Originally Posted by
sabeluc
I totally believe you are correct about non-conventional film and chemicals being at the core of the problem. I also think that if I were developing standard film in standard chemicals it would already be working with my tanks and hangers.
However, mostly for cost reasons, I'm committed to making x-ray film + pyro work. Keeping the costs low helps me feel free to play with the medium, experiment and make mistakes. I have found this to be critical for my art-making process. Even though this is tedious, putting in the time and experimentation to make this work (and sharing back the results if I can) is worth it. I do really appreciate the help along the way!
8x10 X-ray film is 40 cents a sheet. 510 pyro works out to 60 cents for the 4 liters required to fill the tank at 250:1 dilution for 4 sheets of 8x10 or 16 of 4x5. I also like pyro because I do alternative process contact printing in addition to inkjet and it allows me to use the same negative for both. The tanning action also makes the x-ray negatives more robust. I've gotten this working for 4x5s on 4-up hangers in the same tanks (clear skies and no surge marks), so I can already process 16 4x5s concurrently for $3 total.
I'm surprised 8x10 is so stubborn compared to 4x5.
I'm sure everyone knows but x-ray film is double-sided and very easy to scratch. I tried tray processing in the beginning with glass in the bottom of the trays but I had trouble doing more than one sheet at a time without scratching them and getting the bottom and top emulsions to develop evenly. Maybe I will need to go back to trays for 8x10 it if I can't figure the hangers out.
I think anything that touches the back side of the film (e.g. drums) will not work with x-ray film.
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