CineStill Df96 Monobath - any experience ?

[Huss]

Good idea about the coffee filter.
I've had other rolls of Orta developed in regular chemistry w/o any issues. Using DF96 however is a no no.

 

[Huss]

Ok, did the coffee filter thing. It was full of 'mud' by the time I filtered all of it.
Yikes.
Now to see if it still works...

 

[David_Manning]

Ranger9, I used partial-fill. Fresh chemistry, proper temperature. I turned both rolls the same rate, constantly, poured the chemistry out (back into the bottle), and filled with fresh water and cranked the knob for a minute or so (just rinsing). Then I took the reel out, and dipped it into a large bowl full of water with a few drops of dish soap. It was as easy as the videos showed, and I didn’t have any problems. Do you think your film was damaged at all before development?

 

[agentlossing]

I've had good luck with DF96. I usually aim for 75-80 degrees, I think it functions best in this range, anything over 800 has less reliable results (possibly due to decreasing/uneven temps during development period). Remember, you can err longer times if you want, it doesn't affect development. DF96 works this way: temperature is how you control development, agitation is how you control fixing. More temp, more development. More agitation, more fixing/less development. Thus the middle ground on both is what I usually take.

I have good luck with HP5 at 400 and pushed one stop to 800, Delta 400 looks good, and Foma 100 is especially nice in my opinion.

I would fully submerge the film, having it half submerged and cranking it sounds like a recipe for failure to me, you introduce uneven temps and the fixer part of the solution seems to react poorly to the unevenness of the half submerged method. Also pre-soaking hasn't done any good for me at all.

Sent from my TA-1025 using Tapatalk

 

[ranger9]

Ranger9, I used partial-fill. Fresh chemistry, proper temperature...Do you think your film was damaged at all before development?

I think prior film damage is unlikely given the variety of marks. Which temperature did you use — 70, 75, or 80? (all three are listed as “normal” in the instruction leaflet, depending on the method of agitation used.)

 

[Huss]

Anyway, I would NOT be inclined to use that batch of developer again, as presumably it's got a whole roll's worth of emulsion suspended in it now. Maybe a pass through a coffee filter would be worth a try? You could always test with a clipped-off piece of leader before committing to another roll.

Ok, took ur advice. Tested a clipped piece - perfect. Developed a roll - developer was not cloudy as I filtered it as you suggested. Came out fine.

Thanks for the heads up.

 

[Huss]

Frank and Sonny at the Alfa shop.

Nikon F4, 28-105, Arista 400, Cinestill DF96 Monobath.

 

[Huss]

Same get up as above

 

[Huss]

Zeiss Ikon Nettar, Delta 400, DF96 Monobath, Z7 scan

 

[ranger9]

Update to my previous [bad] experience: I shot another test and tried again developing in a Lab-Box using Df96. I stuck with 80 degrees and 300ml fill... but this time I was very careful to turn the agitation knob as smoothly, continuously, and evenly as possible.

This test came out MUCH better, with almost no evidence of uneven development -- just a couple of transverse marks, and they were faint. The results make me feel more optimistic about using this developer for photos I actually care about.

The evidence that smooth, even, continuous agitation is important has me thinking about the stepper motor in my parts box. Has anybody had any luck with a non-invasive way to adapt a motor to the Lab-Box?

 

[ranger9]

Example. The transverse streak is just to the left of the center of the frame. May not even be visible after Flickr compression.

https://flic.kr/p/2iW8hbH

 

[Huss]

Nikon FM, 43-86 V2, Kentmere 400, Cinestill DF96 Monobath.

 

[maryland_fotos]

I have some ways to get to the quality you are posting Huss with the Cinestill monobath. Tried it in the Stearman SP-445 a couple times and once in the monobath.

SP-445, Ilford HP5 Plus. Lack of proper agitation?

Checkmate by Maryland Photos, on Flickr

And this is 120 in the lab-box. Same film. The frames were underexposed so had to fix that in photoshop. But that was likely the camera, a very old TLR probably needing some shutter tweaking. Development seems even.

120scans003 by Maryland Photos, on Flickr

Both scanned in Epson V700

 

[David Murphy]

The results above look reasonably good. They do seem a tad "muddy", but sometimes that can work. For one thing I can see this as a a super simple way to test a camera/lens with film. I once relied on the 1 hour C41 labs for that - now they are all gone!

 

[kknox]

Untitled by kknox55, on Flickr
Cinistill 250 XX Leica MP Summaron 2.8 6 min Mono bath

 

[David Murphy]

Steve thanks for pointing out the existence of this chemistry. I just ordered two packets to try it. I've tried most of the popular home B&W and color processes since the 60's so I'm not afraid of chemical complexity, but this stuff looks fascinating for its potential fast turn around time - reminiscent of Polaroid.

 

[David Murphy]

All the shots above are very well done - Nice work!

 

[Huss]

I have some ways to get to the quality you are posting Huss with the Cinestill monobath.

All I am doing is following the instructions but for one thing. Using the 70/6min dev temp/time, I invert agitate the film tank smoothly for 10 seconds every minute.
The instructions recommend less than that at the minute marks, but when I did that I had developing streak marks through the sprocket holes.

15 seconds needs to be added to the dev time for every roll used, until you hit 8 minutes. That's it.

It really is a pour into the tank, time, agitate, pour out process. Cannot imagine it being simpler.

 

[Huss]

Nikon FM, 43-86 v2, Kentmere 400, Cinestill DF96 Monobath

 

[maryland_fotos]

Have had better results in the lab-box (120 film) and the Cinestill monobath than the couple of tries I did with the SP-445 tank. Maybe the lab-box knob just made the agitation smoother, rather than my dodgy tries at tilting the SP-445 back and forth.