for six or more sheets, what about a couple of small plastic fish tanks, dip and dunk?

Trevor Crone · Jul 8, 2008

I'll also tick the Paterson Orbital box, I use 150ml of chemistry for 4 sheets of 5x4. Slow to process 10x8 with only one sheet at a time.

I've also a Jobo 3005 expert drum, this will process up to 5 sheets of 10x8.

greybeard · Jul 8, 2008

There "were" some stainless steel 1 gallon tanks made that would take 3 or 4 8x10 SS film hangers, but the most common "tank" for developing moderate quantities of sheet film up to 8x10 is the 3.5 gallon "deep" tank.

Actually, there still are. They are special-order through Adorama (Arkay #81-4) and quite expensive at around $85 each. The quality is not up to that of yesteryear, but they are still available. (One of the great virtues of stainless tanks is the rapid temperature transfer if they are sitting in a tempering bath; this is also one of the drawbacks if they are not.)

It seems that there should be hundreds of these floating around on the used market, since they were used for dental x-ray, among other things; for some reason, they don't seem to turn up as often as I would expect.

CBG · Jul 10, 2008

PHOTOTONE said:
There "were" some stainless steel 1 gallon tanks made that would take 3 or 4 8x10 SS film hangers ...

The one gallon tanks are still out there. I have found some for me and see them for sale used occasionally. Maybe one or another of the stainless fabricators still make them as a regular production item. Regal / Arkay?

I always used the one gallon tanks. I couldn't see the point in the three and a half gallon size unless one was doing high volume shooting.

C

Development tank for 8x10"

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