Survey: How are you processing your LF film?

Sully75 · Jul 9, 2010

Please list your film size, film, chemicals and equipment, and a link to a sample picture, if you have one.

I'm asking because I just started, I'm using a Bessler 11x14 drum on a unicolor base and having mixed results, some great, some bizarre, sometimes in the same tank. I'm just interested in knowing what is common to use.

So, to start:
5x7 (will be working with 4x5 soon)
HP5
D76 (have been experimenting with 1+3, supposing that development might be more even with the chemicals diluted more, have had some sort of inconsistencies in the highlights)
Bessler 11x14 drum on a unicolor base

This is one of my most recent, you can see the problem a little in the upper left corner:

Alright...who's next?

Sully75 · Jul 9, 2010

sorry for the record, I would like this to be more a survey and less a what-is-sully75-doing wrong thread.

holmburgers · Jul 9, 2010

Sorry no pic/scans, but...

4x5"
Tray developing, 6 at a time maximum
D-76 1+1

Very consistent results, no uneven developing, just the occaisional scratch, from yours truly

Mainecoonmaniac · Jul 9, 2010

With my Yankee Agitank or 5x7 tray.

mightyomega · Jul 9, 2010

4x5" film, usually some Ilford FP4 or HP5
Tank process in an HP Combiplan using Diafine or Rodinal 1+50, depending on the temperature in the house and my mood.
I get decent results with the Combiplan, even though it does drip a bit if all the fiddly fittings aren't closed tight.

TheFlyingCamera · Jul 9, 2010

for everything from 4x5 to 14x17, I use a Jobo CPP2+ and Expert drums. I tried tray development but that didn't work very well for me. Mostly FP4+, with the odd bit of Tmax 400 or Arista.EDU Ultra 200 (aka Fomapan 200) thrown in. Used to be mostly the Fomapan/Arista until they had to discontinue it. Just working through my existing stock of it now. Everything gets souped in Pyrocat HD because I do mostly alt-process printing.

John Kasaian · Jul 9, 2010

You may want to look around for a Unicolor print drum.
I soup my 8x10 12x20 & 5x7 panchro sheet film in a Unicolor. Ortho& 4x5 in trays.

Sully75 · Jul 9, 2010

For the record: it's a Bessler Print Drum...has slots for 5x7 and 4x5 film.

photobum · Jul 9, 2010

4x5, 5x7, 8x10. Tri-X, Kodak hangers in deep tanks, D-76 1+1.

I started that way in the '60's. Searched for silver bullets in film and developer many times over the years and always came back to what I knew. I'm retired now and, um, set in my ways. I will only change if Kodak stops making Tri-X, a possibility, the bastards.

rjbuzzclick · Jul 9, 2010

I just started working with 4x5 myself. I'm using a Bessler Color drum (with 4x5 slots) and just hand rolling it on a 2x4 back and forth. I did pick up an Ilford motor base, but it's about 1/2" too wide for my Bessler drum. I'm looking at the HP Combiplan or the Yankee tank as a possible alternative as I need a daylight tank way of processing.

Paper negatives and contact prints are developed in 4x5 trays.

Other specifics:
Film:HP5+, Fomapan 100, Paper Negatives
Developer: HC-110

There are a few 4x5 images near the top of my flickr stream.

ic-racer · Jul 9, 2010

Sully75 said:
sorry for the record, I would like this to be more a survey and less a what-is-sully75-doing wrong thread.

I can't help but comment that I think you don't have enough developer concentrate in the drum. Exhausted developer does not process evenly.

Ok now that that is out of the way:

4x5 T-max in Jobo expert drum on Jobo processor at 24c with T-max developer, 1:4, 10 sheets, 260cc one shot.

8x10 T-max in Jobo 2850 print drum on Jobo processor at 24c with T-max developer, 1:4, 4 sheets, 470cc one shot.

rmolson · Jul 9, 2010

Unicolor drums

I have been using the 8x10 print drum for a number of years with no problems I use HC110 1:50 with HP5 and D761:1 with FP4 .I do how ever use 500ccs of developer, the same amount I use in conventional reel tanks.. The times are quite close to those for roll film .

desertrat · Jul 9, 2010

8X10. Process negs one at a time, developer in 16X20 tray, 2 liters of solution. Stop, fix, and wash trays are food storage containers from Wally World.

Developers are scratch mixed from dry chems at tray dilution and used one shot, right away. Moving to an oversized developer tray eliminated problems with uneven development.

Use the top of a chest freezer in the cellar for a work surface.

