Process color sheet film my own?

[hyperma]

One year ago,my mentor Mr.Huang tought me how to process color film at home,now I got a water tank,a heater to keep temp at 39C and a timer.So far I never had any trouble when I working with those funny stuff,I think I saved lots money(but my white blood cell less than before caused by C-41).
Now I tried to process sheet film in a steel case, I have to work in dark until every thing done,so.....you know it's C-41,I can't do any thing so accurately in dark,finally the color is incorrect.
The film is Kodak HC100 made in 1997,I bought this for test,but I didn't see Blue(convert to Magenta) on the film!Mr.Huang said I have to buy a steel container that as good as the 135/120 can.
Where can I find it? I did see someone in China using the container which looks like Asel Adam's,but it's doesn't work with color film I think. I can't send films to Beijing too frequency,that's too expensive, and it will take 3 days at least,unfortunately nobody able to process color sheet film in Tianjin yet......so I have to do it by myself......

[Bruce Watson]

There was a stainless steel tank made in the USA by Nikor for sheet film up to 5x4 sheets. That, and your water bath, might work for you. I have no idea where you can find one, however.

[Donald Qualls]

There are several ways to process sheet film in daylight. The simplest (though wasteful of chemicals) is to put a single sheet against the inside surface of a standard tank large enough to hold it, and process as if it were a roll of film.

The Nikor stainless sheet film tanks are wonderful, but they're expensive -- I see them in eBay pretty regularly, selling for more than US$100, and I don't know how many of those auctions would allow bidders from, or shipping to China. You can use open ended tubes inside a standard daylight tank to process more sheets in the same amount of liquid; if you can get them, the clear protective tubes made for the T-8 size of fluorescent light tube will fit five or six in a stainless tank that would hold 4 rolls of 35 mm film, and will accept a 4x5 size film curled inside.

Probably the best bet, if you're going to do this regularly, is to get a Jobo 1500 series tank and 2509n plastic reel to hold six sheets, and a motor base to rotate the tank. These can be had for under US$50 for the tank and reels, and as little as US$10 plus shipping at auction for the motor base (you may have to supply a voltage adapter, however; most of these motor bases that I've seen are for 120V, 60 Hz US mains power), and will process six sheets with the minimum amount of liquid (as little as 350 ml, similar efficiency to 35 mm in stainless tanks). It can be tricky to get the tank filled and drained and rotated consistently for the very short color developer time in C-41, but the other processes aren't terribly time critical.

[tor kviljo]

I would recommend that You get a Jobo tank with 2509N reel, however, You need a 2500 or 2800 series tank for these reels, the 1500 series tanks is much to small diametre to fit the 2509N reel - tank being only meant for small diametre 35mm/120 reels. For a most inexpensive starter, the 2820 test drum will do 2 sheets 4"x5" without any reel (ribs inside tank keeps the sheets along tank-walls, smaller ribs permit chemical flow between tank wall and film), but the tank can later be used with the 2509N reel for up to 6 sheets 4"x5". The smaller JOBO tanks for only one 2509N reel are to short to fit on most motorbases, but its easy to make a narrow rollerbase yourself, or buy JOB's own (shows You how it looks like):

http://www.jobo.com/joboint/products/rollerbase.html

If You skip developing C41 in 39 degrees centigrade, and instead get the Jessop, NOVA-press kit or other "universal" C41 developing kits, You will be able to develope all the way down to 20 centigrade - but at a longer developing time making it easier to obtain uniformity when doing it the manual way.

Good luck anyway!