Leica of Developing tanks?

ChrisP

ChrisP

Grain Lover
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If you were located in Canada (Access to Freestyle and B&H) and were looking for two developing tanks (1 reel and 3 reels) and your budget was unlimitted what tank would you get and why?

Second, if you were on a budget and wanted the best bang for you buck tank (and hated that paterson tanks leak like hell, especially when you develope hp5+ for 18 minutes at a time sometime and you try to look at RFF while developing so you have a towel next to you covered in D76 to soak up the spills), but you like the fact that paterson have a nice funnel ontop, what tanks and reels would you get?

Oh and efficiency (least chemicals per tank) is a consideration in part 2 along with not leaking and being easy to use. So far I use plastic reels and they seem simple and easy so I like them.

Thanks,
Chris
 
Paterson reels are the easiest to load. Jobo tanks don't leak. The reels are ok to load, but not as easy as paterson. If you rotary process, you will use much less chemistry. Stainless tanks tend to leak as well, and some love and some hate the reels.
Take your pick. There is no total solution.
You could also just use the twirly thing to agitate with the paterson instead of inversion, which should eliminate the leaking.
 
Really find the Paterson products either poorly designed or imperfectly manufactured, but guess I am used to leaking Paterson tanks.

Re: reels, I strongly disagree that the Paterson reels are the easiest plastic reels to load, with their tiny guards to thread the film. I use AP Compact reels since I discovered them, and for less than half the price here in Europe (€4/5 vs €9/10), find them much easier to load, as they have much bigger guards to guide your film threading.

You can see the difference with these two images:

http://www.frugalphotographer.com/images/APreel.JPG

http://www.silverprint.co.uk/media/stock/00000545.GIF
 
Thanks for the repsonses so far.
Hewes seems to the common choice so I Think I'll get some of those.

All freestyle seems to have for SS is Arista tanks. Has anyone used these? Are they any good? They're cheap and you usually get what you pay for except with Arista Film!

Also how do you load multiple reels? I have a darkbag that eveything goes in right now. Do you just load everything into the darkbag at once or is there a secret technique I'm unaware of?
 
ChrisP said:
Also how do you load multiple reels? I have a darkbag that eveything goes in right now. Do you just load everything into the darkbag at once or is there a secret technique I'm unaware of?
Click to expand...

It's no secret. Just dump everything into the bag, zip it up and start loading reels. Those changing bags with an exo-skeleton are really nice--plenty of room, and your hands don't get all sweaty in hot weather.
 
I've said it before and I'll say it again: anyone who is halfway competent doesn't care. Good plastic reels and tanks are just fine. Good metal tanks and reels are just fine. Crappy reels and tanks, metal or plastic, are crappy. Unless you're arthritic, having a strong preference about this issue is absurd. I've seen both metal and plastic reels used in professional darkrooms.

Spend your money on a really good thermometer and if you still have cash left over, get a deionization filter for your water line. Either of these things will yield *vastly* more difference when it comes to results.
 
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If your Paterson tanks are leaking, either they are damaged or you are not fitting the lid correctly. When you fit the lid, try this:

Press the lid down firmly all the way around the edges.

Then lift the lid gently at one point at the edge while pressing down in the centre of the lid. You'll hear some air escaping.

While still pressing down in the centre of the lid, release the lifted edge and press it down firmly again.

Then release the pressure on the centre of the lid.

The result is a slight vacuum in the tank that sucks the lid down and improves the seal. I have no leaks (zero, nada) at all with my several Paterson tanks, and regularly use dev times longer than 20 minutes.
 
For me it is MaSuKo (Japanese made all stainless-steel tanks and reels) or Patterson. Problem with plastic reels is that the film has to come off the reels before using a wetting agent because the wetting agent slowly builds up films inside the reel. I had no problems with leaking Patterson tanks but with JOBO a lot.
 
ChrisP said:
Thanks for the repsonses so far.
Hewes seems to the common choice so I Think I'll get some of those.

All freestyle seems to have for SS is Arista tanks. Has anyone used these? Are they any good? They're cheap and you usually get what you pay for except with Arista Film!

Also how do you load multiple reels? I have a darkbag that eveything goes in right now. Do you just load everything into the darkbag at once or is there a secret technique I'm unaware of?
Click to expand...

Hi Chris,

Freestyle sells Hewes products. I have these, although i think they were a bit cheaper when I got them last year.

http://freestylephoto.biz/94321-Hewes-Student-Film-Processing-Kit
 
I started with Patterson tanks and reels and always hated them but assumed they were surely better than the stainless Nikkor tanks and reels, until, that is, I tried them. The stainless Honeywell tanks I bought at a garage sale have been great, easier to load, but then I found the Hewes reels and now I'm happy. I load my tanks in a big changing bag and the Hewes reels make it easy and the Nikkor tanks make it a bit less leaky. Go stainless, and you'll never go back!
 
If you want stainless steel, Hewes reels are the way to go. I just use the generic stainless tanks and they've been perfectly fine for me. I have 1, 2, and 4 reel tanks. I think I bought them all from Freestyle, but some of them might be from B&H.
 
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