I never liked Yankee tanks. Their idea of shoving the tank
from side to side to agitate in my experience doesn't work that
well. However, you can agitate by opening the tank in the dark
and lifting the rack out and putting it back two or three times
as you would a bunch of holders in a conventional tank.
My favorite is the Nikor sheet film tank. It will take 12
sheets. Agitation should be done by inversion about four or five
times in ten seconds once a minute. Otherwise they can cause
streaking.
Tray development is OK for a very few sheets. It helps to
soak the film for a few minutes to wet it. One must be careful of
scratching or gouging the surfaces. I think about five sheets is
the limit.
My experience with drum processors is that they can leave
bromide streaks unless you agitate from end to end along with
rolling them. Some developers are worse for this than others.
Rodinal seems to be particularly prone to leave bromide steaks.
I have never used the modern roller processors but they have
a good reputation.
A daylight tank, like the Nikor or Yankee, can be loaded in a
changing bag. My main complaint about changing bags is that if
your hands sweat everything in the bag becomes sticky. However,
I've loaded daylight tanks, both sheet and roll film, in them and
also loaded film holders many times with no problems. I think a
good changing bag is really a necessity.
On 4/29/2019 8:44 PM, mark@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
Well the next step in the process is to figure out how to process the sheet film. I did so little of it years ago, that I never really found a good way.=============================================================================================================
I tried trays, but total darkness just isn't something that I thought was practical. Old eyes only make it worse, but more importantly my darkroom really isn't as dark as it should be. I have a changing bag, but the darkroom has too doors and a window. At this point I am ruling trays out. IF its not as dark as it should be for paper, I can reprint. If its not as dark as it should be for a negative, no way out. Makes a changing bag and a light tight method a must.
I used an old unicolor print drum years ago. I still have it, but it was very awkward, and wouldn't fit in the changing bag now. Not the best option. Might work, but not exactly ideal.
Wish I could find some stainless steel reels like they make for 35mm and 120. Have the tanks and top for those, but again no go.
The main option that seems the most viable is the yankee developing tank for about $35 or so. It's not water tight, but it is light tight, or so it shows. Being able to process 12 sheets at a time seems to be an advantage. Processing all that had a N +1 at the same time seems like it would be a plus. It''s cost effective, and it looks like it would go in a changing bag to load.
I have made developing tubes. They were sort of light tight. You could turn the lights on while it was developing, but changing the chemicals had to be done in the dark. Better than trays, and maybe as good as the unicolor drums, but again not ideal.
The jobo reels do not seem to be cost effective unless I were using a jobo processor. Maybe one day if I use color here, but its not in the immediate plans.
Any other options other than those I don't know about. The Yankee tank seems to be the best choice, unless someone knows something I don't. (that is highly likely)
Also I am reading the books recommended here. Thank you. They seem to have been excellent choices. I am learning a lot
Mark
