[Leica] 8 reel developing tank

[henningw at archiphoto.com (Henning Wulff)]

At 10:44 AM -0700 6/15/07, H. Ball Arche wrote:
>Can any of my fellow mossbacks give a head's up on using one of 
>these things? Any problems I should know about?
>
>   I've always gotten by using 2 & 4 reel tanks, but anymore its 
>taking me two days to process a weekend's worth of film.
>
>   One thing I can see as a potential problem is the length of time 
>it takes to fill the tank if it's loaded and capped - should I fill 
>the tank w/ dev. first and then load the film?
>
>   Please, no SmartCard jokes.


I generally use a pre-soak with a bit of wetting agent, and the 
8-reel tank is the reason I started (Nikor tank and reels). I had a 
job in the early 70's where I shot 10-20 rolls a day, and I had to 
develop and contact them.

With an 8 roll tank it's also important to have a development time 
that's about 10 minutes or so, and that develops close to exhaustion. 
A too active developer that needs only a short time is likely to lead 
to streaking. A one-shot setup is best. I use Xtol 1:3; that allows 
me to develop 7 rolls in an 8 roll tank.


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    *            Henning J. Wulff
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