Finally found a Paterson Orbital at a sensible price.

[Keith]

It was a long time ago that Roger recommended the Paterson Orbital to me as an economical way to process 4x5 negatives ... he even took the trouble to call me one evening to chat about it which was very gentlemanly of him and I enjoyed the conversation immensly I might add! 😀

After watching these things go for stupid money on ebay one after the other, occasionally for up to $150.00, I saw one on eBay UK for around $80.00 BIN brand new in box this morning and decided not to hesitate. The last one in perfect condition I spotted for that price disappeared in minutes while I deliberated with my mouse hovering over the BIN button! :bang:

Roger has a very comprehensive write up on his excellent site about this method of processing four 4x5 negatives with an absolute minimum of solution ... about 150 ml from memory. As much as I like my Combi Plan the litre of chemical it uses for processing six LF negs bothers me a little.

It's taken me a while to get around to getting one of these on your advice Roger but all I can say mate is ... "thanks from down under!"

 

[Roger Hicks]

Dear Keith,

You're very welcome! The prices have got silly, haven't they? I have two, one a gift from Paterson and a second I bought for £10 or so at a photo fair.

As I say on the site, I've never had problems with 4x5 or even 5x7 on the motor base but I have had uneven development (too-even flow, in streams) on 8x10, so I now agitate manually. I think that the smaller sizes move around more against the 'golf tees' and provide the extra agitation to stop the unevenness. The biggest problem is temperature control; a developing tray with an inch or two of water in it makes a good water bath, or a room at 20 degrees...

Cheers,

R.

 

[ChrisN]

Keith will have no trouble maintaining 20 degrees, even in winter!

Good find Keith - congratulations! Let us know how you go with it. I'm still happy with the combi-plan, but I'm using well-diluted developer (ID-11 1+3 or LC-29 1+29) so it's not quite so expensive.

 

[Krzys]

I kind of liked tray developing.... but a Patterson Orbital would be sweet!

 

[Keith]

I've always fancied owning one of these since I read about them on Roger's site.

An interesting tip I read was to put multiple small raised spots of epoxy over the bottom, evenly spaced to keep the negatives off the smooth surface and floating in the solution slightly while agitating.

It's been a good day ... my M mount 50mm f1.5 Sonnar arrived in the mail from jonmanjiro this morning. 😀

 

[Roger Hicks]

I've always fancied owning one of these since I read about them on Roger's site.

An interesting tip I read was to put multiple small raised spots of epoxy over the bottom, evenly spaced to keep the negatives off the smooth surface and floating in the solution slightly while agitating.

It's been a good day ... my M mount 50mm f1.5 Sonnar arrived in the mail from jonmanjiro this morning. 😀

Dear Keith,

I 'kissed' the bottom of the Orbital repeatedly with a Dremel burr to roughen it for the same purpose.

Cheers,

R

 

[John Lawrence]

I scratched the bottom on one of mine and it seemed to work well.

Just for a bit of fun, the second one I had I went down a different route and attached those plastic self adhesive eyes to the bottom and that worked very well. The only downside was the noise the rattling black "pupils" made during processing!

John

 

[john neal]

Lucky b*gger 😉 I seem to miss all the ones within my budget - those I can afford are either sold while I'm at work, or before I get to see them 🙁