Easy Loading 4x5 processor?

First let me start by saying I am a WUSS :)

 

A friend of mine has a JOBO for 4x5 and I think the Reel system is a bit goofy. He

says that you get used to it.

 

The BTZS Tubes look like an interesting idea. I don't know if my Darkroom is Dark

enough for that (more of a "Dimroom").

 

My 4x5 use will mostly be Portrait on a Graflex. I have two Grafmatic Backs (6 shots

each). I think I would rarely need to run more than 12 sheets. (More likely 6).

 

My Film would usually be Tri X in Rodinal or D76. TF4 Fixer.

 

Advice...Opinions?

 

jmp

P.S.

 

I have a friend with a Slicker (read: DARK and with a real sink) that I could use when

doing 4x5

 

jmp

I have the Jobo 4x5 tank and reel but no film loader. I think the tank and reel are

great for 8 sheets of 4x5. But I think the extra $$$ for the loader is a waste. There is

no need for it.

Jobo with the expert drum is a killer combination.

http://www.largeformatphotography.info/unicolor/

 

Cheap and works well. I have two of 'em.

I've used the Jobo and found it to be one of the better solutions to 4x5 processing. The trick is to 'pull' the sheet of film into the grooves.

The Jobo 4x5 reels are nice and simple to load. The tanks are nice since you can just put different reels in and use the same tanks for 35mm or 120. No need for duplicates. If your times for the different formats match you can run all the formats at once. Or you can change the lid and use the tanks for prints.

Nothing "goofy" about the Expert 3010 drum. If "easy loading" is what you want, this is your solution - no reel. If on top of easy loading you want perfectly uniform processing, I point you toward the 3010 again.

The Jobo 4x5 reels stink, while the expert drums are nice (I have a 3005, 3010 and 3063).

 

However, I prefer to use the old style Kodak stainless steel racks for vertical tank development: You clamp the edge of the sheet to the frame, then you drop a handful of frames into the soup, which is held in black rubber containers that look like (but are slightly smaller than) a car battery.

 

I'll have to shoot a photo of it later today and post it. In fact, it's so nice I decided to not use my Jobo for 4x5 B&W.

An easy low-volume solution is open ended tubes in a regular daylight tank. I currently develop 9x12 cm, and could do 4x5 without any changes, in 1 1/2" ABS pipe, 3 tubes in a Nikor dual 220 stainless tank. The same tubes will fit two in any standard dual 120 tank, and if I could find thin walled tube at least 1 5/16" inside, but no more than 1 7/16" outside, I could fit seven in my Nikor and three in a standard dual 120.

 

Nothing is easier to load than just curling the film, emulsion in, slipping it into the tube, and dropping the tube into a regular tank. Requires an absolute minimum of additional equipment, too.

Donald,

 

I REALLY like that concept. Have to do some experimentation. THe biggie is getting

the Light Trap Tube to stay in place huh?

 

To the other responses... The Jobo Reels are what put me off. I haven't seen the

"Pro"...I will check that out too

 

THANKS!

jmp

Well, if you go so far as to make light traps (and I plan to at some point, so I can do Zone development of single sheets at N+ and N- values), the fittings for the pipe are interference fit -- which, translated to English, means the hole in the fitting tapers to a size smaller than the outside of the pipe. You can easily push-twist a fitting onto a piece of pipe tightly enough to be very hard to remove by hand.

 

However -- my suggestion was for open ended tubes inside an existing daylight tank, which already has a light trap. That's what I'm using now, and will get you around two dozen 5" long tubes from a ten foot length of pipe that costs $4. Fittings cost more, and there's still the issue of finding cement compatible, opaque black plastic sheet to fabricate the light trap. But all of that is complications -- if you have a dual 120 stainless tank, two 5" pieces of ABS tube will let you develop two 4x5 or smaller sheets (or 4 2x3 format, two in each tube) without any additional equipment.

 

Do be aware -- ABS pipe is usually sold as "cellular core" which is inner and outer layers of solid plastic with foam between. I haven't noticed a problem with chemical retention, which had concerned me (I wash in the tubes, too, so I should be washing out the fixer), but the tubes *float* in water -- and the inside of a dual 120 tank is taller than 5" by more than 1/4". If you do this, put the film at the bottom of the tube, and if you're using film bigger than 9x12 (which will go in horizontally in the bottom of the tube, but 4x5 won't) come up with some kind of spacer that will fit under the tank lid to hold the tubes down and prevent underdeveloping the edge that's on top inside tank, when the tube floats that edge up out of the developer bath. Also, check your tank capacity with the actual tubes you use -- they have a different displacement from stainless reels, of course, and you want enough soup to completely cover the tube if you're processing 4x5.

 

For this kind of daylight tank processing, I've been thinking about fabricating a sheet holder from bent polystyrene or ABS sheet, similar to the core of an old Kodak film pack processing tank -- not really tubes, but a sheet with edges bent together. It would hold a sheet of film just as well as the tubes, wouldn't float (as much -- polystyrene just barely floats in water, probably more strongly in developer), would load and unload just as readily, and would let me fit at least six, possibly eight sheets in my big Nikor dual-220 tank. Eight would be perfect, the same area as two rolls of 120 or a single 220, and would fit nicely with the 1:63 dilution I use for HC-110.

The jobo is awesome with an expert drum. I have the 4x5 expert drum and am saving up for the 8x10.