Are the tank reels necessary for developing film?

[GaryLH]

No no, I don't need to use anything, I am happy with tanks and when I shot large format (not too often these days but I still have a monorail used mostly as a piece of conversation since it now sits in the living room) I use simply trays and a metronome to measure time (it's almost a Zen exercise to sit in complete darkness counting seconds for some 10'). The guy I am telling about was an obsessed large format shooter who didn't want to roll anything, not even rolls of 120 films so he would put them into a large pipe completely straight (yep, now that I make some easy computation that might have been more one yard than two what he needed, I saw once the hardware never even thought to actually use it) hanging from two clips and kept in tension by rubber bands or something of that sort. Since both ends were closed by DIY caps he needed to open the whole stuff in total darkness, at least for the moments in which he needed to pour the liquids inside. Never mind,
it was a stupid remark nitpicking the "you need reels" statement, in reality I believe all normal persons use reels and I don't think I saw any roll of film which seemed to have been developed unevenly in a tank by a trained person, if a film is not properly developed it is the person doing the job who is to be blamed, not the tank or the reel.

GLF

Thanks for the updated info... Would never ave tried that, myself.

Gary

 

[giellaleafapmu]

Thanks for the updated info... Would never ave tried that, myself.

Gary

It seems that many people getting into large format cameras at some point develop some sort of obsession for obtaining the sharpest image with the widest tonal range and forget about everything else, I am afraid I myself passed through that stage, I am glad I am out of it. The last insanity of that kind I finally managed to cure was the megapixel and high iso obsession but after a lot of effort I could finally get rid of that too and today, 29th of August of 2013, I have a D2H in my bag. 😀 I am happy it has 4.2Mpx instead of 4.1 but I don't wish it had 4.3Mpx...

GLF

 

[f16sunshine]

It seems that many people getting into large format cameras at some point develop some sort of obsession for obtaining the sharpest image with the widest tonal range and forget about everything else, I am afraid I myself passed through that stage, I am glad I am out of it. The last insanity of that kind I finally managed to cure was the megapixel and high iso obsession but after a lot of effort I could finally get rid of that too and today, 29th of August of 2013, I have a D2H in my bag. 😀 I am happy it has 4.2Mpx instead of 4.1 but I don't wish it had 4.3Mpx...

GLF

I'm sort of old fashion and use equipment intended for a specific purpose.
For 4x5 a JOBO 2550 with 2509 reels and the dedicated loading system.

I used to use a Yankee tank but honestly it was not good unless I was doing stand development. For 1:100 1hour stand the simple yankee tank was just fine For up to 4 sheets at a time.