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Steve_Renwick
19-Sep-2008, 11:08
Yesterday I acquired an old FR daylight 4x5 tank, and I plan to try it out this weekend. I have developed 35mm film in a 35mm daylight tank exactly once recently (Tri-X in D-76), so this will be a learning experience.

In searching the forum, I found very few comments about this particular tank. This doesn't look very complicated (pour in, agitate, time, pour out), but I would appreciate any tips or comments.

The film is T-Max 400, and I'm going to pick up chemicals tomorrow -- probably either D-76 or Xtol developer.

Thanks in advance.

Benno Jones
19-Sep-2008, 11:44
Lots of people dislike these tanks, but I have been using them for years with no problems regarding uneven development or other issues. The tank cannot be turned upside down when agitating - the chemicals will pour out, so you have to agitate the tank fully upright (be sure to keep your fingers on the lid so it does not come off). You need to be sure the bottom does not move much more than the top does to ensure even development. I alternate 3 different agitation styles - side to side along the plane of the negatives, back and forth against the plane of the negatives, and twisting. I think this keeps the negatives from developing any streaking.

The main issue with these tanks is the amount of chemicals they require - 1600 ml. The stop (if you use it, I just use water), fix and perma-wash can be reused through several development cycles, but the developer is generally one shot so you want to use one that has a fairly economical dilution (I most often use Pyrocat-HD, which at 1:1:100 only uses 16 ml of each developer solution per batch.)

As well, I generally only put half the amount of film into the tank. The times I have had problems with FR tanks have been the times I've put in a full 12 sheets of film. I load by arranging the tank so the bend in the slots is facing me (the gap between the tank edge and the slots furthest from me) and start with the furthest slot. Then for each successive sheet drag the bottom edge of the film along the slots counting to be sure I'm hitting every other slot (film in slots 1-3-5-7-9-11).

Hope that's fairly clear. Good luck!

Steve_Renwick
19-Sep-2008, 13:33
Very clear, thanks. Regarding the large chemical amount, that reminds me of what may be a silly question. I want initially to develop one sheet at a time so I can experiment with timing. I assumed that I could therefore reuse the developer, figuring that using it once for six sheets is the same as using it six times for one new sheet at a time. Am I right?

Benno Jones
19-Sep-2008, 15:25
It sounds like it makes sense, but I've never tried so can't say. But if you want to one sheet at a time, the FR tank is a very inefficient way to do it. I assume you want to use a daylight tank because you don't have a darkroom space to do tray development? That would be the best way to do one sheet at a time. If you have to do daylight processing, BTZS-type tubes would be much more efficient for single sheets.

Steve_Renwick
19-Sep-2008, 15:33
Agreed, but the FR tank is what I have right now. :) In any case, the single-sheet processing is only for test purposes and learning. Eventually of course I would be processing multiple sheets at once.

kmack
19-Sep-2008, 15:53
Place a pencil under the bottom of the tank and use it as a fulcrum to rock the tank.

Jon Shiu
19-Sep-2008, 16:49
Also, make sure you have the metal clip that you insert after loading your film. It puts a slight curve in the film so as to keep the film edges away from the slot. Otherwise, you will get underdeveloped film edges.

Jon

Steve_Renwick
21-Sep-2008, 11:59
Folks,

To follow up, I picked up some Xtol and sundries this weekend and was able to process several negs, with more on the way. Looks like this will be a workable system. Thanks very much for your advice.