Help with processing 4x5 please!

[Ash]

A few successful negs last month, my methods were working fine. I've been trying to develop some 4x5 this past two days. I ran into a HUGE problem, however.


The only thing I have that will accommodate is a 10x8 Paterson Orbital.

Problem - I'm using Ortho film. It's wafer thin and doesn't have a notch to tell you which side is which.

I thought I had it down to a knack working out which side is which by feel, but 3 unprocessed, and 1 half-processed neg, begs to differ. Thing is, it sticks to the bottom of the tank. All well and good if I want my negative printed on the orbital's base. Rubbish otherwise.

I found this thread by accident, http://www.ilford.com/html/us_englis...?TOPIC_ID=6897

Clive Harrison seems to have the solution, but I'm not a member there, and no point signing up to send one email!


Has anyone found a similar strategy?

I'll take a piece of sand-paper to the base of the orbital if that definitely works, but I'm not so sure! I was also thinking of taking small plastic circles (or something) and sticking them all over the bottom in a random pattern, so the neg is unable to stick to the bottom.


Unfortunately I don't have the budget to spend £55 exc VAT on a brand new 4x5 tank system, a changing tent to size, and all the water and chemicals a huge tank needs - same to be said for the Jobo drums!

EDIT: I know I can turn a safelight on with Ortho, but that's not the issue right now - because I don't have a room that can become light tight!

[Ron Marshall]

I assume you must know which side is the emulsion in order to load your film holders correctly. At that time you should cut off a tiny piece of one corner to mark the emulsion side. Glue some "ribs" inside the tank and presoak.

[walter23]

If you can find a unicolor 8x10 print drum, those are perfect. There's an article on this on the front page of LFinfo (not the forums), and I use it myself with great success. The nice thing is that the film fits into these little notches without getting stuck against the edge of the drum (which is also ridged anyway, allowing solution to bathe both sides of the film). This would probably help you with your film because it doesn't matter too much which way the emulsion faces (though I always load mine emulsion away-from-the-edges).

Good luck. You might be able to find an 8x10 unicolor pretty cheap in a used store, otherwise they come up on ebay from time to time.

[Neil Purling]

I bought a used FR (Fink Roselieve) tank from ebay and that's what I use for 4x5.
I use several pre-washes and always violently bang the tank on the bench to loosen air bubbles after I put the dev in. I use Kodak 4125 copy film and Maco Genius Positive film. Both have been re-rated to give a negative of normal contrast in Rodinal 1:50.
The Kodak works out at 12 ASA and the Maco at only 3 ASA I have used other films, but for landscapes the different colour sensitivity of the film isn't an issue, yet.
I have used Ilford FP4, HP5, EFKE PL25 and Classic Pan (Forte) 400 as well.

[John Kasaian]

FWIW I like to soup ortho in trays with the red safelight on, but I'm after tones and not a pure b&W contact ("development by inspection" is the term---I'm not brave enough to do this with panchro a la Weston!) If you've got counter space for three trays (or even two trays and a sink for a water stop) you might give it a try.

[Frank R]

If you can find a unicolor 8x10 print drum, those are perfect. There's an article on this on the front page of LFinfo (not the forums), and I use it myself with great success. The nice thing is that the film fits into these little notches without getting stuck against the edge of the drum (which is also ridged anyway, allowing solution to bathe both sides of the film). This would probably help you with your film because it doesn't matter too much which way the emulsion faces (though I always load mine emulsion away-from-the-edges).

Good luck. You might be able to find an 8x10 unicolor pretty cheap in a used store, otherwise they come up on ebay from time to time.

I just picked up several Unicolor motors and drums on Friday. Email me if interested. Make an offer; I haven't had time to research the price yet.

[Ash]

Hi John - thats exactly what I'd be doing if I had the shed converted to a darkroom already. Alas, things haven't gone my way yet!

Ron, as I said - I thought I knew, but in a tiny changing bag, things get a lil stuffy so it becomes difficult to tell when going to develop. What should the 'ribs' be made from?? What size, distance between, etc etc?

Walter, I think they will be using a large amount of water - the thing with the orbital is that it is low-cost (once you get it to work properly!!)

Neil, how much water does that thing take? I currently only do one or two negs at a time, I'd hate to waste a small ocean by the time I've got 10 negs developed!

Frank, I think I could find a large 10x8 drum in my local vintage camera shop - I'd seen them previously after requesting something for developing LF negs - thanks for the offer though.

[Dan Ingram]

Unicolor drums use a very small amount of solution -- I use 300ml to process 4 4x5 sheets, and even that might be a little overkill. It always works out fine. I don't know it would work with ortho, but I don't think it would waste water or chemicals. I always used a lot more solution when I developed with trays. I imagine 200 ml solution would work fine for 4 sheets -- that's the same amount as you're using in your Paterson. (I think they use about 50ml per sheet.)

Can you tell I like my Unicolor drums? I like my Unicolor drums.

Dan

[Ash]

Sounds like maybe the unicolor is the way to go then!

[Ted Harris]

You might also want to look into the HP Marketing Corp. Combiplan Daylight tank. I use one rather than my Jobo ATL2300 when I just have a few sheets to soup.