CineStill Df96 Monobath - any experience ?

[Huss]

17 rolls? Looks very clean!

Yup. What's annoying is I have had no issues with 120 film, but with 35mm I am starting to get bromide drag. My last roll - #16 - I agitated continuously for the first minute, then 10 seconds every minute until the time was up. I dev for 8.30 now as so many roll of film have been used.

Trying to figure this out as the 120 film has no issues... 35mm you can see the drag marks through the sprocket holes. I have been using inverting agitation.

 

[Huss]

Pentax K2, SMC 50mm f2, Super Hypan II 25, Cinestill DF96 Monobath, Z7 scan

 

[Huss]

Just developed my 18th roll from the first bottle.
Still looking good!
Just over $1/roll of film now to dev/fix/wash...

I'm now curious to see how far I can push one bottle. Push it, push it good. Push it real good..

 

[Zonan]

Just developed my 18th roll from the first bottle.
Still looking good!
Just over $1/roll of film now to dev/fix/wash...

I'm now curious to see how far I can push one bottle. Push it, push it good. Push it real good..

Any thoughts on longevity for that bottle?

Rick

 

[Huss]

Any thoughts on longevity for that bottle?

Rick

Cinestill said 2 months after it has been opened, and 16+ rolls.
I'm at 2 months, and 18 rolls. The liquid is still clear, but yellow.
I store it tightly sealed (like anyone would) and under my desk - so not in any direct sunlight etc that could heat it up.

I assume they are being conservative with the 2 month rating, just so they don't make people upset if it doesn't last as long as a longer claim...

Pretty soon I'll have two more rolls to develop, so that would be 20. Will report back.
In the mean time, I need to scan the roll I just developed and see how it looks. This will be interesting as it is new Ilford Ortho 80 film. It looks good, while the last time I tried to dev Ortho - by Silberra - it dissolved the emulsion!

 

[Huss]

Rolleiflex 2.8GX, Ilford Ortho Plus 80, Cinestill DF96 Monobath
Roll# 18 from first bottle.

 

[Huss]

Rolleiflex 2.8GX, Ilford Ortho Plus 80, Cinestill DF96 Monobath
Roll# 18 from first bottle.

 

[Huss]

Nikon N2000, 45mm 2.8P, Ilford Pan 50 in exhausted DF96 (roll #19/20 severely underdeveloped)

When life gives you lemons..post up a super grainy and contrasty pic.

 

[Huss]

Ok, to sum up.. for me a bottle of DF96 develops 18 rolls of film satisfactorily.

It does not work with Silberra Orto 50 or Adox CMS Pro 20 II.

 

[madNbad]

Which films gave you the most consistent results?

 

[Freakscene]

Rolleiflex 2.8GX, Ilford Ortho Plus 80, Cinestill DF96 Monobath
Roll# 18 from first bottle.

This one is just exquisite Huss. The combination of the subject, film and development is perfect.

Marty

 

[Huss]

Which films gave you the most consistent results?

All these films gave great results just by following the instructions Cinestill provides:

Arista 400 premium, Kentmere 400, Ilford Pan F50, Ilford Ortho Plus 80, Ilford Delta 400, Arista 400 EDU. Even the weird Super Hypan 25 was fine (but much grainer than one would expect an ISO 25 film to be. Thing is, that film is grainy in regular developer too).


I have TriX, HP5, Tmax400 waiting to be used, but I am confident there will be no issues with those either.

Of note, tabular films like Delta and Tmax take twice as long as the others to develop due to a heavier base coating that needs to clear. But as long as you do that, no issues.

Just avoid Silberra Orto 50 and Adox CMS II Pro 20!

 

[Huss]

This one is just exquisite Huss. The combination of the subject, film and development is perfect.

Marty

Thanks Marty, much appreciated!

 

[Huss]

Nikon N2000, Nikon 45mm 2.8P, Ilford Pan 50

 

[Huss]

Nikon N2000, 45mm 2.8P, Ilford Pan 50 in exhausted DF96 (roll #19/20 severely underdeveloped)

When life gives you lemons..

 

[agentlossing]

Huss, those results are great and look better than mine - probably due to better scanning. I get generally great results but the Epson V550 limits the crispness of the image.

In terms of longevity, I've used a bottle that I mixed from powder for almost 3 months and around 12 rolls, it finally gave out more form time than development I think.

The first bottle of premixed stuff from B&H that I used I only developed two or three rolls with, then it sat unused for a little over 2 months... it was severely exhausted next time I opened it, dark brown color. I'm on another bottle of premixed DF96 now, hopefully I get more use out of it. When buying the premixed stuff you of course are at the mercy of the age of the batch. I recommend the powdered form, especially after a bottle or two of premixed so you have convenient bottles of the right size to hold it!

 

[Huss]

Huss, those results are great and look better than mine - probably due to better scanning. I get generally great results but the Epson V550 limits the crispness of the image.

In terms of longevity, I've used a bottle that I mixed from powder for almost 3 months and around 12 rolls, it finally gave out more form time than development I think.

The first bottle of premixed stuff from B&H that I used I only developed two or three rolls with, then it sat unused for a little over 2 months... it was severely exhausted next time I opened it, dark brown color. I'm on another bottle of premixed DF96 now, hopefully I get more use out of it. When buying the premixed stuff you of course are at the mercy of the age of the batch. I recommend the powdered form, especially after a bottle or two of premixed so you have convenient bottles of the right size to hold it!

Good call about powdered vs bottle for knowing when it was mixed/the age. I did not think of that.
Mine was the bottle, and I also have the mix waiting to replace it. I'll be using the same bottle. There is a batch # on my bottle but I have no idea what it means - 11208.
I used mine over a period of 2 months and with 20 rolls of film - the last two were failures, so 18 rolls. Also... early on I had the failure with Silberra which stripped the emulsion into the liquid which I filtered out. That could not have done anything good to the developer! So perhaps I could have got some more rolls out of it.

Either way, if I take B&W to my local shop it is $7/roll (normally $10 but they give me a discount). With DF96 it is just over $1/roll.

As for scanning - I am using my digicam from which I have got better results than anything outside a drum scan. For 35m film I use the Nikon ES-2 slide copier device.

 

[Huss]

Nikon N2000, 45mm 2.8P, Ilford Pan 50, DF96 Monobath

 

[maryland_fotos]

CliftonMansionLMT_Nikkor90_f8_TriX320 by Maryland Photos, on Flickr

Linhof Master Technika, Nikkor 90mm f8, Tri-X 320. Development Df96 in SP445 tank.

 

[steveyork]

Ok, I had a complete and absolute failure. I tried to develop a roll of Silberra ORTA50 which is an orthochromatic film. 7.5 mins at 70 degrees.
First bad sign was when I poured the developer back out of the tank - it now was pink. I hope that doesn't bogart the rest of my DF96..
The film was completely absolutely clear. Like glass. And yes, it was fed through my camera - even the end strip where you load it into the camera that is completely exposed to daylight several times was crystal clear. If there was a film loading issue this would still be max DMX black, while the rest would have been clear.
So now I don't think I will use this product on the Ilford Ortho film I just got, which is a bummer.
I'll just use it on regular panchromatic B&W film.

This happened with me too when I used Cinestill monobath on Kodak Eastman SO331. Resulted in just a clear strip of film. No images.

Otherwise my experience with this developer is mixed. When it worked, it was excellent, but a good number of frames it left black dots. Because of this anomaly, I only used it for a few rolls of film.