robertraymer
25-Nov-2018, 19:33
I recently purchased an 8x10 camera, mostly to be used for wet plate photography, but since it came with 2 perfectly good film holders I am considering starting to shoot 8x10 film as well. The only problem is that I have no experience developing anything larger than 4x5 and am looking for some advice as to how I should proceed. I will likely not be developing more than 4 sheets at a time.
To start, I have to say that tray development or anything else that requires a darkroom is not an option. I do not have a darkroom and have no ability to build one. One of the reasons I "stopped" at 4x5 is because it was the largest I could shoot, load in my closet, and develop in my kitchen in a Patterson daylight tank.
Hers is what I was considering:
Jobo CPE2 with or without lift. The big con here is that it is expensive and while not strictly on a super tight budget I am not sure that I want to drop between $500-$3000 given my infrequent processing. It also takes up a huge amount of space and would need to be stored somewhere when not in use given that I have no dedicated film processing space. On the plus side I am somewhat familiar with the process and, I could also use it for all of my processing from 120-8x10 and get consistent results.
Cibachrome/Unicolor tubes with or without a motor base (or even Jobo tubes with an alternate motor base or hand rolled). Big plus here is that they can be found fairly cheap and will likely give fairly consistent results, but the downside is that I am totally unfamiliar with the process for using the non Jobo tanks and seem to have a very difficult time finding any sort of manuals/instructions online for any of them and feel I would likely be wasting a lot of film/chemistry getting things right.
BTZS tubes. While not terribly expensive, they seem more expensive than they really should be (or maybe Im just cheap), but they do seem to be a decent option since I will only process a few sheets at a time anyway. Not sure how I feel about having to take them from develop to stop in the light though (and a darkroom isn't an option).
DIY tubes from pvc or similar. I figure about the same as the BTZS tubes, just cheaper.
Thoughts? Anything I am not thinking of?
Thanks.
To start, I have to say that tray development or anything else that requires a darkroom is not an option. I do not have a darkroom and have no ability to build one. One of the reasons I "stopped" at 4x5 is because it was the largest I could shoot, load in my closet, and develop in my kitchen in a Patterson daylight tank.
Hers is what I was considering:
Jobo CPE2 with or without lift. The big con here is that it is expensive and while not strictly on a super tight budget I am not sure that I want to drop between $500-$3000 given my infrequent processing. It also takes up a huge amount of space and would need to be stored somewhere when not in use given that I have no dedicated film processing space. On the plus side I am somewhat familiar with the process and, I could also use it for all of my processing from 120-8x10 and get consistent results.
Cibachrome/Unicolor tubes with or without a motor base (or even Jobo tubes with an alternate motor base or hand rolled). Big plus here is that they can be found fairly cheap and will likely give fairly consistent results, but the downside is that I am totally unfamiliar with the process for using the non Jobo tanks and seem to have a very difficult time finding any sort of manuals/instructions online for any of them and feel I would likely be wasting a lot of film/chemistry getting things right.
BTZS tubes. While not terribly expensive, they seem more expensive than they really should be (or maybe Im just cheap), but they do seem to be a decent option since I will only process a few sheets at a time anyway. Not sure how I feel about having to take them from develop to stop in the light though (and a darkroom isn't an option).
DIY tubes from pvc or similar. I figure about the same as the BTZS tubes, just cheaper.
Thoughts? Anything I am not thinking of?
Thanks.