Sir:
I have heard bad reports on the Yankee daylight tank for 4x5 sheet film from this site. Hence, I am uncertain as to take a chance on a Yankee. However, I noted on B&H that Yankee has came out with a new tank that "has an Improved design, that provides for better chemical flow and more uniform agitation." Has anyone used this "new" design. I also would like to thank this forum that have given me so much help.
Jerry
Jerry,
If you can do it, my advice is Eugene Singer's alternate method of dip and dunk with hp compi system stuff (found on the main LF site) or tray development using pyrex meatloaf pans. I learned the pyrex thing from a professor who had used it for 4x5 for over 30 years. The pyrex pans are maybe 8x5and tapered so that the sheets don't get stuck on the bottom of the pan. The glass is easy to clean. If I'm careful I don't get scratches.
I usually use the pyrx method when I only have a few sheets of film. You can develop four sheets in about 500ml of chemicals. I usually make 1.2l of chemicals for the dip and dunk method with the combiplan hardware.
The Yankee was made for press photographers in hurry that would not worry too much about uneven development.
There is only one useable daylight developing tank the Combi-Plan-http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=23845&is=REG&addedTroughType=categoryNavigation-, but the best way to use it is to presoak in daylight and whilst presoaking you messure temprature and volume of the developer solution and then you swicht of the light and do the rest in the dark .
You pour in the developer and agitate by lifting out the film hanger and rotate it silghtly. One cyclus to the left and the other to the right. Then stop and fix and you do not turn on the light till the sheets are in the fix.
I agree with Mike about Eugene's method. Dipping and dunking has always been preferable to daylight methods.
I used to use a Yankee tank and for a while had quite good success with it, getting very even development. Can't say what I was doing right, as it seems I lost my mojo with it. The last two batches of film I did in it came out with uneven developer swirls around the edges, and large enough I couldn't crop without cutting off something else I wanted to keep.
I tried the HP CombiPlan tank, but the drawback is that you are limited to six sheets. It is also frightfully expensive, and the one I bought leaks from the drain spigot. I'm not about to spend $225 on a set of three to do a dip-n-dunk line when they are unreliable.
Now, I tray develop, no more than 8 sheets at a time, in 1L of PMK Pyro. I use 5x7 (actually more like 6x8) white Patterson trays with ridged bottoms. This has to be done in total darkness of course, but if you get your method down, you'll never scratch another negative unless you rush.
> Dipping and dunking has always been preferable to daylight methods.
A lot of folks have very good results with the Jobo expert drums, both on Jobo machines and using them by hand rolling.
Ed Richards
http://www.epr-art.com
Jerry, my vote goes for HP Comby Tank too. Scott, I have bought 4 of them (by kind of accident... first order wasn't delivered in almost 2 months, so B&H did send me another two... those came day after the first order) and I have to say that I'm delighted. No problems with none of those 4. And you can develop (even very sensitive efke) 12 sheets at once - just place back sides together (and presoak little bit longer for security).
Then again, while rotating drums solve the problems of inverting square boxes and pouring through teeny-tiny cover holes, they introduce the restriction against stand development.
The original 1/2 gallon 4x5 plain Yankee tanks, a plastic version of the Kodak hard rubber jobs, together with 12 Kodak stainless hangers got me nicely through art school assignments.
The old stainless steel "soda-fountain" lines were the best. As a working pro, Arkay and Calumet saved my bacon more than once.
But since we are all now reduced to playing with our little childish plastic processing toys, I have found the Combi to be best. Thank Goodness as a retiree I no longer shoot a hundred sheets or more per day.
Arkay line with hangars and the proper rack to hold them is my first choice. Also get good results with 4x5 Nikor tank, just don`t pour the developer in. Drop the loaded reel into a full tank just like you are supposed to do with smaller formats, but most do not. The first agitation is back out and return. Then cap it.
Jobo expert drum also works as do the six sheet reels by inversion. Tray development is fine for single sheets as I never mastered the shuffle and don`t want to learn.
Scott,
" but the drawback is that you are limited to six sheets. It is also frightfully expensive, and the one I bought leaks from the drain spigot. I'm not about to spend $225 on a set of three to do a dip-n-dunk line when they are unreliable."
You are only limited to 6 sheets with color film. With B&W you can do 12 sheets by putting them back to back in the rack.
There are no leaks only cracked Light Tight Hose Connectors or a missing rubber gasket. Or a crack in the tank around the hole. If yours leaks just call us and we replace it.
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