"Kodak Film Pack Tank" worth using?

[PFGS]

In my ongoing effort to pare down my seemingly endless supply of extraneous darkroom junk, I unearthed a Kodak Film Pack Tank. It's got a deeply rotted rubber gasket and lots of tarnish and "verdigris." Is this thing worth hassling with? I have a Nikor 4x5 tank with the cage, is there any reason I'd want to use the Kodak tank instead? Is it worth trying to sell, even?

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

Stick with the Nikor sheet film tank. This one is only of historical interest.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Sell it on eBay as "Rare historical example of early 20th century film processing. Highly sought after, hard to find, pristine condition. I do not know much about darkroom equipment but this is a must have item. Starting bid $753US plus shipping."

 

[bdial]

I see them in antique shops from time to time. Most of them look about like yours. I've never been tempted to buy one.
As I recall, film pack sheets are slightly larger than the nominal film size equivalent, like 4x5, for example, so it might not even work well with standard sheet film, even if you were willing to ignore all that reactive metal.
If you think it will look good on your curio shelf, decoration is probably the best use for it.
If you don't have a curio shelf, then maybe this is the time to set one up.

 

[Donald Qualls]

It's a controlled "film taco" holder, should work fine with modern sheet film if you could clean it up enough.

That said, it'll be prone to scratching the sheets where the outer bend slides against the ring going in and (especially) out, it'll be almost impossible to clean up enough to trust your film in, and you've already got a much better solution

I'll go with the previous suggestion -- put it on eBay as a "rare antique" display piece. As a display piece that set looks pretty nice, and the patina does no harm for that purpose.

 

[PFGS]

Thanks everyone - going to stick with my Nikor tank and do what I do with most trinkets that don't fit on my already groaning curio shelf: bury it deep in the shed so my children can enjoy throwing it out when I'm dead.

 

[Donald Qualls]

Also of note, which I missed first time because I opened the full size image and only looked at the film carrier: that's not a daylight tank. Made little difference a hundred years ago, most films were orthochromatic and you'd normally handle and process under red safelight -- but now it's another reason not to try to use it.

 

[reddesert]

Apparently film pack film was on a thinner base than regular sheet film and could more easily bend to fit into those slots. I researched this once after seeing a much cleaner Premo film pack tank on ebay, and decided it was not worth trying.

 

[removed account4]

might be fun to use if you know what to expect from they results. sometimes process methods lend to interesting results that can't be found any other way. for example you make negatives using it, you get results and post them to wherever you load images to ( your website, flickr, insta, fb &c ) and about 2 week later this site gets flooded with questions and links that say " how do I get my prints to look like this " ... like schmutz on your scanner's bed, or the dirty window you shoot out of or municipal water ( instead of distilled ) with more prozac, hgh and manboostT than usual in it ... I'd try it just for fun why not?

 

[mshchem]

Apparently film pack film was on a thinner base than regular sheet film and could more easily bend to fit into those slots. I researched this once after seeing a much cleaner Premo film pack tank on ebay, and decided it was not worth trying.

Thinner and floppy, different size. Kodak TRI-X film packs were great to use with a press camera. You could take 1 to 16 exposures. Pack holder just slightly thicker than a regular 4x5 film holder. You could shoot a couple shots, go into the darkroom and take out the couple of exposed sheets, close it back up and keep using. Film packs, panchromatic, were widely used up through the 60's into the 70's. Died off with the commercial use of press cameras. I have a set of Carr film pack hangers, never used them. I developed in a tray.
I still have 3 or 4 packs of Tri-X that have been in the freezer since the early 80's

If you really want to know why Beseler made the Negaflat 4x5 film holder it was for this stuff. Rush stuff was, sometimes, even printed wet, to meet a deadline.

 

[MarkS]

Filmpack was on the same base as 120 roll film, btw, so it needed care in handling. The last made was Kodak TXP, discontinued c.1992. One of the products that they continued to make long after it had become unprofitable. A very useful product, though, for the location or field shooter. Back on-topic, that tank looks like a display piece for sure.

 

[Kodachromeguy]

Film pack film is slightly larger than modern 4x5" film. I learned that in my experimenting with GAF Verspan film:

https://www.photrio.com/forum/threads/anyone-recently-developed-gaf-versapan-film.175004/?

I am not sure how you would avoid scratches with this odd Kodak tank.

 

[outwest]

I use mine with some pack film I've had in the freezer.