I've always used aprons to develop my film as opposed to the reels. I mean, that's what I started out with eons ago, what's the advantage of the reels?

-- John L. Blue (bluescreek@hotmail.com), December 02, 1999

Answers

What is an apron? not a term I'm familar with.

-- Nigel Smith (nlandgl@eisa.net.au), December 03, 1999.

It's the old Kodacraft system. Instead of a reel, the film is wound into a sprial along with a longer-than-the-film soft plastic "apron" with ridges on the top and bottom. Like a reel, the apron keeps the film at a given point in the sprial from touching itself on either side, and the ridges allow chemistry to circulate freely. When you put the film/apron into the tank, you put a metal plate (with big holes to let chemistry circulate) on top to keep it from moving (and put in another roll/apron/plate if you want), then put on the cover and pour in your developer.

I used one a LONG time ago... for 127 and 828 Verichrome Pan. We also did some 35mm and 120 in the same tank (using different aprons - 35/828, 127, 120.) The system worked well, but after copious washing, you had to hang the aprons up to dry, which took much longer than drying the processed film.

There's nothing wrong with using the Kodacraft system if you can find tanks/aprons/plates in good condition - the only real downside was how long it took the aprons to dry. And there's really no particular "advantage" to using reels, it's just the more common solution...

-- Michael Goldfarb (mgoldfar@mobius-inc.com), December 03, 1999.

One possible disadvantage is that the soft plastic aprons may absord or adsorb some molecules of the chemicals, particularly from the complex color reversal processes.

-- Bill Mitchell (bmitch@home.com), December 03, 1999.

Way back when we called those things "lasagna".

-- Tim Brown (brownt@ase.com), December 06, 1999.