Golf Club Tube Film Processing!

[avidmaster]

Hi all,

New member here in the Rangefinder forum.

Curious: When I was a first year photography student at RIT, (1980) my photo 1 teacher (Dick Smith) had us process our black and white neg rolls using a golf club tube and two corks. The circumference of the tube bent the 35mm stock just enough to allow the developer to run over the stock with constant agitation. The result was more even developing and consistent tonal range.

Since graduating, I went back to traditional tanks but wondered if anyone had ever heard of this process. The style tube is pictured below.

Thanks!

51CL6OmQO0L._SL1300_ by Michael Kaplan, on Flickr

Mike Kaplan

 

[Steve M.]

I fail to understand how that worked. If the sides of the film roll touch the sides of tube, then no developer gets there.

 

[shane_goguen]

Super strange, I don’t understand how this would work, or why one would want to use this instead of a traditional tank.

 

[Ambro51]

The film just “stays straight”. Yup, this absolutely works. There’s more than one way to skin a cat.

 

[xmas_one]

Do you agitate by rolling the tube or inverting it, or both?

 

[davidnewtonguitars]

It's hard to imagine that this would work consistently, but then, I don't play golf.

 

[Freakscene]

Tube systems work much more consistently than a tank with reels unless your tank technique is just right (and even then it’s amazing how many processing artefacts you see on well developed film). The main disadvantages are that you can only do one film at a time and scratching the rear of the film that touches the tube is a real risk.

Marty

 

[avidmaster]

35mm gets bent slightly so developed surface never touches the tube. Agitation is through inversion. There are some drawbacks. Developer and stop bath must be introduced in the dark and one roll at a time. I think my photo teacher was trying to help us think and work non-traditionally which I appreciated. It was also a very cheap way to process film. The system proved successful for myself and my Photo 1 class for the entire semester. I just wondered if any other photographers had ever encountered it.

Mike


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Jamie Pillers]

You slide the film in length-wise... not in a roll like in a developing tank. Interesting idea. It seems like this method might avoid the sometimes mistake of not rolling the film onto the reel correctly, causing multiple exposures to touch.

 

[wwfloyd]

No, hadn't heard of this.


Aren't you using more developer, in that long tube?