Best way to develop 4x5 in PMK, new to Pyro

[brian steinberger]

The Jobo tanks sound intersting, and it would be nice to use the drum no matter what developer I decide on. What about using the Jobo tanks and filling them up and inverting them as opposed to rolling on a base?

[Ed Richards]

Jobo expert drums do not have caps, so inverting them is a problem. Rolling is easy, and they work with any developer that does not oxidize too quickly. There is a cheap bessler base on the site right now.

[brian steinberger]

Ed,

I thought PMK was a developer that oxidized quickly. I know Jobo makes a 4x5 tank for inversion. Maybe someone can chime in here and recommend one.

[Jay DeFehr]

Hi Brian.

I don't think PMK is a good choice for use with the Expert drums; the solution essentially cascades from one chamber to the next, and PMK is very sensitive to oxidation. The other choice is the 2521 drum and 2509 reel. These can be inverted, or rotated, but are a little more tricky to load, and will require a lot of solution to cover the film for intermittent inversion agitation.

Jay

[Michael Daily]

I use a Bessler tube and base for processing. I modified the base by putting in a varaible switch and set it to the slowest rate I can get it to turn at. Total cost: base $15, tube $1, switch $19.95. Works fine.

[chilihead]

Get a six sheet Jobo drum and use Rollo Pyro and you will never use anything else.

[Ron Marshall]

The Jobo tanks sound intersting, and it would be nice to use the drum no matter what developer I decide on. What about using the Jobo tanks and filling them up and inverting them as opposed to rolling on a base?

I've done it that way and it works very well, but, and it's a big but, you use lots of developer.

I use the stopper from the foot-pump and plug the hole in the center with a pen.

I fill just to the top of the cylinders, 2700ml for the 3006, and then roll the drum back and forth on a counter. I roll for 10 seconds every three minutes. I have tried this with HC-110, XTOL, Pyrocat-HD and Rodinal. The best results were with Pyrocat-HD.

[NER]

Like Steve said, use trays and process emulsion side down. The 25-year claim is absolutely correct. Along with Steve, Jim Galvin, Ralph Talbert and few others, I too was one of the early users before the book was published and I have never found the need to use any other developer since.

N. Riley
http://normanrileyphotography.com/

[Don Hutton]

From Caroline,
"And, Steve, I don't think you have been using PMK for over 25 years. Please try to be reasonably accurate."

Gordon Hutchings and I have been friends since about 1978 He created the PMK formula in about 1980 and asked several of us to begin testing it for him. This would have been about 1980 or 81. Beginning in 78 I started using the Wimberley W2D2 formula and learned tray developement about 79. I was taught tray development by Jim Galvin and Morley Baer

True, his book did not come out till the mid 90s but that is only when he went public with the formula after years of testing.

steve

Strange - in your "pyro magnum opus" published in View Camera June/Aug 2004 you state in black and white:"In 1984, I began testing Gordon Hutching's PMK formula..." Which lie is correct? Or is Caroline just wrong anyway?

[Marko]

From Caroline,
"And, Steve, I don't think you have been using PMK for over 25 years. Please try to be reasonably accurate."

Gordon Hutchings and I have been friends since about 1978 He created the PMK formula in about 1980 and asked several of us to begin testing it for him. This would have been about 1980 or 81. Beginning in 78 I started using the Wimberley W2D2 formula and learned tray developement about 79. I was taught tray development by Jim Galvin and Morley Baer

True, his book did not come out till the mid 90s but that is only when he went public with the formula after years of testing.

steve

Strange - in your "pyro magnum opus" published in View Camera June/Aug 2004 you state in black and white:"In 1984, I began testing Gordon Hutching's PMK formula..." Which lie is correct? Or is Caroline just wrong anyway?

1981 or 1984, I really don't see that much of a difference. There is about month and a half left until 2007 now, which makes it 25/26 vs. 22/23 years.

Would 2-3 years out of a quarter of a century be such a tremendously strong reason for disrupting an otherwise interesting and educational thread with yet another flame war?

This keeps happening with increasing frequency, each time Pyro gets mentioned and/or Steve Simmons dares say something. I really don't know what it is that sets some people off against each other in this manner and frankly, I don't give a damn.

Perhaps the moderators would consider creating a special Steve-Simmons-and-View-Camera-bashing thread, or maybe even a Pyro-Wars thread, where people who feel so strongly about either could really have at it to their hearts' content without the rest of us having to ingest all that venom?