I have a FR sheet film developing tank. About 5" sq and 6" deep. Holds about a quart of liquid and has slots running vertically for 4x5 sheet. and is designed to be used in the daylight. Looks useful. Anyone ever seen one and know of any reasone it might not be OK.?

-- joe zarick (jza1058168@aol.com), October 28, 2001

Answers

Sounds very much like the one marketed under the Yankee name. If so, its primary problems are that it cannot be inverted and it takes a lot of chemicals to fill it.

But it does work, and if you're on a budget and need a daylight tank cheap, it'll do. It should last you much more than long enough to decide that some other system, like the Jobo, is preferable. It took me about two or three runs through the tank to get to that point.

Tony

-- Anthony J. Kohler (arbitrator@uneedspeed.net), October 28, 2001.

Joe:

I have one and use it all the time. The FR and Yankee are indentical, being made from the same molds. I now have one labelled Yankee but can see it is identical to the FR. This design must date back to well before WWII when FR (Fink Rosenwall?) was big in home darkroom stuff.

It is not perfect and likley not as "good" or handy as the Jobo, but since I do only a few sheets a week at most, I can not justify the $$ needed. It indeed can not be inverted but agitiation can be achieved by swirling and side-to side motions.

My only hassle is learing how to get the film into the slots correctly, but like any other physical learning proecess, it improves with time.

There is sometimes a bit of uneveness in development but this has never caused a real problem for me.

Have fun.

-- RICHARD ILOMAKI (richardjx@hotmail.com), October 28, 2001.

I've used the FR tank, and while it isn't the same as the Yankee tank, in operation they're about the same. It's relatively easy to load, especially if yours came with the loading guide, and I never had problems with uneven development. And even after you've moved on to something else, the FR tank should work fine for clearing Polaroid type 55 negatives.

-- Dave Brown (wolfgang@peakpeak.com), October 28, 2001.