Quote Originally Posted by Alan9940 View Post
Steve,

I use the B&W King 4x5 tank and have never even seen a Nikkor 4x5 tank, but, based on pics of the Nikkor reel, etc, I'm thinking they're very similar. I do normal inversion agitation or stand development with the B&W King tank. However, due to the central band around the B&W reel (and associated issues as reported in this thread) I tend to agitate slowly and as smoothly as possible. Therefore, following an initial 30 secs of agitation I'll generally do only 2 inversions each minute thereafter. The initial agitation is, maybe, 8 inversions total. I simply adjust time, as needed, to compensate for the "decreased" agitation and have never had uneven development. Agitation methods for the Nikkor tank could be totally different, of course, so...YMMV. But, I hope something I've said here helps.
Thanks Alan, but could you describe you agitation a little more???

So are you agitating twice per minute by slowly turning over the tank in your hands, or is it held in front of you and turning over in a long arc??? And does it take 1 or 2 seconds to invert or longer??? When do you rap the tank to dislodge air???

Have you had issues due to pre-soaking or washing, and how many 4x5 sheets do you normally do per run, and does the # ever change???

I expect the Nikor to behave close to the BW Man system, just maybe slight different dev time... Also, I have read long ago to add about 20% dev time as a starting point for tests... Does it come out about to that for you???

Thanks again,

Steve K