Has any one tried this before for 4x5 sheet film development?

[JohnMeadows]

For developing 4x5 sheet film, has anyone taken an AP or Patterson reel and added an extension column in the middle to make the reel 4 inches high (so it could take 4x5)?

Before diving in I wanted to see if anyone else had tried this and if so how well it worked.

 

[Ronald Moravec]

Nikkor made a tank and reel for 12 sheets 4x5. Works fine.

Jobo made a reel that took 4" wide film, 6 sheets. Works fine also. Use in rotary machine or hand invert.

The trick to getting even development with either is to fill the tank with developer and drop the loaded reel into it in the dark. Actually this is best practice with any reel/tank system with the more reels or wider film it become more and more critical because of longer pour in times. Ideally film must be submerged as fast and evenly as possible.

Paterson tanks are great because the fill from bottom up with a funnel and developer is not run down the emulsion.

Based on my experience, it should work well. Question being why reinvent the wheel?

 

[wildbill]

I believe there's someone selling a special reel on ebay for just that.

 

[JohnMeadows]

I was just thinking since I already have a bunch of these reels I use for 120 and 35mm, rather than going out and buying new reels, getting some plastic tubing would be cheaper.

 

[tbeaman]

Given the size of the film compared to roll film (almost twice as tall and much shorter), even if you could extend the reel, I'd be concerned the film wouldn't stay seated in the spiral grooves. However, I think it's a wheel well worth reinventing. Maybe if there were a way to attach the sheets together end to end (with out too much fuss), it might help.

The alternatives for convenient daylight processing of sheet film are few and far between, not to mention usually way too expensive, so I think the community is well served by enterprising individuals coming up with new solutions (eg. taco method).

 

[john_s]

Jobo used to make a 4x5 reel system, including a nice little gadget that helped load it.

These appear on ebay from time to time. I don't have the loader and don't have any trouble loading. It took a couple of practice runs, though.

 

[CatLABS]

an easier way then dropping reels in the dark in to an already full tank is to simply pre wet (1-2 minutes at the developing temp you plan to use). the time it takes to fill a Jobo 2521 for inversion is about 10 seconds, unless you are developing in dektol, that shouldent be a problem.

 

[MOD_Photographic]

You could always try my little invention, which John has just got off ebay.

Here is a little video-

[video]http://youtu.be/o0Hs7DxCkBg[/video]

cheers,

Morgan.