Stephanie Brim
Mental Experimental.
My Diafine should come in the mail next week. I'm kind of excited.
Agree with Frank... Sounds like my old problem with Diafine years ago before I figured out the agitation had to be minimal. I kept giving Tri-X more exposure but it didn't help... The Bath B agitation I was giving it was typical for other developers, but in Diafine it was just too much, washing Bath A developer out of the emulsion where it was needed. There was never enough developer remaining available to handle even overexposure, so the developed film was always on the thin side.
XAos
Well-known
Does the same go for stuff that looks ok density wise but ends up all being Zone IV - VI? I've had this problem lately too, I guess I got a little carried away in the war on bromide streamers. I think I'll also stick to Tri-X just for consistency till I get the hang of sunny-16. I don't have a lot of shutter speed to play with (1/400th) but I can dial down to f/45. (Yikes, can I really shoot Tri-X in diafine on the ski slopes with this thing?)
Sounds real dull, XAos... Could the film have gotten fogged? I can't think of any Diafine-related quirk that would have that result.
XAos
Well-known
Wow. Over agitation it is. I kept it to two inversions at 1 min, 2 more at 2 min. Looks much better.
No streamers either (but no sprocket holes, so perhaps they're just more distributed)
No streamers either (but no sprocket holes, so perhaps they're just more distributed)
W
wlewisiii
Guest
It's interesting to also note that today I learned that it really is very possible to under agitate Diafine (at least with sheet film.) I went with 5 min for A and then 1:30 (agitate), 1:30 (agitate) 1:30 (agitate) and 30 seconds (agitate and pour off). This made an easily visable difference in my 4x5 negs. No bromide drag and no excessivly thin spots. It was a real eye-opener for me.
Thanks!
William
Thanks!
William
T_om
Well-known
XAos said:
If you need less speed, keep in mind that Plus-X works just as well as Tri-X in Diafine. By that I mean it is a excellent Diafine choice and gives consistently good results, just like Tri-X but at a nominal speed of about 400 or so. If you need to go even slower, Ilford FP4 between 200 and 300 is also a good choice.
Tom
T_om
Well-known
wlewisiii said:
William,
Keep in mind that just about all the development that CAN take place has done so in the first three minutes in bath B. After 3 minutes, the developer is pretty much exhausted.
Therefore, with the above agitation schedule, you are actually only agitating the film once (at the 1:30 minute mark). By the second 1:30 minute mark, development is all but complete. After that, agitation should have no effect whatsoever so your last two agitation cycles are not doing anything at all.
Tom
XAos
Well-known
T_om said:
I have been shooting plus-x in the rb67. I got a spool of 35mm as well, but I only have one loader. Now that it looks like overagitation was my problem, I'll happily use plus-X. More serious photographic considerations aside, It makes the math easier when you're dealing with paper slide rule exposures and a slow max shutter speed.