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How do you keep your FILM DEV chems at temp?


Guest gamincurieux

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Guest gamincurieux

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Hi all, I'm interested to know how some of you keep your film developing chemicals at the designated temperature over a long period? 

 

I mean more than just sitting the jugs in the kitchen sink and filling it up with hot water (or ice). If, for example, you have 2 or 3 tanks full to develop in one session, a production line scenario, which will obviously take some time, an afternoon's work - keeping the jugs at the right temp is one thing I'd like to not be so concerned with, along with everything else that's going on at the time. 

 

I've lately been toying with the idea of a getting a temp-controlled laboratory water bath (too expensive as it turns out), or perhaps rigging up my own bath with some kind of aquarium heating/chilling set-up (much more likely). My kitchen-darkroom is quite cold in winter, and pretty hot in summer - I don't want to put a heater in the room just to raise the ambient water temp ( that takes too long), nor am I about to air-condition in summer to cool. I'm looking more at some kind of a controlled bath type of solution.

 

By the way, to maintain temp in the tank during actual development/agitation, just today I also thought to make a wet-suit skin to wrap around the tank (like a beer can holder!), with Velcro to easily wrap it on or rip it off. Can't hurt..... 

 

Anyway, what do you do to keep your film developing chemicals at the correct temperature over a long period, heating or cooling-wise? Would appreciate any thoughts. 

 

Many thanks!

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I have a large drinks cooler and an aquarium heater, which works ok. But if I was starting from scratch I would get one of these....

 

http://anovaculinary.com/anova-precision-cooker/

 

Precise temperature control, circulated water for consistency and when you are not developing film you can cook that chateaubriand to the perfect shade of pink! Who could ask for more? Just take note of the tank size in the specs, good for 5 gallons which should be sufficient for the typical home film developer.

 

Good luck and keep shooting film! 

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As you have said for normal B&W the developing times don't usually justify special measures for keeping the solutions up to temperature, starting at the right temperature, or a degree over is enough, so long as it is a consistent way of working.

 

The times when I need a more controlled temperature are for colour C41 processing which I do at the more benign option of 30c which means a longer development time but more consistent results. So I'd guess that needs a similar setup to processing B&W over an afternoon but at 20c instead. And all I use are a blind in the kitchen to keep the hot sun out, sealed bottles to keep the heat in the solutions, a washing up bowl as a water bath, and a fish tank heater powerful enough not to struggle.

 

In the summer the temperature under the sink where I store my chemicals is a round 20c anyway, so ideal for B&W, and I get jugs of water to the right temperature for washing etc. as needed and as the job goes along. But the water bath works fine for C41 where you have three chemical solutions that need to be at the same temperature, especially if you drape a towel over the washing up bowl to help regulate the temperature. Keeping the temperature down is another matter as even in an English summer it can get too hot, the blind helps, but if that won't be enough I don't bother and go and take some photo's instead.

 

Steve

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For B&W you could consider one of the two-bath developers which is not terribly sensitive to temperature variation, then just keep the stop and fix within a few degrees.

 

How many rolls at a time are you developing?

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  • 4 weeks later...
Guest gamincurieux

I've read & noted all advice (thank you all), and in the end got myself a 50-liter cooler with a good fish tank heater & water pump to circulate the water. There's a digital thermometer probe hanging inside with the digital face stuck to the outside of the cooler. The heater's minimum temp setting is 20 degrees, I leave it at that. The cooler's quite deep, so I've made a kind of shelf that sits inside the cooler, the jugs sit on the shelf up higher - under the shelf stuck to the bottom of the cooler is the heater & pump.

 

The way I go about the business is:

1/ I first place a few 3000ml jugs of water on the coffee table in the warm living room, to be used later for washing 

2/ Mix up the chemicals and put them in the cooler

3/ Close the cooler lid, turn the heater & pump on, then go away and do something else (film tank loading, food shopping, toilet newspaper reading)

 

It will all be 20 degrees in about an hour give or take, ready to go! The cooler water will heat up just before the chemicals do (the contents of the jugs aren't being constantly circulated like the cooler water, if you see what I mean), but the chemicals will not be far behind - every so often I'll stick my head in the room and see what the digital thermometer says. Once the cooler reaches 20 degrees I then start paying closer attention to the chems inside. The cooler lid has a separate little trap door, I make sure to place the developer jug right under it with another thermometer in it. I'll take a peek in the trap door now & then, give them a little stir, doesn't take long for everything to reach 20.

 

Because the cooler is good at what it does, you could turn off the heater/pump and it will hold 20 for quite a while - though I just leave it running as long as I'm there doing stuff, considering the lid is often being opened/closed. Because the heater/pump are designed to be constantly running, you could mix up chems & turn heater on hours & hours before use, go out and shoot for the day, get home later, load up straight away & develop, your film will be hanging in the dryer before dinner time!

 

When not in use the cooler sits in it's bench-top corner, it has the dish drying rack put on top of it (after all it is my kitchen that doubles as a darkroom, easily convertible from one to the other... anyway, I'm single & no master chef). The same water will stay in it until it quite obviously needs to be changed (ie. it smells), thereby saving water.

 

With this convenience, combined with the brilliant 'set & forget' Heiland TAS developer, I try to develop a couple of tanks worth of film in a sitting, provided I've shot that much - in any case I CAN do so. In the cooler will fit 5 x 1500ml jugs in it (enough for a 5-reel Paterson tank, but more often than not I'll use 3-reel tanks), commonly: pre-wet, dev (high capacity, like say T-max), stop, fix, wetting agent (distilled water). If using a one-shot developer (say Rodinal) I'll replace the wetting bath with plain water, it will be ready at 20 degrees for the next tank, just add developer... the wetting agent can sit out in the warm living room with the washing water.

 

In the past I've always found film developing to be a major pain in terms of reliably maintaining chemical temperature & hating to stand there like a moron watching the clock to agitate. It inhibited actual shooting, because the dread of later having to develop the film played on my mind. And I'm certainly not going to pay anyone else to do it for me! Then digital came along on the scene at some point there in between... digital never turned me on. In now moving back to the tactile tangibility of B&W film (and with digital I was only ever always trying to make it LOOK like film anyway, duuuh!) my aim was to overcome these obstacles to shooting film. This set-up achieves that for me. I'm happy! Hope this gives someone some ideas ;)

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  • 2 weeks later...

I am using a Nova Masterlab with 4 pods and temperature controlled. Further a Jobo CPA-2 with elevator and a Thermaphot ACP-252 (2 bath 25cm wide). All this equipment have temperature control. In Summer I only have a few days when it is really hot. But you can develop on 24C without to many problems.

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