Developer suggestions for tank developement of sheet film

[nsurit]

Any suggestions on what developer/developers are best for use in tanks for 4X5 B&W sheet film developement? These are obviously not for one shot use, but rather something one would have to keep up with number of sheets developed and replenishment.

[markbarendt]

XTol would be a great choice.

[Sirius Glass]

I too have used replenished XTOL with great results. No pre-soaking.

I use a Jobo 3010 Expert Tank [6 4"x5"] on a Jobo processor.

Steve

[bdial]

+1 on XTOL. I process my 4x5 on hangers in a small 1 liter tank. In the past I've mostly used it diluted one shot, but I've recently started working with it doing the replenished thing. Replenished, it's very economical, you replenish with 70 ml of fresh stock for each 80 square inches of film that is run.

[jnanian]

hi bill

if you have a way to season your deep - tank, and a way to find the chemistry
you might think about dk-50. it is a great deep tank developer i have used it over the years for
processing sheet film ... it was a staple of portrait photographers in its heyday ( and everyone else it seems ) ..
i have used it, and processed everything in it, architecture/landscapey/cityscapy/portraits &c ..
and never had bad film ... but it has to be seasoned, or you might think it is too "contrasty"
you have to monitor how many films go through it and then when you have to remix a whole tank ..
you leave about 1/3 tank of the old developer to mix with the new and season the (new) tank ...
it has been a long time since i used dk50/50R but i seem to remember mixing a whole tank
after 500-1000 sheets ( but i could be way off / bad memory )

i also used sprint film developer in a deep tank .. easy to mix, easy to use, easy to replenish, and still being made
it is like d76 but different. probably my favorite "normal" developer ...

if you look for dk50 .. the replenisher is called dk50R ... sprint uses their developer as the replenisher ...

have fun !
john

[Gerald C Koch]

For 4x5 film you don't need a fine grain developer like Xtol. I too would recommend DK-50 as this developer was formulated for tank use. DK-50 and its replenisher DK-50R are very easy to mix from only 5 easily obtainable ingredients. It would be very economical.

[snederhiser]

Hello;
I use d-76 and d-76r for tanks. Kodak quit making the replenisher but Freestyle sells this under the LegacyPro brand. Also Formulary sells TD-16 and DK-50. Both support this forum, Steven.

[Ian Grant]

Another vote for Xtol, it's much better than D76 and is its own replenisher. I used it for quite a few years replenished.

Ian