Stearman Press SP-810 Daylight Tray and Pyrocat HD

[jurgenestanislao]

Hello everyone,

This is my first post on the forum and I wanted to seek for people's experiences using tray development and Pyrocat HD (in my case, I ordered an SP-810 Daylight Tray since I do not have a darkroom to use regular trays).

I used to use JOBO drums and a Philips motorized rotary processor but my negatives turned out too dense, I am led to believe that my one-speed rotary processor might be turning too fast for Pyrocat. I wanted to try tray development first (to see if it works for me) before I jump and splurge on an expensive multi-speed rotary processor.

1. What usual dilution works best for you in tray development?
2. How long do you develop?
3. How do you agitate your tray?
4. How are you results?

Thanks,

Jurgen

[koraks]

1: 1+1+100 usually, or 1+1+50 occasionally if I need super brutally contrasty negatives
2: depends on the film and contrast I need!
3: with tray development, usually 30 seconds initial and then ca 5 seconds every 30 seconds for the remainder of the time
4: good

If you get too much conteast with your jobo setup, just shorten the developmemt time or adjust developer dilution. I do most of my development on a jobo at its fast setting and often use pyrocat. No problems at all.

[Jim Noel]

When I use the Jobo in place of my favorite trays, I use Expert tanks and set the speed as slow as it will go and still turn these tanks. Try a more diluted PCAt to reduce your contrast. Less time wil also help, but only change one thing at a time.

[jurgenestanislao]

Thanks for the tip, I will try that while waiting for my trays to come.

[jurgenestanislao]

Thanks for the tip, and agree, isolate the variables. Unfortunately, my rotary processor doesn't have speed control.

[pau3]

I may be wrong, but it seems that Jobo tanks (in particular, those of the Expert series) produce too much density when used with pyro
developers. They are a fine (and probably the best) option with regular developers. I had the same problem using pyro510. I discovered
later in Arendtz's book that it is a general drawback of pyro developers in rotary processors.

Since pyro510 is my developer of choice, I switched to tray processing, which allows me to develop six sheets at a time.
Density is easily controled in tray processing (although it needs some practice to achieve a uniform development).
I had previously used a Paterson Orbital tank*, which was fine with pyro. I understand that the SP-810 tank is similar to
the Paterson Orbital. I stick to trays because Paterson Orbital can only handle one sheet at a time.

Anyway, I think that there is no solution to your problem. But I would be glad to be wrong.

* Since I did not agitate continuously, I had to trim the wings of the tank. Otherwise, faint marks or uneven delepment appeared.

[Alan9940]

I may be wrong, but it seems that Jobo tanks (in particular, those of the Expert series) produce too much density when used with pyro
developers.

In my experience with Pyrocat-HD and PMK in both 4x5 and 8x10 Expert Drums on a Jobo CPP-2, this is not true. I get beautiful, evenly developed negs without too much general stain.

[koraks]

In my experience with Pyrocat-HD and PMK in both 4x5 and 8x10 Expert Drums on a Jobo CPP-2, this is not true. I get beautiful, evenly developed negs without too much general stain.

Same here, works just fine. The potential drawback is increased oxidation resulting in more general stain, but in practice, this turns out not to be a serious problem.

[jurgenestanislao]

In my experience with Pyrocat-HD and PMK in both 4x5 and 8x10 Expert Drums on a Jobo CPP-2, this is not true. I get beautiful, evenly developed negs without too much general stain.I haven't used a JOBO CPP-2 but I would assume it has speed controls and you use the slowest speed?

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

[jurgenestanislao]

Same here, works just fine. The potential drawback is increased oxidation resulting in more general stain, but in practice, this turns out not to be a serious problem.Are you also using a motorised rotary processor?

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

[Alan9940]

I haven't used a JOBO CPP-2 but I would assume it has speed controls and you use the slowest speed?

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Yes