Do rotary processors affect how the film looks in the end? (tonality, film speed / shadow detail, etc.)

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dcy

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To highlight that point, here's the diagram from Kodak instructions --- I forget which product this is from; probably a Kodak-branded chemical made by PSI.



Here's a similar diagram from the C-41 kit:


Clearly, a simple inversion is perfectly sufficient. The fact that some of us are discussing more complex rotations doesn't mean that complexity is necessary.
 

MattKing

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You hold the tank between your palms. Your fingers just steady it. All the motion comes from your arms and wrists.
And the solution inside tumbles through the reel(s) and film(s). All the rotation does is break up any flow patterns in the tumbling liquid.
 

MattKing

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Note that the illustrated tank is a small one, easily grasped in one hand.
I usually use a 1 litre Paterson tank, which is a bit harder to agitate with a single hand. Sometimes I'll use an even larger tank.
The two hand method works for a range of sizes, and allows you to be consistent in the amount of chaos you add to the process - and yes I notice the irony of that observation.
 

MattKing

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For clarity, there are two things you are attempting to accomplish:
1) you want to be sure that the development and other steps of the process are not uneven; and
2) you want to be sure that the results of the development and other steps of the process are consistent from roll to roll.
I find that the two hand method is good for ensuring both, because it is fairly easy to apply repeatably.
Repeatability is the strong suit of rotary processors - that is why I use it for most of my film development workflow.
 

Bill Burk

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In his example you look like you’re driving, turning right, then left.

My technique is one hand, holding the tank with index finger securing the lid on.
I’ll do three full right and left actions (whish whoosh, whish whoosh, whish whoosh), on the fourth I rotate right, then come back to vertical and hit the butcher block hard. Whish, whomp whomp whomp. Then return to the bath.
 
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dcy

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Note that the illustrated tank is a small one, easily grasped in one hand.
I usually use a 1 litre Paterson tank, which is a bit harder to agitate with a single hand.

Yeah. I use a 2-reel Patterson tank that wouldn't be comfortable to agitate with one hand.
You hold the tank between your palms. Your fingers just steady it. All the motion comes from your arms and wrists.

In his example you look like you’re driving, turning right, then left.

So... in Matt's method the tank is not sliding across the palm. Right? I think I was confused by Matt saying that the method imparts both rotation and inversion. I took it to mean that the tank is spinning along its axis at the same time that it is being inverted, somewhat similar to the device in the video that @mshchem just shared.


Do I understand correctly that Matt's method is just doing 180 degree inversions? Similar to the Kodak diagram I posted, except with two hands? ... i.e. My hands could be glued to the tank, just like my hands could be glued to the steering wheel of my car.



By "action" do you mean "rotate 180 degrees"?
 

Vaughn

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Somewhere along the line I learned a toss-it-over-your-shoulder method for SS tanks. I use tanks that hold two120 SS reels. Holding the tank with both hands, a finger or two over the cap, I just sort of quickly toss it over a shoulder without letting go (so far) -- twice over each shoulder every 30 seconds. I suppose the idea is to shoot the developer nicely though the reels of film. I can hear the reels slide up and down in the tank. Then a thump on the heel of my hand to dislodge bubbles (saves the counter surfaces).

Works fine. Good upper body exercise, too.

I do find that with 120 film on SS reels in SS tanks, I do need more than the usually suggested agitation during fixing. YMMD
 

MattKing

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Try it with an empty tank or something of similar shape and size. You will see that in addition to inverting the tank the movement of your arms and wrists will end up rotating the tank as well. Otherwise bones will break!
 

Paul Howell

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I have small one SS reel tanks up to 8 SS tank and a 3 reel Patterson. I can invert the smaller SS tanks up to 4 reel and the 2 reel Patterson with one hand. I use deep tanks with film hangers for sheet film which takes 2 hands to raise the hangers up and out for agitation. I use a Unicolor film drum when using MCM 100 which has a very long development time and when developing more than 2 rolls of 35mm or 1 roll of 120.
 

mshchem

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Watch how Analogue Andy agitates film on his YouTube channel. No inversions just a classic figure 8 swish. My Dad used this method for 50 years. Didn't have a tank that could be inverted.

I wonder how they agitate film on the international space station. We got easy here on 1g Earth
 

GregY

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Andy has a huge catalog on Youtube.....any specific one you're referencing.
This has been quite the discussion triggered by the word inversion.........
 

Paul Howell

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That's how we agitated with the old Kodakcraft and Ansco, maybe Yankee tanks as well. Most of the 50s and 60s consumer plastic, backbite, tanks did not have caps, or cap leaked so badly that the the figure 8 motion, or the Anso tanks that came with a cheap thermometer that could be to turn the reel inside the tank. Here is an image of one with a regular turning insert. I think the thermometer was extra?

 

mshchem

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I still have my Dad's old Elkay Bakelite tank. That's what I started with. Then came the "English Invasion" once the patents expired and Paterson started selling tanks into the US market. I thought I had died and went to heaven
 

mshchem

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I remember those. I think Ansco had a patent on the "toothed" reel that allowed one to ratchet on the film similar to Paterson.
 

mshchem

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