UniColor Film developing

I recently picked up Unicolor motorized base and a couple of print tubes so that I could start trying my hand at color printing.
I have heard rumors that you can also develop film in these tubes.....but how?
Will paterson reels fit in it and can they be used by just putting them into the tank?
How do I figure how much chemical to use??

Same question about how much chemicals if I happen to find an actual Unicolor Film developing tube. Do you need special or proprietary reels for the developing tubes?

OptiKen said:

Same question about how much chemicals if I happen to find an actual Unicolor Film developing tube. Do you need special or proprietary reels for the developing tubes?

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I was given a Unicolor Film Developing tube awhile back, accompanied by the proprietary Unicolor reels. They have moved on, but I may still have the instructions somewhere.

I also may be able to put my hands on some reels as well, if you are in need.

I did this just last week. Two to three Paterson reels (when sized for 120) will fit in a Unicolor 8x10 print tube. They'll tumble over the paper guides as the drum rotates but that shouldn't be a problem. You can get about 600ml of developer (or any bath) in the drum without it overflowing from the spout. All of this works fine. Unfortunately my experience doing this was overdeveloped edges. I posted this in (there was a url link here which no longer exists) recently. Of course, the film I was developing was exposed all the way to the edges, so it could be that this problem isn't as obvious with film exposed in a camera that masks the edges (most cameras). Or maybe it's just my problem. If you try it, look closely at your edges and report back. Or better yet, post some scans. I want to believe the Paterson reels simply aren't designed for rotary processing, but all the plastic reels I've seen kind of look like the same basic design, so I'm just not sure.

MattKing said:

I was given a Unicolor Film Developing tube awhile back, accompanied by the proprietary Unicolor reels. They have moved on, but I may still have the instructions somewhere.

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Matt, if you do find the instructions, I would also be very interested in seeing them.

See my post on your other thread - I think your problem arises from using Paterson reels in a tank they aren't designed for. I'll look for those instructions.

I have a table showing solution volumes (see attached) and a link to a helpful thread: http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?15933-Unicolor-FILM-drum

Thanks Matt

OptiKen said:

I recently picked up Unicolor motorized base and a couple of print tubes so that I could start trying my hand at color printing.
I have heard rumors that you can also develop film in these tubes.....but how?

Click to expand...

There are a fair number of people who use the Unicolor print drums to develop sheet films, so that may be the source of many of those rumours.

MattKing said:

See my post on your other thread - I think your problem arises from using Paterson reels in a tank they aren't designed for. I'll look for those instructions.

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Just to echo what I wrote there, I started with the reels in their proper tank and switched to trying the print drum only when I was getting unsatisfactory results.