Has anyone any experience with the 10-reel Patterson film tank that they'd like to relate? Bag-loading, agitation, results,,,,, it is a huge tank after all, there must be some peculiarities about it.

-- Paul Kiss (paul.kiss@skynet.be), April 27, 2002

Answers

ALL big tanks have a few quirks -

Air bubbles seem to show up more, probably because the bubbles have to go farther to get to the top. So... you have to use extra care there.

I think the most serious problem however is fill time. Filling takes time, and that makes the immersed time longer for the bottom rolls).

I like to keep it to a 4 roll tank (something manageable)

-- Charles (cbarcellona@telocity.com), April 27, 2002.

Depending on the developer you use (ones with 5 min dev times are of course the worst) fill time is definitely a concern. The cure for this is to load the tank with developer, load all the reels onto the center post (in the dark of course), and then drop the whole 10 rolls into the developer at once.

-- Bob Todrick (bobtodrick@yahoo.com), April 27, 2002.

You might also encounter temperture inconsistancies that will effect longer development times. No water bath for a tank that big!

-- Charles (cbarcellona@telocity.com), April 27, 2002.

I use a Patterson eight roll tank with no problems. It is very long mind you...

-- John Collier (jbcollier@shaw.ca), April 28, 2002.