Yet another Semistand pyrocat question

[mark]

I was reading the old posts about semistand development (but not an exhaustive rereading SO i might have missed the answer to my question) and I came across the mention that it did not work as well in trays as it did in in standing tubes. Something about the possibility of streaking? Anyway I was thinking about the amount of chemicals I would have to use in my film tubes or my unicolor tube to accomplish this and it is an enormous amount. Here is the question:

Can I do more than one batch in the same chemicals? I do a set and dump the developer in a holding tank, reload the tubes and pour the same chemicals in? Has anyone tried it? I can't imagine one sheet of film would exhaust such a large amount of developer in one shot.

 

[Tom Hoskinson]

I was reading the old posts about semistand development (but not an exhaustive rereading SO i might have missed the answer to my question) and I came across the mention that it did not work as well in trays as it did in in standing tubes. Something about the possibility of streaking? Anyway I was thinking about the amount of chemicals I would have to use in my film tubes or my unicolor tube to accomplish this and it is an enormous amount. Here is the question:

Can I do more than one batch in the same chemicals? I do a set and dump the developer in a holding tank, reload the tubes and pour the same chemicals in? Has anyone tried it? I can't imagine one sheet of film would exhaust such a large amount of developer in one shot.

I routinely develop LF sheet film in Pyrocat-HD using semi-stand development. I develop my LF film, 4 to 6 sheets at a time in a slosher tray or cradle. This is a compartmentalized acrylic tray with holes in the bottom, sides and corners for the processing chemistry to flow through. The slosher tray fits inside a conventional tray that holds the chemistry. I have no problems at all with non-uniform development.

See this 8x10 image:

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

It was processed as one of a batch of 8 sheets of film, processed 4 at a time in a single batch of Pyrocat-HD working developer. It was processed in the second batch of 4.

The Efke 100 film was developed for 16.5 minutes at 21 deg. C. Following a 5 minute presoak in water, it received 30 seconds of gentle, continuous agitation in the developer; stood unagitated in the developer for 8 minutes, and then was gently agitated for 5 seconds. No additional agitation was perfomed.

Development was followed by a deionized water rinse and fixing in a non-hardening alkaline fixer.

I semi-stand develop Efke 100 120 roll fim (and other emulsions) in SS and Plastic Jobo equipment using the same procedure (except that I use inversion agitation). The results are fully comparable with my LF slosher tray results.

 

[mark]

So you saw no difference in development between the batches? Good to hear that there was no development anomolies in tray.

 

[Tom Hoskinson]

So you saw no difference in development between the batches? Good to hear that there was no development anomolies in tray.

No development anomalies at all. Remember that I am developing in a slosher tray, and that keeps the individual sheets separate.