[Russell W. Barnes]

I've never used a changing bag, but I've just ordered one and so am about to find out... Is it possible to abandon work for a while once all the stuff is in the bag and come back to it later? Or is it a case of once you've removed the film from the can, there's no stopping until the film is on the spool and in the tank? I understand the risk of scratching the film by misplacing it, but not sure if light will get in once one's hands are removed.

I shall be practicing loading with a dud film until I get the hang of it!
--

Regds,

R.

[Alex645]

Is it possible to abandon work for a while once all the stuff is in the bag and come back to it later? Or is it a case of once you've removed the film from the can, there's no stopping until the film is on the spool and in the tank?

Your arms in the change bag sleeves blocks external light from entering, so essentially once you start, you must finish unless you can magically turn off the room lights at night and then very quickly take your arms out and tie the sleeves into a knot.

[jenrick]

If you're smart about how you have things arranged in the bag then yes you can remove your arms. For instance you can place the film inside the tank without it being spooled on the reel, put the lid on, and you're good to go (over whatever you need to do with your tank to make it light tight). Now just yanking your arms out, that's a no go.

[Russell W. Barnes]

Thanks for the replies, folks . I did wonder about the arm thing, then thought maybe sticking a rubbish bag over the top before removal but I suspect I'd end up flummoxed and left wondering whether it worked or not, so I'll jsut get into the right frame of mind and practice loading the drum until I can do it blindfold. Then the fun will start!
--

Regds,
R.

[cpk]

For instance you can place the film side the tank without it being spooled on the reel, put the lid on, and you're good to go

"place the film inside the tank": I've had to do this on occasion, especially if the film is not going onto a stainless steel reel smoothly. It gives one the chance to cool down and collect one's wits. I don't develop as much film as I used to, and it's much easier to load the reels in a proper darkroom than a changing bag.

[Russell W. Barnes]

"place the film inside the tank":

That sounds like an excellent plan! A darkroom within a darkroom: Thanks. It'll save chancing it with the sleeve thing.

[PenPusher]

When working in a dark room years ago with 35mm film I always took the film completely out of its canister which means that you have about 5' / 1.5m of film trying to drop itself on the floor or anything else that can scratch it.

On YouTube last night I saw James Stephenson

Youtu.be

Youtu.be

, in a tank loading demo, where he left the film in the canister and only pulled short lengths out as he wound it onto the tank spiral and then cut it off from the mouth of the canister when fully loaded onto the reel. He suggests using blunt nosed scissors so you don't accidentally poke a hole in the changing bag.

I have been looking at the Agfa Rondinax Daylight Loading Tanks and others in a series of YouTube videos mostly by Malcom Peaker which follow on from the link I previously posted, there seem to have been quite a number of alternative makes to the Agfa, including the inevitable Russian Copy called, naturally, Sputnik.

The one that actually intrigued me was Agfa's Rondax which proceeded the Rondinax, it had no take up reel, the film was just pulled into the tank and wound onto itself, in development you just wound the film backwards and forwards onto itself the whole time. Peaker says that there were no scratches on the film and development worked properly. I was wondering if it was the surface tension of the water which kept the film from sticking together and allowed development to proceed.

Jobo also made one, the 2400, but it seemed to me that getting the film to start loading was quite fiddly.

The thing about all these tanks is that they required continuous agitation which means that you may have to modify your usual process to allow for this.

The "Massive Dev Chart" from digitaltruth.com gives development times and methods for practically every Film and Developer combination known to the human race, the chart is available to download in print form and there is a useful app one can purchase for both iOS and Android, the explanatory video makes it seem intuitive to operate, even for me.

CD

[PenPusher]

My Genuine Chinese changing bag (€13including postage) has arrived about 8 days ahead of schedule, its reasonably large and will take my 35/120 tank without difficulty and with what seems plenty of spare room.

It seems well made with a black canvas type outer material lined internally with what appears to me to be some sort of black polyester material, a zipped bottom with about a 3" - 75mm velcro fastening fold over flap along the base. The hand holes are just over 4" - 100mm long sealed at the outer ends with elastic and again with a second elastic seal where they enter the bag. On examination it does not appear that any shortcuts have been taken.

I was concerned about this because because well known brand makes can cost three to four times its price, depending where you look.

I shall find out tonight if it works.

There are two things I forgot to mention about developing tanks in general in my previous post.

1. If the spirals are wet, damp even, there is a pretty good chance they will either not load or jam in the loading process.

2. If you think about it this is obvious but under sales pressure it may not occur to somebody buying their first tank. Tanks which can develop several films at the same time only work if they have the same development requirements, if for example you have two films to process and one spiral is loaded with a 100 ISO film and the other with a 400 ISO its not going to work because development criteria will most likely be different for the two films or if you have two films with the same ISO speed but you have exposed one at a higher or lower ISO rating for some reason its not going to work either.

Its very easy to get distracted while developing film - someone talks to you or the phone goes, get distracted or make a mistake with a single spiral tank you only ruin one film, with multiple spiral tanks you can ruin several at once. Unless you are shooting LOTS of the same film always with the same speed and development criteria I wouldn't buy more than a tank which can be used for either 2 x 35mm films or 1x 120.

[abruzzi]

2. If you think about it this is obvious but under sales pressure it may not occur to somebody buying their first tank. Tanks which can develop several films at the same time only work if they have the same development requirements, if for example you have two films to process and one spiral is loaded with a 100 ISO film and the other with a 400 ISO its not going to work because development criteria will most likely be different for the two films or if you have two films with the same ISO speed but you have exposed one at a higher or lower ISO rating for some reason its not going to work either.

Its very easy to get distracted while developing film - someone talks to you or the phone goes, get distracted or make a mistake with a single spiral tank you only ruin one film, with multiple spiral tanks you can ruin several at once. Unless you are shooting LOTS of the same film always with the same speed and development criteria I wouldn't buy more than a tank which can be used for either 2 x 35mm films or 1x 120.

One possible exception to this is if you try “stand” development. This is basically no-agitation development. The theory behind it is if you’re not circulating chemical, the areas of high light exposure will exhaust the nearby chemicals and stop developing since they are not being agitated. The areas of low exposure, the shadows, with have further opportunity to develop and bring out shadow detail. I’ve only tried stand development a couple of times, but I’ve gotten good results. Frequently stand development is 60minutes, Rodinal 1:100, agitation for the first minute then don’t touch and it’s the same recipe for most films.