+1 somewhat surprisingly good old hand shuffling in trays produces better uniformity than most other methods if it is done carefully/properly. It can take some experimentation to fine tune (speed, frequency, pushing the sheet below the surface etc.) but can be quite good with practice. The downside is the risk of scratching, but it works fine for many people. Good enough for Mark Citret ought to be good enough for anybody.
Originally Posted by Alan9940
Until the advent of those inserts like MOD54 and knockoffs that have followed it, tray developing itself was the best way to scratch film.If you wish to obtain clean, scratch-free evenly developed negatives, invest in a Jobo Expert drum.
I don't lie, Randy. It takes practice, skill and luck to avoid scratches when tray developing. Sexton and others didn't abandon it for Jobo for no reason.
Further to Sal's post I should qualify my Citret example a little. He gets good uniformity and never saw a reason to change methods but there are a few caveats:
(1) Scratches can occur (no matter how practiced you are you can't completely eliminate the risk)
(2) Re (1), different films are more or less risky. Kodak films seem to be the most robust, followed by Ilford, but when Citret experimented with Foma films he had too many problems
(3) Do you darkroom-print or scan? Here again, when working on some negative scans Citret discovered his negatives often had fine/micro scratches that required work in software editing. They had never shown up in darkroom prints so he simply hadn't noticed them before.
Too lazy to review to see if this has yet been mentioned...but before tray processing, by all means run your fingers over the tray bottoms very carefully - to see that there are no little sharpish areas, which can scratch even a single-processed negative. The old Kodak trays with the really narrow ridges should also be avoided. Completely flat bottoms can be a pain as negatives can stick to this...even with the films completely saturated. Trays I like best are the ones with smooth channels recessed into the bottom - which provide appropriate hydraulics plus offer recesses to get fingers under films which have become (too) close to the bottom.
Agreed for B&W. But since the OP was also asking about color neg/slide developing, volumes and economy ARE a big consideration. At some point you are otherwise better off sending it to a lab for processing.
I've always developed sheet film, two at a time, in a homemade slosher that lets the sheets float around randomly and not hit each other. I don't shuffle, each sheet has plenty of room to randomly wander around during agitation. I have yet to scratch one. I've never had uneven development issues and I don't pre-wet. The learning curve for this is essentially nil, but it is slower. Film is developed emulsion side up. I am careful picking up the wet film so I don't scratch it with my longer guitar picking fingernails on the right hand.
I got too many uneven swirls along the hanger edges with tank processing, so I switched to one-at-a-time tray development. I lay the negative in emulsion-up and never have gotten scratches. I also use a prewet so that I won't get uneveness from the initial placement of the neg into the tray.
One last thought about tray scratches: towel dry your trays after use to avoid mineral build-up that might be scratchy.
They may be referring to some of the early 445 designs which did (in my and other's experience) scratch film. New designs are much better. I have most of the systems (and helped develop the BTZS tubes) and each has a value depending on your needs.
I certainly prefer tray development, but just like anything else, it requires practice and consistency. If I'm too tired, or have just too many sheets in the tray at the same time, it might cause me to hastily or carelessly shuffle them, and potentially nick or scratch the emulsion of one sheet with the corner of another. Trays also conserve chemistry. For example, I use only 400ml of developer for up to 12 sheets of 4x5 in a tray - not that I recommend doing 12 sheets at a time, more likely only 6 for the reasons I just outlined - you don't want to be rushed or a mistake is apt to occur. For 4x5 I use stainless dimple-bottomed trays about 5x7 inch size. For 8x10 film, it's an 11X14 tray. You always want the tray to be slightly oversize. Stainless is nice because it more quickly conducts the temperature of the surrounding water jacket than plastic would do.
I think just loading film into a Jobo drum is a much faster route to scratching film than tray development. But whatever. You can do single-sheet dev in simple inexpensive drums, one at a time, if you want to. But that's awfully slow and developer-wasteful as far as quantity goes.
Indeed - good point. I forgot about color film. Me personally, I wouldn't do color film processing at home, but that's just me.
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