4x5 developing kit for a beginner

[crimbo]

I have just got into 4 × 5 and have only shot 11 sheets I am using MOD 54 which works okay with practice To keep costs down I am starting with Fomapan and Rodinal The UK has several vendors of film and chemicals

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[LabRat]

Developing your film is highly recommended, but if you are still trying to get the camera thing down, for a start, send out your film to a decent lab so you at least have a baseline that the camera & handling steps are correct, and not to introduce other factors that might confuse you if there is an issue somewhere...

One step at a time...

Steve K

[omnibook2100]

Thank you all so much for your replies. A lot of valuable advice and suggestions. For the time being ill try out the Paterson mod54 as I'm finding a very good price for a kit though I am interested (for the future) in exploring a rotary system as well. I'll let you know if my progress. To labrat, I am in the process of testing the camera, etc it's just that the price for developing one 4x5 sheet costs approximately 10€ (Euros) which is veeery expensive. Thanks again to all, I hope that another beginner can benefit from the info you all offered.


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[Tim Meisburger]

I would also say the SP445, but since you have settled on the Mod54, that should also be fine. To keep costs down, consider making your own developer and fix. D-23 is only two chemicals, and hypo is only one. If you mix yourself, you can only prepare what you need.

Have fun. Its not as hard as it sounds. Use a temp conversion chart to develop at ambient temperature, rather than trying to keep everything at some arbitrary constant. You will make mistakes, but everyone does, and they decrease with time.

[locutus]

Fomapan + Rodinal is a reasonably cheap combination to get started (maybe a euro per developed sheet).

[John Kasaian]

I would also say the SP445, but since you have settled on the Mod54, that should also be fine. To keep costs down, consider making your own developer and fix. D-23 is only two chemicals, and hypo is only one. If you mix yourself, you can only prepare what you need.

Have fun. Its not as hard as it sounds. Use a temp conversion chart to develop at ambient temperature, rather than trying to keep everything at some arbitrary constant. You will make mistakes, but everyone does, and they decrease with time.

FWIW, I store my stock solutions and distilled water for dilution in the same place, so everything is the same "room" temperature.

[hazardsg]

I found the unicolor drum with rotating base easy to learn. I think it was mentioned above, but here is a link to the article. (http://www.largeformatphotography.info/unicolor/) The base and drums come up on the auction site on a regular basis.

[vdonovan]

I'm another vote for the SP-445. I've used a MOD54 since they first came out, but now I prefer the SP-445. It's faster and easier to load and uses less solution. Occasionally I have mis-loaded the MOD54, but I've never misloaded the SP-445, it's almost impossible.

[tim48v]

Speaking of the SP-445, check out our new film holders: https://shop.stearmanpress.com/blogs...-holders-rev-2

[omnibook2100]

Anybody has any suggestions for chemicals for B&W to start with? Thank you in advance.


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