The perils of travel...

[Richard S. (rich815)]

Cool. Share the results please when you get through it all!

 

[mooseontheloose]

Thanks! I definitely will - here's hoping there's no x-ray damage, backing paper issues, or light leaks!

 

[OptiKen]

I was doing the, "oh, woe is me" myself yesterday having just returned from a trip with 10 rolls of color and 8 rolls of B&W to develop.
I will keep reminding myself of your predicament each time boredom or fatigue sets in during my developing sessions.

 

[Vilk]

Have fun

That's why I often process while away, flying with a developing tank and chemistry.

Ian

+1

 

[mooseontheloose]

Have fun

That's why I often process while away, flying with a developing tank and chemistry.

Ian

I've done that before in places where I spend a bit more time, but my negs were all over the place due to inconsistencies with the water, and limited temperature control. Plus, some chemicals that I like to use can't fly with me.

 

[Thomas Bertilsson]

I think I have it easier. Just came back after three weeks on the road in Iceland and Sweden. I only have about 70 rolls of film to process, mostly 120. After one week home, I have developed exactly one roll.

For the first time ever, though, I'm not in a hurry to process the film. One or two at a time, going through each roll carefully by contact printing or scanning, before I process more. In the past I'd rush through it as quickly as possible, and I go back to rolls from 10-15 years ago and don't remember many of the frames as a result. Trying something different this time.

 

[mooseontheloose]

Thomas, I'm hoping to try something similar, at least in the beginning - processing a few rolls and then going to the darkroom to do a little printing before going on to the next batch. Whether or not I'll have the patience to do so is another question.

 

[Thomas Bertilsson]

Thomas, I'm hoping to try something similar, at least in the beginning - processing a few rolls and then going to the darkroom to do a little printing before going on to the next batch. Whether or not I'll have the patience to do so is another question.

I'm sure I'll be faced with that challenge too, where after two months I've 60 rolls left to go... It's a pretty good exercise in zen.

 

[Sirius Glass]

THIS is where the investment in a Jobo would come in handy. I've got a CPP2, and one of the 25xx series tanks that will take 4 reels, each of which can hold 2 rolls of 120. IF you're a real glutton for punishment you can get a tank extender that would let you run 8 reels at a time, but that would probably require too much chemistry. You could do an extender and a single-reel tank that would get you ten rolls at a run. The CPP2 is a convenience, and a very nice one, but you could just get the tank and a roller base and a large tray to use as a temperature control water bath. This is how I'll be running my film from Italy when I get back. I'm figuring I'll have it all done in two to three weekends, with 70-ish rolls of Ektar 100 and 70-ish rolls of Tri-X.

Rachelle on one hand you do what you can do a step at a time. However I bought the Jobo CPP2 to process color film and found that I would allow me to do larger batches of both black & white and color. Harken onto Scott, listen to his words and follow his advice.

 

[Old-N-Feeble]

...is coming back home to 100+ rolls of film to develop!

At best I can do 8 rolls a day, (2 rolls x 4 sessions) but the reality will be more like 4 with everything else I have to do. I usually shoot some colour which means I can drop it off at the photo store, but this trip was black and white only so I'm responsible for everything. I've never had such a backlog before - it's a little daunting!

Oh, quit whining. At least you can still travel and shoot.

 

[mooseontheloose]

Rachelle on one hand you do what you can do a step at a time. However I bought the Jobo CPP2 to process color film and found that I would allow me to do larger batches of both black & white and color. Harken onto Scott, listen to his words and follow his advice.

I believe you both! But after seven weeks of travel I have no spare cash left - I'll be paying off my debts for a while (not related to the trip, but that's another story). Besides, it's a bit like zen meditation when you're just standing there, rotating the tank every minute... I've just finished six rolls tonight (between 1:30 and 4:30 a.m.) - another peril of travel...jet lag! A nice surprise already - one of my Holga rolls which was so loose and open when I took it out of the camera I thought all the images were toast, but it turns out just a few frames have some minor light leaks - I'm very happy - they look great. I might do some scans later today when they are dry (that is, if I don't go straight to bed after I get home from work). Now I have to get ready to go and teach unmotivated students. Hopefully I can stay awake! (I've been up 12 hours already)

 

[paul_c5x4]

My last trip to distant lands, I came back with eighty sheets of film and a handful of 120 rolls. Couldn't face doing four sheets at a time in the Paterson orbital, so set up a dip'n'dunk line with three Combiplan tanks. Wihzzed through all those sheets pretty quick doing six at a time and replenishing the developer along the way.

Perhaps a similar sort of setup would work for 100+ rolls of 120 film.

 

[Xmas]

Hi Rachelle

You have a few posts on just shooting a few rolls in seven weeks, just wait until you get to the repair Yen for the FE, or being stuck on WiFi, ..., etc.

