Initial Agitation using the cradle...

[brian steinberger]

I use a cradle that I bought from Steve Summitek that I absolutely love. I develop 6 sheets of 4x5 film in an 11x14 tray.

I'm starting to test times for N-1, N-1, N+1 etc and am wondering how I can develop sheets for different times in one session. I normally give 1 min. of initial agitation and then agitate once per minute. But if I do that for the first sheets (N) then add other sheets later (N-1) how can I give those sheets a minute of intitial agitation without disturbing the previous sheets within the same cradle.

Tonight what I did was agitated 10 sec. with every sheets placed into the cradle, then waited til the last sheet (shortest time) was placed into the cradle then agitated all the sheets for a minute. That way every sheet got 1 min. of agitation at some time during the process.

The only problem with this is that the first minute of agitation is get the developer flowing over the film to start development.

I'm sorry if this is confusing. Anyone have any suggestions.

 

[Tom Hoskinson]

Brian I think you will need several 4x5 or 5x7 trays filled with tempered water, to hold the sheets of film you pull from the developer while you are waiting to cycle them back into the developer for more development.

This is Pretty much what I do when I am Developing By Inspection.

 

[Lee L]

A couple of 5x7 developing trays could serve for the first minute of agitation independent from the Summitek cradle, then that film could be transferred to the cradle for subsequent shorter agitation cycles.

Lee

 

[brian steinberger]

Tom,

What exaclty do you mean? You can hold off development of certain sheets in a tempered water bath?

I thought of starting all the films together, then pulling each sheet at a certain time, but can I keep these sheets in the stop?

Brian

 

[brian steinberger]

Lee,

this is actually the only idea that I did come up with, the only downside being that if you had more than one sheet, how would you agitate both in a 5x7 tray?

Brian

 

[pgomena]

Agitate all sheets together for the first minute and so on. Remove the shortest-timed sheet first and put it in the stop bath. If you don't want to leave it there, move it on to the fix, then into a water holding tray.

Peter Gomena

 

[Lee L]

Lee,

this is actually the only idea that I did come up with, the only downside being that if you had more than one sheet, how would you agitate both in a 5x7 tray?

Brian

Two 5x7 trays, or three if necessary. They are inexpensive, and could be placed inside a larger tray or on a platform of plywood or the like for common agitation by lifting and dropping from each side. Unless you're severely space restricted I could see this working.

Lee

 

[Tom Hoskinson]

Tom,

What exaclty do you mean? You can hold off development of certain sheets in a tempered water bath? Yes, that is what I mean.

I thought of starting all the films together, then pulling each sheet at a certain time, but can I keep these sheets in the stop?

Brian

Brian, I do not use A Stop Bath. I use a Tempered Water Rinse instead. I hold films that need more development in the Tempered Water.

If you use an acid stop bath, be sure to rinse the film thoroughly before you return it to the developer.