Pre wash or no pre wash ?

Dave Dawson

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Hi, I'm a bit confused as Jobo recommend a 1 minuet pre wash for their ATL-1500 but Ilford don't recommend a pre wash due to uneven development. Comments appreciated

Cheers Dave
 

Sirius Glass

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I use the Jobo processor and I prewash all color and black & white film except Kodak Tri-X 400 which will be developed in replenished XTOL following both Kodak and Jobo advice. The effectiveness of prewashing discussions on Photrio often gains religious belief, so be careful what you ask for.
 

DREW WILEY

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With respect to drum development, I pre-rinse 100% of the time. Always have, always will. I can't imagine truly even development without it.
 

Alex Benjamin

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When Nietzsche developed the concept of eternal return, he had this subject in mind.
 

Milpool

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Try both and see which is better. There are variables involved so it is difficult to generalize to a rule.
 

Paul Howell

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I would go with Jobo advise but make sure that the development is longer than 5mints, that's a recommendation by Kodak but makes sense to me and as I recall the old Unicolor film drum on motor base had the same advise, longer development time.
 

RalphLambrecht

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Dave Dawson said:
Hi, I'm a bit confused as Jobo recommend a 1 minuet pre wash for their ATL-1500 but Ilford don't recommend a pre wash due to uneven development. Comments appreciated

Cheers Dave
Click to expand...

Both ways work, and Ilford is correct, but with some films,such as Tmax, it helps to remove the anti-halation layer and avoid the pink stain in negative, which is, nevertheless, harmless.
 

mshchem

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I remember when I started color printing when I was in 10th grade, it was Kodak Ektacolor Professional Fiber base color paper. You soaked the paper in a tray of warm water to limber it up. Then you used a fish net "blanket" to lay the print face down on the rotating stainless drum of the Kodak Rapid Color processor.

I still have a couple of these gems.
 

koraks

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Dave Dawson said:
I'm a bit confused as Jobo recommend a 1 minuet pre wash for their ATL-1500 but Ilford don't recommend a pre wash due to uneven development.
Click to expand...

You're not the only one who is confused.

At this point, my advice is always the same:
If you don't use a prewash and experience problems with evenness, try a prewash.
If you use a prewash and experience problems with evenness, try skipping the prewash.
Click to expand...
The reason is that some people swear by a prewash, others swear at it. I've seen people claim a prewash gives them problems while others perceive it as part of the solution. So YMMV, try it out and do what works best for you.

Having said that, for me, I find that for 35mm film, it doesn't seem to matter much (or anything). For 120 and sheet film in Jobo tanks and rotation development, I find I need to use a prewash to prevent (or minimize) surge marks along the edges of the film.
 

pentaxuser

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Dave Dawson said:
Then you should be an expert in the subject response shouldn't you ?
Click to expand...

No I cannot take all the credit. We are all experts or none of us are, based on what I have read in all the previous threads including statements by such makers as Ilford and Jobo

Try a search as brbo suggested both here and other sites and see if you agree or disagree

Are you a risk taker at any level or a 100% play it safe person? The "play it safe" course is to presume that Jobo knows more what works with their machine than anybody else, so go with what it says. If, on the other hand, you are of the "man who broke the bank at Monte Carlo" inclination then try it both ways The worse that can happen is that the film will be adversely affected to a lesser or greater extent

If it is not affected by the no pre-wash option then you can save tíme, money and water for all time to come. Of course the cautious person might still think that "one swallow doesn't make a Summer" and there is no guarantee that no pre-wash will not result in a problem down the line. A "no probem" outcome was sheer luck

So where do I stand in this dilemma? Well as someone definitely on the cautious side and given the small savings in water, time and electricity, Í'd do what Jobo says

So is what I'd do of any relevance to you? Well frankly NO. I am not you

That sort of takes us back to the beginning. It's "where we came in" as they used to say in the days you could watch a film several times in a cinema on the same day

Good luck

pentaxuser
 

MattKing

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Pick one.
It will be a choice that works for many.
If it works for you, stick with it.
I happen to be in the "pre-wash" camp with the T-Max films, plus Plus-X in times gone by, and a little bit of Ilford SFX.
And I use mostly inversion agitation, after the first 30 seconds of continuous, reversing rotation agitation.
 

Tim Stapp

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I shoot mainly Arista EDU 200 in MF and 4x5 and develop in XTOL. Since Kodak didn't research and establish times for this film (rebranded FOMA) I resorted to JOBO's recommendation to prewash for 5 minutes and then process at manufacturer's recommended times. I've had good results, so that's what I do.
 
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