Re: [Leica] plastic or metal tank

[TTAbrahams@aol.com]

Kip et al, I too use the Paterson reels and tanks. i used a lot of stainless
reels for years, mainly for colorstuff and they are OK, but I have always
preferred the Paterson tanks. I too have accumulated a large quantity of the
reels ( probably close to 80 or 100 of them), at every swapmeet I go to I pick
up more of them! My darkroom can handle about 30 -35 rolls in one go and I
rarely bring home more than 70 rolls from a trip. I use the 5 reel tanks
exclusively and I also have collected several  of the old rotating agitators (
Arkay and some others). The 5 reel tank can roll nicely on these, saves me
having to agitate every minute while fixing and some of the devlopers that I
use work fine for continious agitation ( Crawley's FX-! is one).
 I have had a couple of tanks crack over the years and the inside cover can
wear at the "lock" so they come loose. I tried the 8 reel tanks but the
agitators kept burning out due to the weight of the tank/reels/liquid.
 After a trip I usually set up a run, even numbered rolls the first night, odd
numbered the second. This way if something would go wrong with a processrun,
you dont loose a whole segment of a shoot, only 50% ( which is bad enough). I
think this habit dates to my colorshooting days, I used to shoot A-V shows for
industrial clients, you came back with 300-400 rolls after 5 days and the
thought of having to reshoot was abhorrent. This way you could "fix" the show
with the surviving slides! Old habits die hard! No. I did not use
Rapidwinders, I used N###N's with F-36 or later the Md-2 drives, 4 of those
with lenses from 15 to 180. No wonder the M's feel like featherweights even
now!
Tom A