ULF growing pains

[David A. Goldfarb]

I've got to agree with Oren's sentiment--every method described works, but no method is foolproof. Just do what you feel comfortable with.

[sanking]

I consider myself a fairly serious ULF photographer and I use tubes or drums for all of my developing. It does take more time than tray developing, but in return you get very even develoment and are almost totally spared the danger of damge to the film.

For 12X20 I set up two separate motor bases and run them both at the same time, staggering the beginning of development by about 3-5 minutes. After fixing, I remove the film and wash in a tray, one sheet per tray.

Total time in the drum is about 15 minutes with my procedures, so you can do the numbers and see that it is possible to process about 6-8 sheets per hour this way. So if I return home after a long shooting session with 75-100 sheets of film I can easily develop it all in 10-12 hours, which I don't consider too onerous. And bear in mind that unlike tray processing, where you are standing around in the dark for the total time of development, with the film in drums you are fee to walk around and do other things, good for people who like to multi-task. So while I am developing the film I can be doing such things writing, answering correspondance, reading or just looking at things on the net.

Things go much faster with 7X17 film, since with the same set-up it is possible to do up to 12-16 sheets per hour as two sheets fit in the drum.

Another system that works very well with ULF film is to use open ended PVC tubes and just roll them around in a tray. Or, if you want to do stand or semi-stand development you can make a light type box to serve as the try and place the tubes in the box, turn on the lights and return just for the time when you need to agitate. BTW, you want the PVC tubes for minimal agitation since they sink to the bottom, while the ABS plastic floats and will leave part of the film out of the developer.

I know that tray processing of LF and ULF film works fine for many people but I have never liked it myself, both because I just don't like standing around in the dark, and because in the dark I am something of a klutz and tend to damagee the film.

Sandy

[Marco Annaratone]

Oren,

when I read the first line of your message I laughed so hard that I almost fell under the table :-)

Thank you all for investing time and patience in educating me on this less than obvious subject. I knew all along that there was no silver bullet, but it is pretty clear at this point that that are at least three methods that have resulted in happy users and good results. I will initially stay away from 100% tray development primarily for space reasons.

I need to regroup and consider whether I want to invest in a drum system (or two) or go the route of PVC pipes. This somewhat intersects my need to start developing 8x10 negatives at home. I already checked with a local store here (in Italy) and PVC tubes are easily available and I also found people willing to put together whatever contraption I need as a favor. (I also assume out of curiosity. Question: "How far is the septic tank you need to take the 10cm diameter PVC pipe to?" Answer: "Well, I actually need only a few pieces to develop film inside." "You need the PVC pipe for WHAAAAAT???")

I will probably start with the PVC pipes and then, as I am a Sandy King kind-of-guy (read: Homo Multitaskingus) I may switch to drums (especially if I start to shoot in quantity).

Maybe I am wrong, but I think that this thread has been useful to a bunch of other people who, like me, were a bit in dark but seriously interested in moving "up".

Cheers!

[robert_4927]

learn brush development and you'll never damage a negative. even with the finicky Efke pl 100 film. Get a nice wide Hake brush and a tray and you are good to go.

[Ole Tjugen]

So far I've done tray developing (blind), tray developing by inspection - DBI - (red light and orthochromatic film), DBI (green light and panchromatic film), DBI (light leaks from improperly blacked-out window and panchromatic film), and JOBO print drums.

Guess what: All methods work. All methods can give good results.

The JOBO is great if I happen to know the exposure and development time for that particular negative, the DBI is great for all other cases including finding the proper time/temperature/dilution for a particular batch of film under similar conditions.

I'll most likely continue to use all methods.