BradS · Jul 9, 2010

4x5: in a Jobo 3006 drum (with 400ml of chemistry)

8x10: one sheet at a time in a Large print drum (Unicolor? or Ciba chrome? )

When it comes to sheet film, I only use Kodak Tri-X (320TXP). I have standardized on a home-brew variation of D-76 which I use diluted 1+1. Both drums are turned by a Unicolor Uniroller model 352. I removed the little plastic thingy that makes it reverse directions so that now, it just goes round and round in one direction.

The print drum gives me fits because it leaks...I've been looking for a better way - shorrt of spending a small fortune on a Jobo 3005.

Oren Grad · Jul 9, 2010

For everything from 2 1/4 x 3 1/4 to 11x14, I use D-76 or D-76 1+1 in Expert drums on Jobo CPA-2. At this point, film is almost always HP5 Plus.

Eric Rose · Jul 9, 2010

I use hangers for my 4x5 and reels in Paterson tanks for anything smaller. The soup of choice is PyroCat-HD, semi-stand. For the 4x5 I do not develop any more than 6 sheets at a time. The tanks provide a very cozy fit and hold 1.3Ltrs of fluid. I found if I put in anything over 6 hangers I would get surge marks.

BetterSense · Jul 9, 2010

4x5 film, usually tmax

Kodak hangers and Kodak hard rubber open tanks. Replenished D23. Up to 8 at a time.

pgomena · Jul 9, 2010

All sheet film in trays, six sheets at a time maximum.

Tri-X 4x5 in PMK because I landed on good processing times for it and it consistently gives me good negatives.

FP4+ 4x5, 5x7, 6.5x8.5 in Pyrocat-HD. Still working the kinks out but I'm getting some really good results.

Peter Gomena

Jesper · Jul 9, 2010

8x10 developed in trays.
One sheet per tray (I have a lot of small trays)

jp80874 · Jul 9, 2010

“Please list your film size, film, chemicals and equipment, and a link to a sample picture, if you have one.”

As my wife says about the medical insurance business, “Ask ten people, get twelve different answers.”

Size 8x10 and 7x17, Film HP5, chemicals and equipment Bostick & Sullivan’s Rollo Pyro in a Jobo CPP2, Expert drum for the 8x10, 2500-2800 series drums for 7x17. 68 degrees, five minutes development plus roughly another 40 seconds of pour in and out. Variations in time for exposure, but I usually bracket. Print paper Kentmere Fineprint Glossy. Link http://www.facebook.com/#!/album.php?aid=3636&id=100000479112834
I have been doing it this way about five years now.

John Powers

paul_c5x4 · Jul 9, 2010

FP4+, Acros 100, IR820, Ilford Ortho - All in 5x4 sheets. First weapon of choice is a Paterson Orbital tray with a Jobo 2521 or Combiplan tank as backup.
Developer would be 510-pyro, D76/ID11, or Perceptol in various dilutions.

rshepard · Jul 9, 2010

Sully75 said:
Please list your film size, film, chemicals and equipment, and a link to a sample picture, if you have one.

4x5: Yankee tank; 5x7 home-built daylight tank (under construction).

My film is Efke 100. I use Pyrocat-HD with extreme minimal development (30 minutes in the soup with gentle, 10 seconds of agitation at 7.5, 15, and 22.5 minutes. Water stop bath. Formulary TF-4 fixer. All alkaline process with no odors.

Roll films (120) I develop in the Jobo cpa processor using ABC+ Rollo pyro; same water stop and alkaline fixer.

Rich

Nick Kanellos · Jul 9, 2010

4x5 in Combi-Plan. XTol 1-1. Never had a problem in 12 years.

8x10 in home-made Combi-Plan-like tank (see attached) with 4 Kodak Hangers. Rodinal (1:50, 1:100). Adopted this method after continually scratching my negs using tray development. Very consistent development. Haven't had a problem.

nk

Mainecoonmaniac · Jul 9, 2010

This is pure genious

Nick Kanellos said:
4x5 in Combi-Plan. XTol 1-1. Never had a problem in 12 years.

8x10 in home-made Combi-Plan-like tank (see attached) with 4 Kodak Hangers. Rodinal (1:50, 1:100). Adopted this method after continually scratching my negs using tray development. Very consistent development. Haven't had a problem.

nk

Do you load your film back to back on those hangers to double the film processing capacity of your tank?
Thanks,
Don

voretaq7 · Jul 9, 2010

I do all my 4x5 in trays -- Most of it is orthochromatic or blue-only so I work pretty much according to my paper process, just with film developer.

Survey: How are you processing your LF film?

Sully75

Sully75

holmburgers

Mainecoonmaniac

mightyomega

TheFlyingCamera

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John Kasaian

Sully75

photobum

rjbuzzclick

ic-racer

rmolson

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Eric Rose

BetterSense

pgomena

Jesper

jp80874

paul_c5x4

rshepard

Nick Kanellos

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