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4x5 sheet film--how do you prefer to develop it?



 
 
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  #1  
Old October 19th 05, 08:49 AM
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Default 4x5 sheet film--how do you prefer to develop it?

In article . com,
wilt wrote:

I have developed a LOT of 4x5 B&W sheet film in my younger days,
all of it merely in trays. Never scratched any negatives. I
prefer the dunk tank with hangers today


The last time I used hangers I ended up with streaks from un-even
agitation. After that I went to trays and never looked back.

  #3  
Old October 21st 05, 04:16 AM
Thor Lancelot Simon
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Default 4x5 sheet film--how do you prefer to develop it?

In article ,
Jean-David Beyer wrote:
wrote:
In article . com,
wilt wrote:


I have developed a LOT of 4x5 B&W sheet film in my younger days,
all of it merely in trays. Never scratched any negatives. I
prefer the dunk tank with hangers today



The last time I used hangers I ended up with streaks from un-even
agitation. After that I went to trays and never looked back.

The first 4x5" film I ever processed I did in Kodak stainless steel hangers
in Calumet stainless steel 1/2 gallon tanks. I followed the technique
recommended in a Kodak book (F-5?). I never had any streaks, nor did I have
any unevenness (as measured with a densitometer on test sheets).


Streaking on film developed in hangers seems to depend strongly on the
activity of the developer and of its byproducts. In my experience the
problem is worst with developers that have byproducts that are themselves
highly active. There is a dilemma he one general sort of procedure
for developing film in deep tanks with hangers calls for the film to be
lifted from the tank and drained cornerwise briefly for agitation. The
other general procedure is to slosh, lift, wiggle, tap, etc. the hangers
while keeping them immersed.

The first procedure avoids uneven development around the hanger drain
holes caused by more vigorous agitation like that of the second procedure,
but it _also_ results in used developer draining from a small area at
the corner of the film, through the holes, with plenty of air available.

In my experience, the second procedure -- the 'slosh' procedure --
gives measurably -- often even by eye -- uneven density that is greater
around all of the holes in the hanger. The first procedure -- the "dip-
dunk" procedure -- gives even higher density in a small area concentrated
around the few holes the used developer ends up draining through. It is
hard to tell which effect one needs worry about with a given developer
and film but both can be problems.

Dip-dunk using aggressive film clips like the old Kodak Film Clips and
a straight up-and-down dunk is better in my experience but sheet corners
can scratch other sheets unless great care or some kind of separator
between sheets is used. Film clips with nitrogen burst agitation, as
"dip-dunk" lines at professional color labs usually operate, are the
only deep-tank option I have tried that gives development as consistently
even as a Jobo Expert Drum or tray development with continous agitation.

I have not tried nitrogen burst agitation with film in stainless hangers
rather than on film clips. I would love to hear results from someone
who has.

--
Thor Lancelot Simon

"The inconsistency is startling, though admittedly, if consistency is to be
abandoned or transcended, there is no problem." - Noam Chomsky
  #4  
Old October 24th 05, 03:47 AM
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Default 4x5 sheet film--how do you prefer to develop it?

In article ,
Jean-David Beyer wrote:

The first 4x5" film I ever processed I did in Kodak stainless
steel hangers in Calumet stainless steel 1/2 gallon tanks. I
followed the technique recommended in a Kodak book (F-5?).
I never had any streaks, nor did I have any unevenness (as
measured with a densitometer on test sheets).


I never had any problems with hangers until that one time. One of
the sheets would have been wonderful if not for the streaks in
the sky. Maybe it was just a fluke but I was never willing to trust
hangers again.


  #5  
Old October 25th 05, 06:07 PM
Bjorn A. Payne Diaz
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Default 4x5 sheet film--how do you prefer to develop it?

It's kind of a coincidence that last night I did another round of tray
developing. I too have used hangers for developing, and on scenes with
open skies, I sometimes have trouble with uneven development.
Occasionally the uneven development (from the holes in the hangers) is
quite bad. I lift the film out of the developer, drain, and dip twice
for agitation.

On my first test of tray development (4 sheets as I remember), they all
looked fine, but I just didn't like the perception of a lack of
agitation control. Last night I developed two sheets at a time (in a
5x7 tray) and this worked fine except is was slow for developing 8
sheets. I think I may expand that to 4 sheets at a time in an 8x10 tray
on the next go-around. (I'll agitate 2 sheets every 30 seconds.) If
that goes well, I think I'll continue on the tray route. No scratches,
even with Efke film.

Jay Wenner

  #6  
Old October 25th 05, 08:39 PM
Thor Lancelot Simon
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Default 4x5 sheet film--how do you prefer to develop it?

In article . com,
Bjorn A. Payne Diaz wrote:
for agitation.

On my first test of tray development (4 sheets as I remember), they all
looked fine, but I just didn't like the perception of a lack of
agitation control. Last night I developed two sheets at a time (in a
5x7 tray) and this worked fine except is was slow for developing 8
sheets. I think I may expand that to 4 sheets at a time in an 8x10 tray
on the next go-around. (I'll agitate 2 sheets every 30 seconds.) If
that goes well, I think I'll continue on the tray route. No scratches,
even with Efke film.


You might consider continuous agitation. It's by far the easiest
solution when developing multiple sheets in trays.

In my misspent youth I was known to develop 14 or sheets at once in two
trays: 8 or 10 with my right hand, 6 with my left. You need to use 8x10
trays to do this if you're using 4x5 film; using 8x10 trays also offers
the flexibility of letting you rotate the film in the tray to change the
direction you're sliding the sheets out to agitate them.

You don't say how you're agitating. The usual method for multiple sheets
in trays is to shuffle. I work emulsion down and shuffle the bottom
sheet out, around to the side, and down onto the top of the stack. With
continuous agitation this lets every sheet have plenty of developer for
good results.

--
Thor Lancelot Simon

"The inconsistency is startling, though admittedly, if consistency is to be
abandoned or transcended, there is no problem." - Noam Chomsky
 




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