New 4x5 Dev Tank - Kickstarter

stevelmx5

stevelmx5

Suspended / Banned
Messages
10,176
Name
Steve
Edit My Images
No
Looks pretty cool, definitely worth the money if it works well. Certainly cheaper than a MOD 54 that's for sure. Not sure if I'll be backing it though because I've backed two film related things in the last year and haven't got either of them yet! Have to have a think

stevelmx5 said:
I've just seen this new campaign shared on a Facebook group. From what I can see on the video it looks pretty promising and cheap at $47 for a tank, 4 double sided holders and accessories although I'm not sure what the shipping cost is.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1653453089/sp-445-compact-4x5-film-processing-system

I'm not doing much processing myself at the moment but am tempted by this.
Click to expand...

If you click on the reward it asks you to pick a country. the UK is at the bottom of the list with a $27 shipping fee!
 
Thanks Karl. I've just done the same thing and found the postage :0) £49 all in doesn't seem too bad for the limited amount of developing I do. The video suggests April/May shipping and around $80 plus postage for the RRP so a pretty good saving and short wait for shipping (assuming it comes off!)
 
Seriously tempted. I've never really got on with manual rotary processing, I'm probably never going to colour and the Jobo tank uses loads of chemistry for inversion processing.

Inc vat and parcelfarce extortion your looking ~£75 which isn't unreasonable and I could sell my jobo to cover it. The down side is of course that it wants the full $75 inc upfront, it wouldn't feel so bad if they came knocking for the p+p after the tank was ready to send.
 
It's the small amount of chemicals it needs that appeal to me, I quite often have only a couple of exposed dark slides that need processing and one of my tanks takes over a litre of chemicals. I might just add it to my ever increasing list of crowd-funded film related items that may never drop through my letterbox or even see the light of day.
 
It does look interesting, I might risk a few dollars on it. Generally though I do have more than 2 sheets to develop (Machine gun Andy) so my Mod54 does get a fair bit of use, but I can see how this would be useful.

Andy
 
Thanks for the heads up Steve, this looks really great and less faff than any of he other solutions I have at the moment.

Just backed it and they're pretty close to getting the money on this one now. Let's hope it's not my first disappointing kickstarter experience
 
Woodsy said:
Certainly would be useful. I can't see it getting the remaining $24k in the next month though!
Click to expand...

These Kickstarter things can gather steam very quickly. It's just a day later and they've nearly reached their target.
 
Blimey that shot up..... I'd better get in quick. :D
 
Even I've coughed up money for this. I'll probably never shoot any such thing but it's nice to have someone make these kinds of things.
 
I'm still a little unsure tbh...

I think I'd like to have seen some sheets that have developed in it. I've had enough uneaven development with the jobo that I'd prefer not to lose any more work.
 
Last edited:
I am very tempted, if it works and I sell the Mod54 afterwards it works out very cheap. Anyone got any idea what sort of fees you pay to import it? Last time I bought an item (a t-shirt) from the USA I paid almost as much in taxes and fees to get it into the country as I did to buy it!
 
Carl Hall said:
I am very tempted, if it works and I sell the Mod54 afterwards it works out very cheap. Anyone got any idea what sort of fees you pay to import it? Last time I bought an item (a t-shirt) from the USA I paid almost as much in taxes and fees to get it into the country as I did to buy it!
Click to expand...

Worst case, you'll pay vat at 20% plus a customs handling charge between £8-£15 depending one the mail carrier who handles the package onward from the USPS, probably royal mail so £8 but the "premium" couriers charge more.
 
Backed. Getting quite fed up with the taco approach, especially when I forget to pre-wash and the elastic band causes a large streak on the resulting negative due to the AH layer not being washed off.
 
I've just pledged too. Looks like I'll have to start shooting some more 4x5 now!
 
The team say they're going to post some sample shots after Christmas I think I'll wait till then an make a decision.
 
That was my only concern in that they haven't actually shown any direct results from it as far as I can see. Also, in the post you linked to above they stated that they haven't done any 'scientific' tests as yet to see results. However, for the cost of the Kickstarter edition versus the potential RRP I decided it's worth the risk. If I'm not happy if/when it eventually ships I'm sure I will be able to get my money back on Ebay etc.
 
Well, they've beaten their target so we'll see how their timescales pan out.
 
I like the loading idea, thats quite neat. But thats still a lot of chems for 4 negs. If they could cut it down a little more then colour me interested. The whole static mixing method with a plunger relies on a full tank. If they just attached it to a small frame that spins that would cut chem useage down a lot more.
 
Last edited:
There's nothing stopping the chemicals being re-used to develop 8 or possibly even 12 sheets (might be pushing it a bit!) in one sitting. I'd personally take a smaller tank for convenience/space over developing more sheets at once although I realise others will shoot more than I do.
 
Also, as the chem volume is reduced, for single use developers such as rodinal, it's possible that you have to start considering dev time alteration due depletion. Compared to the taco method, where 4 frames in a tank is already a bit of a squeeze, and close to 800 odd ml of solution is required, a reduction by nearly a factor of 2 in solution volume is very favourable.
 
I've just got a new update through from this project and it looks like they're ditching the 'turbulator' and reverting to an inversion tank due to potential inconsistencies with the agitation using the plunger method.
 
baea09fbf712a957b8b1275b1ba9981e_original.jpg
 
stevelmx5 said:
I've just got a new update through from this project and it looks like they're ditching the 'turbulator' and reverting to an inversion tank due to potential inconsistencies with the agitation using the plunger method.
Click to expand...

I think that's for the best, people know inversions and this saves learning another processing regime. I'm more on board now.
 
My new dev tank arrived today. I haven't had much time to look over it properly but it seems to be really well made and solid. Now i just need to build another LF camera!
 
stevelmx5 said:
My new dev tank arrived today. I haven't had much time to look over it properly but it seems to be really well made and solid. Now i just need to build another LF camera!
Click to expand...
Mine arrived too, looks good and will make it easier to just process a few sheets without loading up the bigger tanks.
 
stevelmx5 said:
My new dev tank arrived today. I haven't had much time to look over it properly but it seems to be really well made and solid. Now i just need to build another LF camera!
Click to expand...

:banana:;):whistle::ROFLMAO::LOL::snaphappy:

Only just see this kickstarter... do'h.:banghead:
 
Just grabbed a few quick pictures. I haven't used this to actually dev anything yet but it's very easy to slide the sheets in and out of the holders.

IMG_1472238919.724876.jpg

IMG_1472238928.642708.jpg

IMG_1472238935.896856.jpg

The lid seems to be a pretty tight fit with the rubber o ring but I'd probably still keep my hand on it when doing the inversions to save getting wet feet!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top