612tom
27-Oct-2010, 18:00
Hi
As you might have seen from some of my previous posts, I’ve been gradually gearing myself up to shoot 4x10. I sold my 4x5 camera and kit, replaced it with a 4x10 and after trying out some direct positive paper I eventually found some expired film (thanks Jon) to start some tests. See the photos attached, please excuse the boring subject matter – I refuse to shoot walls or grey cards :) – these are just low contrast test shots. Ignore the newton rings too – that’s another problem I have to try and fix.
I don’t have a darkroom but managed to find a Paterson orbital with the electric base. I’ve seen people doing four sheets of 4x5 or one of 8x10 so I arranged 2 of the pegs to fit 2 sheets of 4x10 in there neatly. The previous owner did the trick of scoring the base of the tray and adding globs of plastic to lift the film up and that seems to work. However the agitation seems to be very uneven.
The film was FP4+ rated at 125iso, developed in Ilfosol 3 at 20dec C diluted 1:14 for 6 minutes, less 10% for constant agitation = 5min 24 seconds approx.
The Paterson says just 55ml of solution to cover but I tried this with the lid off and it certainly didn’t look like it would get everything wet, so I used 150ml of solution (10ml dev to 140ml water).
It looks like there were waves or vortices in the tank during development as the hotspots are in the middle of the negs. Is this where the agitation (and therefore development) was most strong? Or have I got it the wrong way round and the development at the edges is more than in the centre.
Should I try using more solution next time? Or is the problem the fairly short development time – should I try a more dilute solution? 1:14 was already the weakest suggested – 1:9 was normal.
I’d like to get good results from the Orbital as I’m sure it’s capable. A Jobo drum for 4x10 would be pretty expensive – but I’d be back with perfect results like I was with 4x5.
Thanks in advance for any pointers…
As you might have seen from some of my previous posts, I’ve been gradually gearing myself up to shoot 4x10. I sold my 4x5 camera and kit, replaced it with a 4x10 and after trying out some direct positive paper I eventually found some expired film (thanks Jon) to start some tests. See the photos attached, please excuse the boring subject matter – I refuse to shoot walls or grey cards :) – these are just low contrast test shots. Ignore the newton rings too – that’s another problem I have to try and fix.
I don’t have a darkroom but managed to find a Paterson orbital with the electric base. I’ve seen people doing four sheets of 4x5 or one of 8x10 so I arranged 2 of the pegs to fit 2 sheets of 4x10 in there neatly. The previous owner did the trick of scoring the base of the tray and adding globs of plastic to lift the film up and that seems to work. However the agitation seems to be very uneven.
The film was FP4+ rated at 125iso, developed in Ilfosol 3 at 20dec C diluted 1:14 for 6 minutes, less 10% for constant agitation = 5min 24 seconds approx.
The Paterson says just 55ml of solution to cover but I tried this with the lid off and it certainly didn’t look like it would get everything wet, so I used 150ml of solution (10ml dev to 140ml water).
It looks like there were waves or vortices in the tank during development as the hotspots are in the middle of the negs. Is this where the agitation (and therefore development) was most strong? Or have I got it the wrong way round and the development at the edges is more than in the centre.
Should I try using more solution next time? Or is the problem the fairly short development time – should I try a more dilute solution? 1:14 was already the weakest suggested – 1:9 was normal.
I’d like to get good results from the Orbital as I’m sure it’s capable. A Jobo drum for 4x10 would be pretty expensive – but I’d be back with perfect results like I was with 4x5.
Thanks in advance for any pointers…