BTZS Tubes for 8x10

[jeff schraeder]

Does anyone know if BTZS makes tube for 8x10. The Darkroom Innovations site is n ot clear. They list an 8x10 size but have NA in the price column. I'm not sure i f that means they stopped making them, never made them, or are just out of stock .

[Michael Kadillak]

I have to believe that they are just out of stock, as many of their other offering sizes are. These are really easy to make and many have offered their previous expertise in these areas on this forum.

You can probably find some on the used market as many folks start out with these items as I did until they can afford to go to another higher volume system like a JOBO.

[Brian Ellis]

They definitely used to make them but they were expensive (about $65 per tube as I recall). Unfortunately making your own 8x10 tubes isn't as easy as making your own 4x5 tubes. The problem that I, and several friends, have encountered with our homemade 8x10 tubes is that you have to put the cap on very tightly to prevent the developer from leaking but when you do that the cap is so large it's very difficult to easily remove when you want to dump the developer. If you try to put it on kind of loosely to facilitate removal, then the developer leaks out. Perhaps others have had success with their own 8x10 tubes but they didn't work for me, whereas 4x5 homemade tubes seem to be a snap.

[Chet Kwapisinski]

I would suggest that you contact Dennis Kibbe directly at The Viewcamerastore (Darkroom Innovations) 1-480-767-7105. He can also be contacted at info@viewcamerastore.com. He has an excellent handle on the status and availability of the 8x10 tubes.

Cheers, Chet

[Mako]

The View Camera Store, as it is now called, have definitely stopped offering the 8x10 BTZS Tubes because of the high manufacturing costs. So I guess you have three alternatives (a) Use the Jobo rotary processor instead, (b) build them with Phil Davis' plans included in appendix 3 of his book "Beyond the Zone System, (c) use tray development instead. Personally, I would go for (b).

I have been using the Tubes for years and they are as fast as you can get since you can process six of them at a time (with different developers or dilutions if you wish). They also provide very even development, are very economical on chemicals and you can work under normal lighting! Except of course when you open the tubes to put them in the stop bath where a red light can be used.