The processing of photographic material involves a series of steps such as developing, bleaching, fixing, washing and drying. These steps involve the conveyance of a continuous web of film or cut sheets of film or photographic paper sequentially through a series of stations or tanks, with each one containing a different processing liquid appropriate to the processing step at that station.
Conventional processing tanks are of a fixed size and therefore have a fixed processing path length. In some cases, a shorter processing path length or less chemicals are adequate to process photosensitive material. The use of conventional processing tanks having fixed processing path lengths to process photosensitive material in a process in which a shorter processing path length is adequate results in a waste of processing solution, as well as an increased processing time.