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Focus of the Negative Ending the frustration

Black and White Paper Developer Formulas

You can develop large format negatives in PVC tubes (thin plastic pipe, like under the sink) cut to the size required for the negative. One negative per tube and you can process as many "tubes" at a time that you can handle. I like four to six. Since each film is in a tube of it's own, you can apply different development times for each film when required. Say two sheets require ten minutes, two at fourteen and two at seven, have tubes cut at different sizes so in the dark you can identify the tubes.

The amount of developer used is small , all you are doing is rolling the tube in the solution, that is, only covering the bottom part of the tube. After the stop bath, each film comes out of each tube and into the fix. Some of the anti-halition backing will be left on in places that press up to the back of the tube and don't receive as much solution, if fixed in the tube.

The tubes are open ended, so naturally you must develop in the dark. If you want the lights on, you can make screw on lids from the supplies found at your plumbing store. If you want to buy pre-made tubes contact Darkroom Innovations.

Both"how to make" and "how to buy tubes" can be found in an old issue (1989/1990) of Darkroom and Techniques.

  The tube is PVC (plastic) and the thinnest type you can find. My thickness of tube is about 1.5mm. The outside diameter of the pipe is 5cm. (this can be smaller). The length is 13.5cm . The pipe is usually sold in three, four or five meter lengths at a few cents a meter, so one length can make many tubes of different sizes. The other sizes could be 15cm, 17cm and up. Make sure the inside of the pipe is very smooth, some types are and some are not. Cut the pipe with a hack saw and sand the ends smooth.

When ready, the film comes straight from your film holder and inserted into the tube. Slightly curl the film and push it into the tube, film backing against wall of tube, (emulsion side out). Leave tube standing up until you have loaded the other tubes. Any type of tray (microwave plastic or glass trays work well) size as close as possible to the number of tubes being developed. For example lets say four tubes at sizes of 13.5cm and 16 cm. The tray would be about 25cm x 18cm. The developer added into the tray and diluted at the rate you use for brand x developing brand y type of film. Test how much liquid it takes to cover just the bottom of the inside of the film. The tray above would require about 200 ml of liquid and if it was a 1:3 mix, 50ml of developer plus 150ml of water =200ml. For larger trays just keep your ml per film constant.

Now all films are loaded and all four tubes are put into the tray and rolled, pushing your hand over the top of the tube rolls the tube. I like to change the tubes during developing about every minute. The front tube goes to the back, thus all the tubes slide up and all tubes receive the same amount of roll.

You will have to experiment with development times and developers, but you can do one test at one time if you wish. i.e., use four or six tubes all of different sizes and develop, one at 3 minutes, 6 minutes., 9 minutes., 12 minutes, 15 minutes, 18 minutes. The only time it gets hairy is when you pull the film from the tube after the stop bath and put it into the fix. You will need one large tray of fixer or four to six little trays (about the size of the film) while still rolling the tubes with your left hand and watching the times. If you do get scratches after all of this it will be coming from the fixer tray (if you're putting all of the film in one tray and the corners rub, but this only occurs within the first thirty to sixty seconds).

If all film tubes are to be processed for the same time, just fill up the stop bath so it covers the whole tube while you transfer the film to fix. They can sit with no problems, don't rush. You may have to give the film a good tug, but it will be fine. If one is really stuck (the back is dry and the tube is dry) try pulling the film out while under the stop or fix.

With different size tubes, it is possible to develop different film types at the same time as developing another type of film in the same developer. Or do plus minus development with ease.

It's a little bit of work making the tubes but I think it is well worth it. It is very cheap , very simple and gives total control over the development for even negatives.

Focus of the Negative

I have a Beseler 45MXT enlarger and for almost a decade it has performed extremely well. My only fault in the enlarger is it cannot focus the negative extremely fine, quickly. It can focus but very slowly while sweat pours down my face as the minutes tick by while I try over and over again to finely focus the negative on my high quality grain focuser. I was always experiencing a "jump" in focus.

Over the years I have pondered how to make the enlarger focus smoothly to cancel that focus jump from one focus point to the next. Not being mechanically incline nor wanting to wreck by enlarger I put up with the sweat and frustration on focusing. Then in August while cruising the Deja News groups I saw a little posting from some one offering a Prototype mechanism called E-Z-Focus tm. I asked for more information from Mr. Bill Carson and ordered the focusing unit.

The E-Z-Focus tm arrived very quickly, even at my location in the arctic and came pre-assembled making it easy on how it will be put on your enlarger. It is a simple little geared united that can finely focus the negative image. The E-Z-Focus even came with all necessary allen hex wrench tools required to put the unit on the focusing pinion shaft. With in no time I had it on and working.

I then put the E-Z-Focus tm unit to a test - would it really help as the E-Z-Focus tm statement says "This modification, when installed on your Beseler enlarger, will make precise, accurate fine-focusing of your images much, much easier than trying to focus the machine without E-Z-Focus tm". Well after a good solid printing of some very special prints for a Gallery the E-Z-Focus sure made my focusing faster and with out the frustrating sweat. The jump was gone.

If you would like further information contact Mr. Bill Carson at Carson Industries, La Conner, Washington, 98257 USA, phone 360-466-3823, fax 360-466-1192, e-mail poppie@fidalgo.net.

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