[LargeFormat] Processing 4X5 recommandations

[Stein]

Dear Mark,

     Two answers for the price of one. ( I am on holiday and getting pretty
sassy with it.)

1.      I just slid the 4 x 5 FP4 sheets into the slots back to back. I use
the orange plastic removable guides on the top to direct the sheets into
their respective curved pathways. The loaded holder was, as I mentioned,
quite stiff and therefore manageable in the dip and tilt. Mind you, with all
this talk of developer exhaustion I am wondering if it is a good idea. I'll
reserve it for full-strength stuff.

2.     Yes, I did develop 4 x 5 sheets in my Nova tank and they came out
very nice. I had B/W developer in there and gently sashayed the sheets back
and forth on the little plastic clip. The reason I did not do it more than
one or two times was the large amount of chemicals needed, the pest of
washing out the Nova and changing when I wanted to print, and the fact that
it was slow to do at one or two sheets a time in the dark.

    Were you to do 8 x 10 or bigger in there I think it would be excellent.

    The two little vampire bites that the plastic clip put on the film were
sufficiently out of the image area to be acceptable, though if you were a
print-the-frame-including-the identification numbering purist you might not
like it.

3.     Ooh. Three for the price of one. Take this keyboard away before I do
myself an injury. At least I can't stick it in my eye....

    TMax RS developer as sold by our local pro store - the price alone was
horrendous. I am an old D-76 cheapy and I sometimes lash out to a bit of
Ilford liquid developer, and normally  would make rude noises about the T
Mx....but....it was the only thing I found that would make a tame and demure
negative from Agfa Aviapan 200 aero film in the 70mm load. 1:1 and not a lot
of agitation and you could get a portrait negative - or a lot of portrait
negatives if you were doing a big event.

    Uncle Dick