Semi-stand for LF?

I know that many people think of trying LF, but worry about developing LF film. I do mine (B&W only) in a Paterson Orbital and know that many use trays, tanks, tubes(?) and dip'n'dunk, but I don't recall anyone ever saying they use stand/semi-stand or minimal agitation. I can see an attraction to putting the film in a light-tight container with a quick agitation and then go off and do something for 20, 30 or more minutes until it's done, although that would take a lot of time if you had many sheets to do.

I'd be interested in hearing people's experiences of trying this type of technique, and failures are equally interesting as successes. One of these days my orbital motor is going to pack in and I'll have to do it all manually, so I'd like to be prepared!

Thanks, Peter

I've done it. It works fine. I used trays, not hangers. I have used Rodinal, D-23, and Ilfotec HC to do it. None of them left any marks or other weirdness. The longest I have gone without agitating is ten minutes at a time. I started the run with one minute of constant agitation.

DO NOT use the stacked-sheet method. It will ruin your film. If you must do more than one at a time, make dividers for your tray.

I always cover my tray with another tray during the standing periods, even in "total darkness".

Good luck! Let us know what happens.

I used rodinal 1:150 or so for an hour with FP4+. No agitation. Worked well, looked like normal negatives. I used a one liter rollfilm tank and put one sheet of film in.

Do a search. There is quite a lot of info on this site. Good stuff too, benefits and troubles people have had.

I've used it with a tank that takes 12 sheets. 1 1/2 liters of 1:100. Usually works well, but I've had one batch recently that had edge development on one side. I can't figure out why it would have been on one side only, one batch only. Any ideas from anyone?

sly said:

I've used it with a tank that takes 12 sheets. 1 1/2 liters of 1:100. Usually works well, but I've had one batch recently that had edge development on one side. I can't figure out why it would have been on one side only, one batch only. Any ideas from anyone?

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Were the sheets on hangers or in a Nikkor inversion tank for 4x5?

No it's an FR tank. Came to me when I bought a complete darkroom 2nd hand. It has slots for the film. 4 inch sides top and bottom, 5 inch in the slots. As I always load it the same way, all the sheets in that batch had the same band on left edge. As you can see it doesn't go edge to edge. The tank is not inverted, as chemicals would spill out. I rotate it back and forth, and tip it about 30 degrees, front to back for agitation. Agitate for the first minute, then briefly at 15 min intervals. I've done semistand many times with it, and only previous problem was not enough chemicals to cover properly and had incomplete devlopment at the top.

FR = ????

That's what it says on the lid. No idea how old it is, or who made it. It does say New York I think. I'll take a look tomorrow. (Darkroom in outbuilding, it's raining, and I'm ready for bed.)

FR fink roselieve or however
70's

just

fR was a New York company that sold lots of different darkroom and photographic supplies in the mid-20th century. I have run across fR at almost every yard sale, flea market and group show of photographic equipment I've been to in the last 10 years. They seemed to have specialized in plastic gear like development tanks, but I have seen some metal goods. I even have an FR knock-off of the Century Graphic, a basic but functional 2 1/4 x 3 /4 press camera. Here's a PDF file about the fR 35 mm development tank.

Thanks guys, this has been helpful for me as I have some Wephota NP22 in wholeplate that I didn't really feel happy with in D76 in the Orbital, so I'll shoot some and try it in Rodinal with minimal agitation.