[LargeFormat] Processing 4X5 recommandations

[Stein]

Dear Friends,

     Just to be serious for a moment. The question of processing has gone
into deep tanks and nitrogen bursts. Wonderful stuff, as I have an old Kodak
processing book from the 50's that illustrates it. Oh, to have the volume of
work and the equipment for this....

     For our smaller operations, however, perhaps we could do it on a
smaller scale. Take the homemade deep tank. My homemade deep tanks started
life as plastic buckets at the local Bunnings. At 80 cents apiece I figured
I could afford one dedicated to each chemical - half full they are deep
enough to submerge the holder rack from the Combiplan with plenty of side to
side swishing space, and you can lift the rack up for the old
tilt-to-the-side and dip agitation method. I have NO problems of streaking
when I do this.

    This is a great way to do bulk batches of B/W negatives and is also good
for reels of 120. I keep a half dozen of the Paterson plastic reels and
string them on a nylon line in threes when I want to process a lot of 120 in
a the bucket.

    Of course it is dark in there when I do this. I have a small clip-on
speaking timer that tells me the timing, and I get to sit down at the
darkroom table and there is a radio playing in the background. When I am
really naughty I keep a cup of coffe in there with me and sip it in the
dark. I am old enough to know that you should not eat and drink in the
darkroom and I am old enough not to care. I am satisfied when I do not sip
the stopbath by mistake.

    The wonderful advantage of this all  - besides the streakfree negatives
and the cheap setup cost - is that it is also adaptable to big reel
processing for 70mm film and big volume printing processing. For the latter
I got a couple of SS chip baskets from the kitchen supply warehouse and
divided them off with SS wire in a six compartment radial pattern. I fold 6
x 4 paper into these compartments and use it for a dip line when I have a
lot of postcards to do. It isn't only budgerigars that go Cheep Cheep....

    BTW - I have tried BTZS tubes as well and quite like them for 1 or 2-off
work. They are a very useful way of test developing a spare sheet before you
commit the rest of the job to the foaming bucket of death. I can never be
sure how much agitation to give them so I just roll away and mentally
subtract a bit of developing time and then add it later.

    Uncle Dick

 PS:     I learned something. Last night I tried doubling up the Combiplan
holder for development of 12 films rather than 6. I like it - the holder is
stiffer and less likely to sway. I hade to seperate the sheets for a bit of
fixing after the main fixation to clear the back surface of the film, but
the whole thing went quite well. Thank you, list.