Diafine and Tri-X @ 6400... Train wreck waiting to happen?

[schmoozit]

I have some Diafine on the way to me here in Okinawa from Huron camera (thanks to RFF tipsters). This will be the first time to use it, and I'm trying to comprehend just what I can expect. From what I can tell, beyond the "normal" increase in speed, I cannot expect to really push things much beyond 1600 for Tri-X. Am I right in this?

Until now I've only souped my Tri-X in T-Max Dev, and only a few times at that. I have been extremely happy doing so, but will at the very least be happy to use Diafine for more moderate ratings.

Ooodles and ooodles of thanks to everyone for a lot of great info here.

 

[FrankS]

Greetings to you in Okinawa!

"I cannot expect to really push things much beyond 1600 for Tri-X. Am I right in this?"

That is correct. Increasing the time or temp. (or agitation) will not result in increased development when using Diafine.

 

[Poptart]

Diafine will give you an honest 1600 with tri-x and a thin 3200. 6400 has never worked out for me, but maybe you can give it a try.

 

[schmoozit]

Thanks for the replies. I did mean to ask about shooting at 3200, but forgot. I guessed it might work, so thanks for mentioning that.

Unfortunately for me, I couldn't get any Tri-X for shooting last night, and so wound up with a 400 Fuji offering instead. I hope I can make something of it at 6400. I shouldn't have rated it that high, but the shooting conditions changed to something quite different than I'd expected, and I never thought to change the rating until I'd fired off several shots already.

 

[aizan]

it won't work. just get delta 3200 or tmax p3200.

 

[Stephan]

If you still want to develop that film, use rodinal, it should come out fine 🙂 Just remember to use a low filter for enlarging, like grade 1.5 maximum 😉

 

[Skinny McGee]

I pushed Tri X to 12850 with Rodinal. It does away with any grey tones but it gave me some interesting shots

 

[schmoozit]

Hey, thanks for the further suggestions. I don't have access to much in the way of chemicals here, and was happy as could be that Huron Camera would send the Diafine via USPS. It saves a lot of potential hassles. I get the impression that Tri-X @ 12850 would probably be as good or better in T-Max Dev (available locally) than the Rodinal, but won't know till I try... I will try!

 

[jlw]

As noted above, you can't "push" in Diafine in the normal way because of the way it works -- extending the developing time in Part A doesn't make any difference.

But... You can get higher EIs by running the film through both baths twice. IIRC, what I used to do was put it through A and B as recommended, then let it sit in still water for one minute to rinse off the excess B, then put it through A and B again as recommended.

This would give me a sorta-kinda-pretend EI 6400 as long as I didn't care about having any shadow detail! But "back in the day," it was a friendlier solution than the only other viable alternative, which was to shoot Kodak 2475 Recording Film, with its extended red sensitivity and ferociously curly Estar base.

 

[FrankS]

Put it through twice? Cool. I didn't know that.

 

[Rodinal Addict]

Hey Skinny, what times and dilution did you use for that Rodinal and tri-x?

Robin

 

[Skinny McGee]

I got my info from someones post on this site.


Pushing film to 12,800


All the times were for Rodinal 1:50. Easy way to get 1:50 is 10cc Rodinal with water added to make 500cc. In the US this gets me 16 ounces of Rodinal at 1:50

The times were:

TX ASA12,800 51 minutes

TX ASA 3200 30 minutes

TX ASA 1600 22 minutes

All were at 68F/20C. Agitation is first 30 secs, and then every 5 minutes agitate again for 5 seconds, then wait another 5 minutes. There is always some variation in peoples technique. The key is to always do it the same and you'll find more exact times for you. For example it took me 8-10 secs. to finish my 5 inversions of the tank. Not really a big deal.

 

[Skinny McGee]

I also developed some @ 6400 which is not on the chart so I kinda guestamated in the middle of 3200 and 12850

 

[Poptart]

Who wants to develop film for 51 minutes?

Here's an old newspaper trick you guys might like: you can develop a roll of fast film in 1 minute (for the standard speed rating) in plain old Dektol. If I remember right, you use the standard 1:1 dilution w/ agitation at 30 seconds. Be quick about it and use a rapid fixer. The negs aren't fine-grained but they are sharp, with really beautiful gradation. I think you can improvise and increase the development time to say, 3 minutes for ei 2000, etc.

 

[jlw]

Who wants to develop film for 51 minutes?

I hear ya. For that matter, who wants to push Tri-X to those speeds at all, now that better alternatives (e.g. T-Max 3200, aka TMZ) are available?

TMZ gives full shadow detail at EI 1200 when developed in T-Max liquid developer, and goes to 3200 or 6400 easily enough with corresponding increases in grain and reductions of shadow detail. Results are much better than I got with all the weird voodoo techniques of the olden days, and believe me, I tried just about all of 'em!

 

[jdos2]

I've sold (as a wedding photographer) shots from Illford 3200 pushed all the way up to 12,000 (church, no flash permitted) and developed in... T-Max. Looked fine, didn't print grainy, and there was SOME tonal scale, though we did dampen contrast as much as possible. It's do-able, though I recommend as much negative area as possible.

 

[schmoozit]

Hey! Thanks again, everyone. The info just gets better and better.

Jlw, I figured there must be some way. I'll try it out sometime.

I hear ya. For that matter, who wants to push Tri-X to those speeds at all, now that better alternatives (e.g. T-Max 3200, aka TMZ) are available?

But, I am going for a look more than anything. That said, I haven't enough experience to know what film in what developer will give what results. One thing I do know, however, is that I like the looks of Tri-X pushed to ungodly speeds.