Developing the Film

This is still a major hassle for me. There are a lot of interesting choices for you if you want to develop yourself. Tube, tray, tanks and rotary tanks. I've even seen some wacky stuff around the net where this guy made some set up where he put four bolts in a piece of plastic and using nuts and washers uses that to suspend the film off the plastic so the chemicals can flow around it. Madness if you ask me but then to be honest I've never tried it.


What I've been using is a Yankee Cut Film tank. Once again e-bay comes to my rescue and I got the tank for almost nothing. In fact it cost me more to ship it then to buy it!

However there's a good reason for this. It's by no means the easiest way to develop your film. It's not easy to load. It has to be done in the dark, of course, and the slots for the film are very close together. With some practice I've been able to load it with out too much problem. It takes time and patience so don't rush it. Here's my method. The slots for the film are curved in sort of a concave shape. For illustration sake let's use an open bracket, (, to describe the shape of the curve. Put the tank on the table in front of you with the curves facing to the right. The back bow of the curve would be on your left like this, (. Start loading the tank on the right side using your fingers to find the slots. I use my thumb and index finger of my left hand to find the slots and my right hand to hold the film. Slid the sheet of film in but leave it sticking up just a little. Then when you have the second sheet out and ready use the first one to help you find the slots for the second sheet.



The tank holds 12 sheets. Just work your way back until you've filled the whole tank. To check your work carefully move your finger over the tops of the film sheets on both edges of the tank. There should be about an 1/8th of an inch of space between each sheet and you should be able to count each sheet as you move through them. When I get up the nerve I want to try double loading the tank. In other words putting two sheets of film in each slot emulation side out and try developing them. There should be enough developer in the tank to handle it. Loading it will be tricky but as long as I'm careful and remember to check the notches on the sheet film so I know where the emulsion is I should be ok. The trick is not to rush loading a Yankee cut film tank. Take your time and do it right.

Once loaded there's a little bracket that goes on top of the film and then two lids to make it light safe. The annoying part is that the genius that designed this gadget didn't make it leak proof. The first time I used it I was very lucky that I didn't slosh all the developer out while agitating. I did have to fix the film twice though because I either didn't put in enough fixer or it all sloshed out. I simply flipped the negs around so that the top was on the bottom and refixed them saving the negs.


I've been able to make the process a little less messy by sealing the outside lid with clear packing tape. Do a careful job and go all around the edges and not only will it make things neater but it will help keep the tank light safe because otherwise there's nothing to keep the lid from flying off. I've also found that I can do inversion agitating if I keep a finger over the fill hole and another one over the air hole but its still kind of risky. I agitate by placing the tank on an old towel (just in case) and smoothly sliding it from left to right.

The annoying thing about this tank is that Kodak doesn't have developing times for it. They give you times and temperatures for tray, tube and large tank developing but not for whatever the hell kind of tank this is... I've been using the times and temperatures for small tank and have been doing ok so far. Before I start developing I've been using a water bath. Fill the loaded tank with water the same temperature as the developer you're using. I usually wash for a couple of minutes. Never longer then five or less then one minute.

While the Yankee tank does take a lot of chemicals (48 ounces) it also holds 12 sheets. The HP Combi tank holds 36 ounces of chemicals but only 6 sheets. The Combi tank is supposed to be watertight so that you can do inversion agitating.

I was considering trying the Combi tank but then again I was also thinking about going whole hog and picking up a used Jobo unit. One of the biggest pains about developing to me has always been getting the chemicals the right temperature. The Jobo units would make that a lot easier and also give me better negatives all around. Still it's a lot of money. For the moment I'm pretty satisfied with my Yankee cut film tank.

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