Pyro: Semi-stand or reduced agitation with 4x5 negs

[Bowman]

I recently posted a thread concerning reduced agitation development for medium format and got some helpful replies.
This thread concerns semi-stand and/or reduced agitation *tray* development for 4x5 and larger negatives in pyrocat / moersch tanol.
I don't think it could work the same as for med format since I imagine the sheets between the upper- and lowermost will have so much less exposure to the developer. I recently developed some FP4+ negatives in moersch tanol @ 20 degrees celsius, 35 minutes, dilution 2:500, moving the topmost negative to the bottom of the stack every 2 minutes. The results were satisfactory, but I'm not sure how far I can reduce agitation until I start to run into problems. So I thought I'd ask here just in case someone might be able to let me in on their experience with similar cases.

Thanks in advance,
Brady Bowman

 

[c6h6o3]

Every two minutes for 35 is reduced agitation, but it's not semi-stand by any stretch. I've never tried it but large format colleagues who have tried semi-stand development in trays report that it produces very uneven development. I use tubes. For 35 mins. of total development, I agitate vigorously for the 1st minute and then gently for 10 seconds at 9 mins.,18 mins. and 27 minutes. That's it. Every 2 minutes would absolutely fry my negatives.

 

[Eric Rose]

Semi stand is all I do for my 4x5 negs. I soup them in PyroCat-HD and the results are outstanding.

 

[frotog]

Their finicky design is not for everyone but I find the combiplan tanks best suited for stand and semi-stands - 1250ml of chem for six sheets, easily water-jacketed, reasonably priced... I've got one for 5x7 as well.