volume of developer for Unicolor drum method

[vijaylff]

Hi,

I am trying to figure out the volume of developer I should use for developing in the Unicolor drum. In doing some searches, I've found people using anywhere from 6 to 16 ounces.

http://www.largeformatphotography.in...?t=4720&page=2
http://www.largeformatphotography.in...t=22876&page=2

If you are using this method for B/W development, I'd be curious to hear how much developer you use, and how many sheets (2 or 4). I plan on developing HP5+ using Ilfotec DD-X.

Thanks,
Vijay

[Nick_3536]

What format are you doing? 8x10 needs 4x 4x5.

Didn't Unicolor also make different size drums? I know with the Jobo print drums the min amount you need goes up with drum size.

[Jim Rice]

300 mL for the 8x10 drum. Anyone know the number for the 11x14?

[Jim Rice]

That's for getting everything wet. Make sure you won't exhaust your developer. The 300 mL figure is what I use for 8x10.

[vijaylff]

I am planning on developing 4x5 sheets in an 8x10 print drum.

[Jan Pedersen]

I use 400ml in a Jobo print drum for 2 8x10 or 4 5x7 Pyrocat MC or Xtol

[tim atherton]

the official Ilford figures for min amount of developer for DD-X are 10 sheets of 8x10 per litre or working solution (1:4) - but I've found that to be rather optimistic and I've tended to go for 5 sheets of 8x10 per litre (I guess you could split the difference... I've also used DD-X at 1:9 which is pretty nice as well and would definitely go with he 5 sheets of 8x10 per litre then)

so that's 200ml per sheet of 8x10 or per 4 sheets of 4x5

Then you have a min/max amount you can use in the drums - too little solution won't effectively cover and develop the film. Too much and it will touch the sheets when you fill the drums and before you start rotating them and you will may possibly uneven development unless you fill and begin to rotate fairly quickly

If you've read the unicolor page on this site, you've seen that some consider that not to be a problem

In practice, or the 4x5 drums, I've found 200ml to be the minimum and 500ml to be the max


http://www.largeformatphotography.info/unicolor/


(and just use Google to translate metric to imperial...)

[sparq]

I use 300ml for four 4x5 sheets in the Unicolor 8x10 print drum.

[Jim Rice]

I reckon I'll try 600mL in the 11x14 (when I get there) for two-up 8x10 and report back.

[vijaylff]

Thanks everyone for your input. I went with 300ml for 2 4x5's and that seemed to be enough solution. It was pretty exciting to see my first developed negative!