4x5: tray or tank?

[nonuniform]

Thanks! I spent many years in the dark developing 4x5 in trays. I found that I could do 8 sheets without scratching, and had managed to account for temp changes with my hands in the soup!

I no longer have a darkroom, so, it has to be daylight processing. I came across a Nikor 4x5 stainless tank at a swap meet and bought it. It's a funny, squat metal tank. Ah, I'll give it a shot!

I do plan on experimenting with diafine.

[bbuszard]

I've tried several methods and find trays the best for me. That's only a personal preference, and so neither here nor there. I haven't yet seen slosher trays mentioned in the replies, though. They allow you to process 6 sheets at once without as much risk of scratching. There's more info on them in earlier threads.

[Bill Burk]

I do trays by gloved hands with CompnTemp timing and IR to see what's happening. It's almost as fun as developing prints watching negs emerge.

But from what I understand tank with Nitrogen Burst agitation is the ultimate.

[Greg Blank]

I doubt G** intended for us to make graven images to begin with

Yes any technique will serve a patient person well, trays have draw backs like standing in the dark, not being able to walk away from the tray, and having you skin next to chemicals or futzing with the film with gloves on. Once you use a New Jobo Expert 10 sheet 4x5 drum retailing at 529.00 which includes shipping you never want to go back

I develop in trays like G** intended. It requires concentration to avoid scratches, but scratches ARE avoidable, and I always get even negatives. Tanks/hangers, on the other hand, would randomly suffer uneven development no matter what technique I used. I never got scratches in tanks, so I guess pick which you hate most--scratches or surges.

[lmlmlm]

On the same topic, suppose i get a tank: either a standing tank like the Yankee, or a rotating tank like the Jobo 2520, or even a home-made BTZS-like tube. Question is: can i do all the steps (developer, stop bath, fixer, wash) in the same tank/tube, or does that leave chemicals in there that will affect future processing?

What if i rinse the tank/tube really, really good when i'm done, to clean up any traces of fixer, etc in it?

[Ari]

You can use the same tank for all processes, no problem.
Just don't do any of the processing steps in reverse, i.e., get fixer in your developer
Rinse everything, tank, reels, whatever with warm water and leave to dry.
Do not wash with soap, ever; it leaves residue.

[Jay DeFehr]

I've experimented with a lot of unorthodox processing methods, as well as all the orthodox ones. For perfectly even development, there are two methods that have never failed me: Brush development of a single negative in a tray, and tube/drum development with inversion agitation, continuous or intermittent. For intermittent agitation, there needs to be enough solution to completely cover the film during rest cycles, and enough headroom to promote thorough agitation. For continuous agitation, you can use less solution, but there is a point of diminishing returns, after which you risk uneven development. My favorite tanks for this kind of development are the Paterson or Jobo 1500 series daylight type with the center column that fills the tank from the bottom up. They fill and dump quickly and all of the processing can be done in daylight. The Jobo tanks are modular, which makes them more versatile. With these types of tanks there is a slight risk of scratching the negatives with the center column when removing the film from the tank.

For absolutely scratch-free negatives, the following methods have never failed me: A flat bottomed glass tray for one sheet at a time, and bag development. Bag development is development in a ziploc or other type of plastic bag. This method can be daylight, or dark, or some combination of the two, with various schemes for getting the solution in and out of the bag. This method has a lot of potential, especially for ULF films, but there's no commercially available system. I'm tinkering with a system that utilizes a single stroke hand pump and mylar bags for what could be a very convenient and efficient daylight process. If anyone is interested in the details, I'm happy to share.

The only method that has never resulted in either uneven development or scratches for me, is a flat bottomed glass tray for a single negative with brush development. This method, like all others, has advantages, and disadvantages. The advantages: Perfectly even development without scratches, and low solution volume. Since brush agitation is so efficient, there's no need to use a tray much larger than your negative. This combined with the tray's flat bottom permits the use of very low solution volumes, which is only important for the developer. The trade off for this particular convenience/efficiency is that the high surface area to low volume ratio encourages more rapid oxidation of the developer, and solution cooling by evaporation. Floating the glass tray in a tempering bath can help to maintain the solution temperature, but does nothing to prevent oxidation of the developer solution. A hedge against oxidation is to use a more concentrated developer solution with shorter development times. Brush agitation can be either continuous or intermittent, but only continuous agitation guarantees perfectly even development. Since you're developing one negative at a time, you can use the same tray for all solutions. Granted, this is more practical with either ortho film under a safelight, or in a large sink, where the solutions can be simply dumped out by tilting the tray. After the fixer goes in, the lights can come on.

Disadvanteges: Developing in the dark, one negative at a time. If you have only a few negatives to develop, this method looks a lot more attractive than if you have several, but if you have the luxuries of time and patience, this method offers the best odds for making pristine negatives.

Good luck!

[lmlmlm]

Jay, not sure what you mean by 'brush' development.

[Jay DeFehr]

Brush development is just like it sounds; you use a brush on the surface of the film to move the developer. Some people use expensive camel hair, or sable brushes, but I just use cheap foam brushes and get the same results. The idea is to brush the film, varying the pattern, for complete coverage. The brush breaks up the boundary layer near the surface of the film for very efficient agitation. I use it mostly with 8x10 film when I have only a few to process, because I get impatient when I have several films to process.

[lmlmlm]

Doesn't that scratch the emulsion?

Anyway, i'm still experimenting. I just found a 2$ coffee mug with a water tight cap, and apparently it can easily fit 2 sheets leaning on the walls, so i'll give that a go with rotation next time i develop. It takes 0.6L of liquid, but for rotation i'll probably use only half that amount.