Daylight tank

[Jerry Cunningham]

Sir:

I have heard bad reports on the Yankee daylight tank for 4x5 sheet film from this site. Hence, I am uncertain as to take a chance on a Yankee. However, I noted on B&H that Yankee has came out with a new tank that "has an Improved design, that provides for better chemical flow and more uniform agitation." Has anyone used this "new" design. I also would like to thank this forum that have given me so much help.
Jerry

[Mike Davis]

Jerry,

If you can do it, my advice is Eugene Singer's alternate method of dip and dunk with hp compi system stuff (found on the main LF site) or tray development using pyrex meatloaf pans. I learned the pyrex thing from a professor who had used it for 4x5 for over 30 years. The pyrex pans are maybe 8x5and tapered so that the sheets don't get stuck on the bottom of the pan. The glass is easy to clean. If I'm careful I don't get scratches.

I usually use the pyrx method when I only have a few sheets of film. You can develop four sheets in about 500ml of chemicals. I usually make 1.2l of chemicals for the dip and dunk method with the combiplan hardware.

[Gudmundur Ingolfsson]

The Yankee was made for press photographers in hurry that would not worry too much about uneven development.
There is only one useable daylight developing tank the Combi-Plan-http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=23845&is=REG&addedTroughType=categoryNavigation-, but the best way to use it is to presoak in daylight and whilst presoaking you messure temprature and volume of the developer solution and then you swicht of the light and do the rest in the dark .
You pour in the developer and agitate by lifting out the film hanger and rotate it silghtly. One cyclus to the left and the other to the right. Then stop and fix and you do not turn on the light till the sheets are in the fix.

[John Cook]

I agree with Mike about Eugene's method. Dipping and dunking has always been preferable to daylight methods.

[Scott Davis]

I used to use a Yankee tank and for a while had quite good success with it, getting very even development. Can't say what I was doing right, as it seems I lost my mojo with it. The last two batches of film I did in it came out with uneven developer swirls around the edges, and large enough I couldn't crop without cutting off something else I wanted to keep.

I tried the HP CombiPlan tank, but the drawback is that you are limited to six sheets. It is also frightfully expensive, and the one I bought leaks from the drain spigot. I'm not about to spend $225 on a set of three to do a dip-n-dunk line when they are unreliable.

Now, I tray develop, no more than 8 sheets at a time, in 1L of PMK Pyro. I use 5x7 (actually more like 6x8) white Patterson trays with ridged bottoms. This has to be done in total darkness of course, but if you get your method down, you'll never scratch another negative unless you rush.

[Ed Richards]

> Dipping and dunking has always been preferable to daylight methods.

A lot of folks have very good results with the Jobo expert drums, both on Jobo machines and using them by hand rolling.

[Janko Belaj]

Jerry, my vote goes for HP Comby Tank too. Scott, I have bought 4 of them (by kind of accident... first order wasn't delivered in almost 2 months, so B&H did send me another two... those came day after the first order) and I have to say that I'm delighted. No problems with none of those 4. And you can develop (even very sensitive efke) 12 sheets at once - just place back sides together (and presoak little bit longer for security).

[John Cook]

Then again, while rotating drums solve the problems of inverting square boxes and pouring through teeny-tiny cover holes, they introduce the restriction against stand development.

The original 1/2 gallon 4x5 plain Yankee tanks, a plastic version of the Kodak hard rubber jobs, together with 12 Kodak stainless hangers got me nicely through art school assignments.

The old stainless steel "soda-fountain" lines were the best. As a working pro, Arkay and Calumet saved my bacon more than once.

But since we are all now reduced to playing with our little childish plastic processing toys, I have found the Combi to be best. Thank Goodness as a retiree I no longer shoot a hundred sheets or more per day.

[ronald moravec]

Arkay line with hangars and the proper rack to hold them is my first choice. Also get good results with 4x5 Nikor tank, just don`t pour the developer in. Drop the loaded reel into a full tank just like you are supposed to do with smaller formats, but most do not. The first agitation is back out and return. Then cap it.

Jobo expert drum also works as do the six sheet reels by inversion. Tray development is fine for single sheets as I never mastered the shuffle and don`t want to learn.

[Bob Salomon]

Scott,

" but the drawback is that you are limited to six sheets. It is also frightfully expensive, and the one I bought leaks from the drain spigot. I'm not about to spend $225 on a set of three to do a dip-n-dunk line when they are unreliable."

