Any comments or experiences using stainless steel tanks and reels as opposed to plastic.

-- Steve Nicholls (gl1500@senet.com.au), January 23, 1999

Answers

I haven't used steel for a long time. Plastic works for me. People who like steel say they are easier to load. As far as I recall, one major difference was temperature control: steel tanks lose or gain heat from the environment rather faster. This is readily solved with a water bath, in a bathroom basin, washing-up bowl, or whatever.

-- Alan Gibson (Alan.Gibson@technologist.com), January 25, 1999.

I have a lot of experience with both stainless steel and plastic. The main advantage to stainless is ease of loading, but only if you buy the expensive Hewes reels. Cheap steel reels are just as hard to load as plastic reels. Plastic reels are easy enough to load with 35mm film that I haven't bothered spending the money on the stainless 35mm reels for my Jobo. I have found 120 film much easier to load with the Hewes reels, but I have a CPE2 Plus and cannot use the better Jobo plastic reels. Plastic reels are very finicky when it is hunid, and impossible to load when they are wet. The latter objection is easily overcome by either using a hair dryer on the reels or buying extra reels.

-- Darron Spohn (dspohn@clicknet.com), January 25, 1999.

I've just realised that the question was asked in the 'Printing and finishing' forum, rather than 'Film and processing'. My answer related to films tanks.

-- Alan Gibson (Alan.Gibson@technologist.com), January 27, 1999.

Durability. I bought a single reel SS tank (and reel) in 1950. I'm still using it. Harry

-- Harry Gehlert (cantabene@aol.com), February 18, 1999.

Steel won't absorb chemicals. I'm not so sure about plastic.

-- Nancy Goldstein (nfayegold@earthlink.net), April 25, 1999.

My folks have been pros since the 1940s and we always use plastic tanks. Most of them are "easy-load" 30-year old Ansco tanks with adjustable reels (35mm, 127, 120) and they work just fine. Aside from a crack here and there after decades of use, there hasn't been any problem with them. As far as interacting with chemicals, we've never seen any evidence of that with standard chemistry (i.e., D-76).

Sure, we have some Nikon stainless steel reels/tanks too. On a few occasions we've begun using them because they're "pro" equipment, but we always found them a pain to load, so now they just sit on the shelf...

-- Michael Goldfarb (mgoldfar@mobius-inc.com), April 26, 1999.