Quote Originally Posted by ottluuk View Post
I think Paterson Orbital deserves a mention here. It's basically an 8 x 10 tray with a daylight lid, funnel and a funky base (motorised or manual) that gives a swaying rotation, a bit like the last rounds of a spinning top. With dividers, you can set it up for four 4x5s, two 5x7s or a single 8x10. There are no holders so it's dead easy to load and you can use it for less common sizes with no extra trouble. 9x12 cm, 4x10", half plate...
Obviously there is a catch. The catch is that in my experience it works well either in constant agitation mode with very small amount of developer (close to how it was originally intended to be used for processing prints) or filled almost to the brim for stand development. With "normal" amounts of fluid you get problems – from negs lifting over the dividers to surge marks/uneven development to developer sloshing out of the corners if agitated too vigorously. This rules out quite a few developer/dilution options.
The Spearman Press SP-8x10 seems to be a new variation on the same basic idea (daylight tray with removable dividers) – but with a more generous volume and no "orbiting". Worth a look if you ever intend to mix formats.

All that said.. if you shoot a lot and prefer repeatable results to experimenting with development regimes, a Jobo Expert Drum is at least worth investigating.
I’ll add my vote for the orbital.
Even though I own an spp445 the orbital gets used exclusively.
I don’t bother with the base, I just lift a corner gently like you would when tray developing prints.
I fill it with just under 500cc of solution and get even development, whether I’m doing 4sheets of 45 or one sheet of 810.

I did a couple of mods to it : cut off the “finns” on the underside of the lid, and glued some plastic half beads to the bottom so the solution circulates under the sheets too and the anti aliasing layer gets washed off more efficiently.