You are only limited to 6 sheets with color film. With B&W you can do 12 sheets by putting them back to back in the rack.

There are no leaks only cracked Light Tight Hose Connectors or a missing rubber gasket. Or a crack in the tank around the hole. If yours leaks just call us and we replace it.

[Michael Campbell]

So far I've gotten great results with my yankee tank...I agitate with rapid short back and forth movment, about 5-10 secs every min. I'm using FP4+ with D76 at 1:3 around 70 degrees for about 20 mins depending on what speed I shoot the film at. It does use lots of chemicals which is one reason I use 1:3 dilution but also I feel the extended development is one of the things that gives me the good results I've gotten so far.

[David A. Goldfarb]

If you're going to dip and dunk anyway, you might as well use a traditional tankline with hangers, in my opinion. These are cheap and plentiful on the used market. If you plan to shoot lots of film, the 3.5 gallon tanks for 8x10" will take 4-up 4x5" hangers. There are also 4x5" and 5x7" tanks. I only have room for the 5x7's myself, and I use them for 4x5", 5x7", and sometimes rollfilm on reels with lifter rods. It's a handy way to process lots of film in mixed formats.

Another alternative, if you can find one is the old 4x5" Nikor SS tank, which takes 12 sheets. Not everyone seems to have success with it, but I think that is true of all daylight tanks, and it works for me. Do a search on "nikor tank" and you should turn up a few threads on it.

[David Dodge]

"Another alternative, if you can find one is the old 4x5" Nikor SS tank, which takes 12 sheets. Not everyone seems to have success with it, but I think that is true of all daylight tanks, and it works for me. Do a search on "nikor tank" and you should turn up a few threads on it."
----------------o---------------

So that's what I have!

After years of non photography, I'm coming back. But I'm trying to avoid the wettest of "wet " photography. So I've been processing 35mm film in a daylight tank full of Rodinal and making the prints on my computer..

The other day I chased the spiders and the snakes out of my father's 4x5 B Graflex and it seems to ready to go to work, My plan is to take informal portraits &c. But I'd like to avoid shuffling the negatives in trays full of chemicals. I always used to get scratches and I have no reason to believe it'll be different this time around.

Some where in some long ago yard sale I picked up what I now believe is a Nikor tank. It's a large version of the stainless steel tanks you do 35mm in The "reel" arranges a dozen sheets of 4x5 in radial spirals.

My question is how do you agitate with this device? I'd think that the spiral guide at the center of the sheet would cause excess agitation if you simply turned the tank over. Do you tip the tank on it's side and roll it around?

Thanx
D-avid

[Calamity Jane]

I have been using the CombiPlan tank for a couple of years and find it satisfactory for B&W. I find it a bit slow to fill and drain though and that becomes a concern with any process where the times are short. (Yes, you can compensate, sort of, by starting the dump early but that's still "compensating". The Combi should have had a more effective air vent!)

Having recently acquired a Jobo CPA, the Combi gets used when I have only 1 or 2 sheets of B&W

[David A. Goldfarb]

David D.--Search for the threads on the Nikor tank, and you'll find some suggestions, and I think there's an instruction sheet somewhere on the net that will save a considerable amount of trial and error, or if you don't turn it up, e-mail me and I'll see if I have it scanned somewhere.

I do invert it like a conventional tank, and I believe that is how it is intended to be used.

Common pitfalls--

Be sure the reel is adjusted properly. Use a scrap neg or spare sheet of film to test the spacing on four sides of the reel. Don't make it too snug. The sheet should have about 1/16" of play in the reel, and you should be able to load the full 12 sheets when it is adjusted correctly.

Load the sheets emulsion side in and curve them a bit in the direction of the spiral as you load, and they should go in smoothly.

Use the metal band around the reel. If you're missing the metal band that keeps the sheets in, then some people use a rubber band.

Use enough solution--1200 ml works for me.

If you are using a short development time or a staining developer like PMK that might produce uneven results with a slow filling tank, then fill the tank in the dark, insert the loaded reel, replace the lid, and continue normally with the lights on.

[David Dodge]

David G and Calamity J

Cool.

I've had the thing for years. But never could load it with grace.

This time I spent a 1/2 hr adjusting it. My only sheet of film slides right in. I'll try to get some more today. Right now I only have one of the old style Graflex film holders, so-- Off to eBay we go- Ho Ho! I like the rubber band scheme. That metal band looks like it could cause a dark room mental break down.
David D -