Noel

 

[MattKing]

Rachelle:

What reels and tamks do you use for developing?

 

[NedL]

the perils of travel: a goldmine of printing opportunity.

I was intrigued by Thomas' suggestion of going through it slowly and printing along the way.

 

[Thomas Bertilsson]

My last trip to distant lands, I came back with eighty sheets of film and a handful of 120 rolls. Couldn't face doing four sheets at a time in the Paterson orbital, so set up a dip'n'dunk line with three Combiplan tanks. Wihzzed through all those sheets pretty quick doing six at a time and replenishing the developer along the way.

Perhaps a similar sort of setup would work for 100+ rolls of 120 film.

Oh yes, that's why big baskets are used for developing lots of roll film sometimes, where many rolls of film are lowered into the solutions simultaneously.

 

[mooseontheloose]

My last trip to distant lands, I came back with eighty sheets of film and a handful of 120 rolls. Couldn't face doing four sheets at a time in the Paterson orbital, so set up a dip'n'dunk line with three Combiplan tanks. Wihzzed through all those sheets pretty quick doing six at a time and replenishing the developer along the way.

Perhaps a similar sort of setup would work for 100+ rolls of 120 film.

It's a great idea but my darkroom is a dry one, and I don't really have the tanks or appropriate number of reels to make that work.

Rachelle:

What reels and tanks do you use for developing?

I mostly use 2-reel stainless steel tanks (with Hewes reels) although I do have a small patterson tank for 35mm which I use on occasion (and a larger one I bought for 4x5 developing but haven't used it yet).

 

[MattKing]

You can load Two 120 rolls on each Paterson reel

I mostly use 2-reel stainless steel tanks (with Hewes reels) although I do have a small patterson tank for 35mm which I use on occasion (and a larger one I bought for 4x5 developing but haven't used it yet).

The larger Paterson tank with two reels in it will permit developing of four 120 rolls at a time - the reels are big enough for 220, so it is just necessary to advance the first 120 roll right to the end before starting to load the second roll on to the same reel.

It doesn't work too well with vigorous rotary agitation, because the film can wander within the spiral, but it works fine with normal inversion agitation and a short pre-soak.

EDIT: be sure to watch the capacity numbers. If you use dilute developer, four rolls can bump up against the capacity limits.

I find that four rolls works fine with one litre of replenished HC110 dilution E, but that is only 5 ml of concentrate per roll, so it is slightly below Kodak's recommendation.

 

[Mainecoonmaniac]

From my 2 1/2 week trip go Greece and Turkey, I only had 20 rolls. I love the anticipation of unprocessed film. The unrealized potential of shot film. It's like thinking about the cold beer in the fridge when you're at work.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Jobo reels will allow two rolls of film to be processed on each reel.

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

When I started traveling with medium format, I quickly realized I needed bigger tanks when I got home, and since I use stainless reels, tanks are cheap and plentiful, and you can even find some pretty big ones that are likely to be custom made. My largest holds 6 medium format reels. It's possible to get 2 120 rolls on a 220 reel, but I prefer not to risk it. Maybe there's less risk with Paterson or Jobo reels than with stainless, but I like the fact that you can just wipe off the stainless reels and run another batch after washing, without having to wait for them to become totally dry. On the other hand, if you like Paterson reels, they're cheap enough used that you can just buy more of them.

 

[mooseontheloose]

I'm not a fan of the Paterson reels, and I only have one so that doesn't help much. Really I should invest in a few more Hewes reels and tanks, but I think I'll work with what I have at the moment.

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

I'm not a fan of the Paterson reels, and I only have one so that doesn't help much. Really I should invest in a few more Hewes reels and tanks, but I think I'll work with what I have at the moment.

You might put the money into new Hewes reels, but see if you can find a really big tank used on eBay or here in the classifieds, ideally one that will take a plastic Kindermann lid. There's not much to wear out on a stainless steel tank. It's also useful to have a lift rod, so that you can fill the tank with developer and insert the reels all at once in the dark, replace the cap, and continue with the lights on. With a large daylight tank, you do have to think a bit about fill/dump time and possible uneven development, but I find the most critical stage is when the developer hits the film, and then after that you can process normally, unless perhaps you're using a developer with a very short development time, and you might want to take off the lid in the dark to dump it all out at once before the stop bath or rinse.

 

[Black Dog]

Roll another number

I'm not a fan of the Paterson reels, and I only have one so that doesn't help much. Really I should invest in a few more Hewes reels and tanks, but I think I'll work with what I have at the moment.

Good luck and look forward to seeing the results in the Postcard Exchange some time-I still have a fat bag of HP5 + awaiting PCATing.

 

[Sirius Glass]

When I am using a steel tank I use the Hewes stainless steel reels exclusively. I only use plastic reels for processing with the Jobo processor.