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Thread: Keeping Time tray developing film

  1. #11

    Join Date
    Jul 2006
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    Collinsville, CT USA
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    Re: Keeping Time tray developing film

    Gra-Lab timer and a small (back-up) battery operated Sur la table LED kitchen timer after one time placing the film in the developer tray and having a power failure which rendered the Gra-Lab useless. Ended up having to count up to 900 slowly to approximate the 15 minute developing time.

  2. #12

    Join Date
    Oct 2015
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    1,570

    Re: Keeping Time tray developing film

    I use a Gralab timer, Zone VI Compensating Development Timer, or CompnTemp software on a laptop, based on my needs.

  3. #13
    Tin Can's Avatar
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    Dec 2011
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    22,319

    Re: Keeping Time tray developing film

    I need a windup kitchen timer

    When I count, I count to 60 and add the minutes in my other 1/2 brain

    My Apple SE can be used if laid face down on something very flat, which then shows no light

    I recently bought a battery timer for the blind, pure junk
    Last edited by Tin Can; 12-Nov-2019 at 07:39. Reason: Timer for the blind
    Tin Can

  4. #14

    Join Date
    Feb 2016
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    Netherlands
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    212

    Re: Keeping Time tray developing film

    For the total time I use a kitchen timer. Agitation goes on counting to thirty, or for more complicated regimes (or when I'm tired) I use a darkroom app on an old Android tablet which beeps at the appropriate times and that stays out of the way, inside an empty black bag from a paper-box.

  5. #15

    Join Date
    Dec 2015
    Location
    Erie, Colorado
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    72

    Re: Keeping Time tray developing film

    I remember processing my first roll of film (probably 620) using the "seasaw" technique with trays. As soon as the film went into the developer, I realized I couldn't read my watch! (In my defense, I was only an eighth grader at the time.)

    I was doing this in the basement sink and yelled at my dad who was upstairs. Had him time it and yell back when the time was up! I was amazed when I turned the lights on and actually had a roll of negatives.

    I've hated standing in the dark ever since; one of the reasons we've invented the SP-445 and now our 8x10 solution: https://shop.stearmanpress.com/blogs...otos-and-video

  6. #16

    Join Date
    Sep 1998
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    Oregon now (formerly Austria)
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    3,392

    Re: Keeping Time tray developing film

    In my apartment in Vienna, I had no dedicated darkroom for almost 30 years. I tray-developed film in a darkened bathroom using a metronome and a digital kitchen timer. The kitchen timer was set for the total developing time plus five seconds (to get the film organized to start immersing in the tray). The metronome beeped once per second so I could easily time my agitation. I like to agitate once through the stack of film every 30 seconds (e.g., six sheets = one flip every 5 seconds). I counted too, just to see how close I could come to when the timer went off; nailed it almost every time.

    In my darkroom here in the States, I have a Zone VI compensating timer. The red LED readout is set to low intensity and shielded so as not to shine directly onto the development tray

    Best,

    Doremus

  7. #17
    Drew Wiley
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Location
    SF Bay area, CA
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    18,318

    Re: Keeping Time tray developing film

    I have several options. The most common method is the Zone VI compensating development timer, which can be set for real time too, and beeps every 30 sec in addition to red LED readout per second. For emergency use, I have one of those old Gralab clock-like timers with luminous hands. I haven't used it in decades. All such devices need to be on a shelf below the sink where the film in the tray can't "see" them. Film fogging is not a hypothetical risk, but a real one, no matter how dim the luminosity of these devices might seem to your eyes. For very fussy technical applications I also have fancier options not necessary to discuss here. If you do simple drift-by temperature control using a water jacket, an inexpensive little kitchen timer works fine.

  8. #18

    Re: Keeping Time tray developing film

    Zone vi timer...

  9. #19
    Maris Rusis's Avatar
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    May 2006
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    Noosa, Australia.
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    1,214

    Re: Keeping Time tray developing film

    Talking Timer purchased off Ebay. Nice electronic voice. Counts down minutes and seconds with a choice of alarm sounds at the end.
    Photography:first utterance. Sir John Herschel, 14 March 1839 at the Royal Society. "...Photography or the application of the Chemical rays of light to the purpose of pictorial representation,..".

  10. #20

    Join Date
    Mar 2005
    Location
    Newbury, Vermont
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    2,255

    Re: Keeping Time tray developing film

    Gralab pointed away as others have mentioned - but I like the idea of a voice...like that female voice on my iPhone that tells me when to turn right or left when I'm driving - would be great if she could be in my darkroom to tell me exactly what I need to do...and when!

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