Developing 4x5 Film by Inversion in a Jobo Tank 2500

[Amine SULTAN]

Hi,

I' m thinking about buying a 2521 JOBO Tank and a 4x5 reel in order to process m y 4x5 sheet films by inversion. I know that' s not very economical, from the poi nt of view of chemicals (1500 ml -inversion- vs 270 ml -rotating process with a Jobo Expert system - for 6 sheets) but, on the other hand, I don't have to deal with the price of Jobo Expert Drum. Is somebody on this forum using this process (inversion) and how are the result s ? How to calculate the times of development with such a process ?

Thanks for any reply

Amine SULTAN

[Sean Billy Bob Boy yates]

If you want to save a little $ you could buy a Unicolr or Besseler Motorbase and a Daylight print processor with dividers, used, probably for less than the Jobo Drum.

[Paul Mongillo]

I'm not sure what a Jobo Expert Drum is, but I believe I have the same tank you are thinking about buying. I do 4x5 film in it. You don't have to use inversio n. Jobo sells a hand roller that you can rest your tank on. You then rotate it manually. I have develpoed about 50 sheets so far. I got a little steaking at first, but soon figured out I needed to rotate more smoothly and the streaks wen t away. I believe I paid $26.00 for the hand roller. Check out Jobo's webpage for more info.

[N Dhananjay]

hi don't know if i use exactly the system you're thinking of but i do use a jobo tank with a reel which can take 6 sheets. i use inversion. works fine for me. agitate by inversion for the first 30 secs. then agitate 5 secs out of every subsequent 30 secs. this is for kodak tri-x film. works just fine for me (no streaking etc esp if you wash them well). the times suggested by mfr make a reasonable starting point. i'm not sure i understand what you mean by economical but i presume what you mean is the larger quantity of chemicals used. this is only an issue if you do one time development and then dump the chemicals. i reuse my developer by either replenishing or extending development time - so its not an issue for me. hope this helps. dj

[Marcel Morgan]

Sean, When using the Unicolor motor base and color print drums, how do you maintain your processing temperatures if a water bath is not used?

[John Lehman]

I use the Jobo 2500 tank for inversion processing on a regular basis. With the 6-sheet single tank, results are great (even with PMK); with the 12-sheet double tank I get uneven development (at least with PMK).

[Sean Billy Bob Boy yates]

Marcel, 1) Keep processing times to a minimum - 10 minutes or less 2) Temper the solutions 3) Process in a small room with adequate temperature control for the ambient temperature