Four reel tank procedure?

I'm grinding through 15 rolls of Tri-X and 5222 with a 2 reel tank. Been using HC-110 1:49 and a roll at a time with an empty reel for a spacer. It's killin' me. Can I do two reels at a time at this dilution? Or should I get a 4 reel tank? And what does that do to an agitation regimen (currently 30 s. and 2 turns every 30 s. after that. Been working well for me so far).

Thanks,
s-a

Stick with what works. You've already spent the time of 4 rolls, on the computer asking about it. No use in buying more gadgets.

semi-ambivalent said:

I'm grinding through 15 rolls of Tri-X and 5222 with a 2 reel tank. Been using HC-110 1:49 and a roll at a time with an empty reel for a spacer. It's killin' me. Can I do two reels at a time at this dilution? Or should I get a 4 reel tank? And what does that do to an agitation regimen (currently 30 s. and 2 turns every 30 s. after that. Been working well for me so far).

Thanks,
s-a

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Which tank?

And are they 36 exposure 35mm rolls, or ???

The 1 + 49 dilution of HC-110 gives you 300 ml of working solution with Kodak's recommended 6 ml of concentrate. So if your tank requires at least 600 ml for two rolls, the developer will have sufficient capacity.

I get results that are essentially identical with either one or two 35mm rolls in my two 35mm roll tank.

And those results are essentially identical to the results I get with three 35mm rolls in my 4 roll Paterson tank.

The 4 roll Paterson tank is too small to fit 1200 ml of developer, so I don't do 4 rolls in it if I am using 1 + 49 HC-110.

EDIT: and I use the same agitation regime for all - essentially what you are doing.

Just get another 2 reel tank. I've juggled 4 of 'em at a time - ends up nonstop. Otherwise a 4 reel tank should work perfectly fine. Don't do single roll stuff unless absolutely necessary - that's nuts!

What on earth does the dilution have to do with how many rolls you are developing?

pbromaghin said:

What on earth does the dilution have to do with how many rolls you are developing?

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It has to do with the capacity of the developer. For any developer, there is a minimum amount needed for X amount of film. (see below) High dilutions reduce the amount of actual developer.

MattKing said:

The 1 + 49 dilution of HC-110 gives you 300 ml of working solution with Kodak's recommended 6 ml of concentrate. So if your tank requires at least 600 ml for two rolls, the developer will have sufficient capacity.

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Umm... So for 2 reels, just put in twice as much. Again, I just don't get what that has to do with dilution, unless he's making it real weak and there isn't enough room. Is that the case here? I've never used HC-110, is 1:49 weak?

While Kodak recommends a minimum of 6 ml of HC-110 concentrate per roll, several people on APUG use a 1+49 dilution with 250 ml per roll (5 ml per roll) with excellent results.

With 4 rolls in a 4 roll tank I use a lift rod for agitation. This requires working in the dark but gives more even results than inversion.

pbromaghin said:

Umm... So for 2 reels, just put in twice as much. Again, I just don't get what that has to do with dilution, unless he's making it real weak and there isn't enough room. Is that the case here? I've never used HC-110, is 1:49 weak?

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1 + 49 is only weak if there isn't enough room to fit enough of it into the tank.

As Gerald says, many people find that they get good results with as little as 250 ml of 1 + 49 HC-110 per roll in the tank.

I just prefer to rely on the no doubt highly conservative recommendations of Kodak and try to ensure at least 300 ml of the stuff is there per roll.

Some have the opposite problem - they have different tanks and in order to economize they try to limit the amount of developer to the minimum amount (250 ml or 300 ml) required to ensure sufficient capacity per roll. As a result, they end up failing to actually cover all the film.

I am not likely to suffer from that problem, because I use replenished HC-110, and allow my tank size to dictate how much developer I use.

Matt and David, thank you. I was not being deliberately obtuse, just not understanding the setup behind the question. I use Tmax, which is designed to be reused and forget about the economics of once-and-dump.

Make your life easy and get either a 5 or 8 reel tank. I gained a considerable number of hours back when I got a Paterson multi-reel 5 to bolster my two universal 2 reel tanks. Juggling the 3 tanks means I can process 9 rolls of 35mm all at once, plus an additional 2 in a uni-tank on the CPP2 processor, so 11 total.

Try and be more discerning when pressing the shutter, thus saving film, developer and time.

hmmm.

cliveh said:

Try and be more discerning when pressing the shutter, thus saving film, developer and time.

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he is discerning, that's from the last 3 years :eek: