daylight tank for 4x5, 4-6 sheets?

[Jiri Vasina]

Bob, thanks for the offer, but I got the tank second hand (and am in Europe anyway).

Also I don't think the tank is defective (the rubber seals on the lid might be older and thus contributing to the leakiness, but nothing terrible). Yes, it is easy to load with the film guide. But the film can be pushed out (even if the clip is placed OK) when the agitation is done in the wrong way - i.e. when I kip/rotate the tank over the long edge, the water/fluid is forced square on the area of the film and pushes it out of the groves. If I kip the tank over the short edge, the water hits the edge of the film, and everything is OK. A computer-person would say that it's a feature, not a bug, and I take it that way, as a feature. I simply have to kip/rotate it over the shorter edge.

To the last thing, the tank indeed fills and drains slowly, it takes around 20-30seconds. And I know that I have to have the air path open when filling and closing. But the diameter of the holes is just small for the flow and gravity as the force determining the speed of emptying/filling can not make it go faster. In the end I resorted to filling the tank in the dark with the lid off the tank, then closing it and putting the lights on...

I am not saying it's bad, I'm just saying the system has it's quirks that you have to know, and if you accept them, everything is OK. If you have larger budget (as was not the case when I bought the tank), I think the Jobo system might be better (but as with everything, you pay more for the convenience).

[Bob Salomon]

Jiri,

The film should not come out with inversion agitation. It was made to be specifically an inversion agitation system. You probably have a very difficult to see crack on one or both of the sprung sides of the clip. That would let the clip rise up slightly during agitation and then the film can come out.

Or the Film carrier could be improperly assembled. The ends of the carrier have 2 sides, one side has curved grooves and the other side straight grooves. When processing film the curved sides must be facing in towards each other. When processing glass plates the straight sides must face each other. If you have one end with the curved side facing in while the other has the straight grooves facing in you could have the film come loose during agitation.

Since we make the CombiPlan in Sweden you really should not have a problem finding parts in the EU. Each part of the system has a number stamped on it and all you have to do is order whatever part you need by that number.

Was in Praha last month and in May. Had a very nice dinner at Havensky's Pavillion. What a view! But what a confusing city to drive in. Naturally I brought my wife there while Bush was there so she never got to see the Castle or the church or the old homes and shopping behind the castle.

Perhaps next year.

We make the Rimowa polycarbonate suitcases outside Praha.

[Toyon]

I've used a Combi-plan for thousands of sheets with very little problems. However, I think a few design improvements are in order. The rubber top piece tends to wear around the inside edges, causing small drips, a different formulation of flexible plastic might solve this. Secondly, the fill hole should be enlarged to permit faster filling and draining. Although I'll admit I don't get uneven development even with a 30 second fill time and 5 minute development time. Lastly, the clip is too flimsy, it should be strategically beefed up to prevent cracking. Regarding agitation, if you swing it by the long ends, then keep it inverted and still for a couple of seconds you shouldn't get film movement. A special caution: never use a washing agent like perma-flow or LFN in a combi, it bonds with the plastic and interferes with flow - causing streaking. Other than those issues, they really are great little units.

[GhoSStrider]

Daniel I suggest you look at the BTZS tubes. They use very small amounts of chemistry. Are very simple to use and allow the mixing in one development run sheets requiring different times, sheets of different iso [say fp4 and hp5] in the same development run. You can process a run with different developers in different tubes.

Talk to Dennis at the View camera store and he can give you good advice.

I'll second this suggestion. I picked up a set of BTZS Tubes when I started into 4x5 a couple months back, and I love them. I get great results, and each tube only uses 2 oz. (if I remember correctly) of developer.

You can get them at the View Camera Store:
http://www.viewcamerastore.com/produ...products_id=36

Good luck!

[Daniel_Buck]

My only source of total darkness is a changing bag, so I don't think the BTZS tubes would work well for this?

[Donald Qualls]

My only source of total darkness is a changing bag, so I don't think the BTZS tubes would work well for this?

No, not very well at all. You fill the caps with chemical and stand them in a row, then turn out the lights. Load the film into the tubes, screw each tube onto a cap and leave them standing, cap down -- development has not started. Once all tubes are loaded, inverting and shaking a tube (to initially distribute developer over the film surface) starts development, then you roll the tubes in a water bath, continuously, adding more tubes as time progresses for shorter times. When time is up, open the tubes (in daylight -- too little time will elapse for fogged halide to develop), pour out developer, and screw on another cap with stop bath and shake (may require staggering start times to avoid having the stop eight tubes in fifteen seconds), or just pull out the film into a tray of stop bath; once the film is in the stop bath, light doesn't matter. Fix in tray, wash as you choose.

I contemplated doing this inside a changing bag when I built my sheet film processing tubes, and after thinking about it, found a way to give them daylight fill...

[C. D. Keth]

Are any of these methods cheap? I checked out the jobo tanks/processors and while they look awesome, I'm a recent college grad and can't spend 700ish dollars to develop film comfortably. Unfortunately, I'm not shooting right now because I have no darkroom.

[Jiri Vasina]

Christopher, the CombiPlan tank is intended for manual agitation, and I think can be had approx. $50 (maybe less, maybe more). If you omit the jobo processors, the tanks could also be used for manual agitation (you need only the lid suitable for manual inversion), which in this case could be had also for less than $100. (I don't know about the other tanks, but they should be roughly in the same ballpark).

And you don't need a darkroom, if developing in one of these daylight tanks - you only need a changing back where you load the films in the tanks, then you can do everything in daylight... No need to stop shooting because of not having a proper darkroom (I don't have a darkroom, only have a bathroom and a 2year old daughter that recently discovered how to open doors, and she is very curious what her father is doing behind the closed doors )

[Nick_3536]

Are any of these methods cheap? I checked out the jobo tanks/processors and while they look awesome, I'm a recent college grad and can't spend 700ish dollars to develop film comfortably. Unfortunately, I'm not shooting right now because I have no darkroom.

Nothing forces you to use a processor with any of the Jobo tanks.

Cheapest would be a print tank mounted on a roller base. Buy the tank on Ebay likely less then $20 a motor for the same money. OTOH if you're doing small sheets like 4x5 I'm not sure how the print drums would handle it.

Or you could get a Jobo 2551 tank. Used on Ebay. The same motor base from above. Add in one new 2509N reel. You could even avoid the motorbase and do inversions. But it'll take a lot of chemicals in inversion. This will handle 4x5 well.

[eddie]

i have a "doran tank" it is great. i have had no problems with it at all. no uneven development or anything. it holds 12 sheets. it takes 1500ml of solution. i use it at higher dilutions to save on developer. i use hc110 with dil. G and H so i am using either 12ml or 24ml of developer, not too much at all.depending on my film and dilution my times range from 10-20 min.

they come up for sale pretty often. just be sure they have the little plastic "aligning" tool otherwise it will be hard to load correctly. also there is a metal bar that helps hold the film in place. i tetsted it and you have to shack the sh!t out of it to loosen the film....normal agitation works just fine.