Diafine, pushing, and contrast...

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Morca007

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So, my bottle of D-76 is running low, and I am considering a switch to Diafine.
I like the results others seem to get with it, the muted highlights, and controlled contrast. But I do have some questions first:

-Diafine claims a small speed increase, but other than that, it will be impossible to push or pull in it, right?
-Do you really just pour it back in the bottle after? Even if there's residual amounts of A that get mixed with the B?
-Anybody have experience using it with fomapan or APX? Those are my bread and butter (in the form of the Arista brands).

It just seems to good to be true!
 
Diafine claims two stops for Tri-X, although I've read of people rating it right down to box speed. I've shot it at 1250 for many rolls and had no trouble. Whatever speed, though, you have effectively no control during development.

You really just pour it back into the bottle afterward - the residual A in with the B is fine, but don't get any solution B into A.

Good luck with your decision. I've been developing Tri-X with Diafine for the past year as my first foray into film development. I'd planned to eventually move to more traditional developers to get more control, but I've found I'm actually pretty happy with Diafine.
 
I found that >for me< Diafine was not what I was looking for. There is no control with Diafine. You cannot push or pull, or affect contrast with agitation, or affect density with time. I dumped mine after 20 rolls.

Agitation is anything but foolproof. (I'm the proof! 🙂)
Too much in solution B and you wash the developer out of the emulsion with the activator and get underdeveloped negs, too little and the negs are ruined by bromide drag - chemical streaks.
 
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Morca,

I use diafine for a few months now. I kinda like the easiness it offers. But it indeed does NOT give you freedom. No push or pull.
If you have several rolls of different film though, that is not a problem. If you know you need high speed, use tri-x at 1600 or neopan at 1600-2400. If you want middle, you can use fp4+or most 100 speed films to get e i 200 in diafine.

What i don't like about diafine is to use it with slow speed film. Just does not make sense. Grain increases, and having low speed film happens for the sake of shooting low speed film with small grain, so makes no sense.

Finally: yes i pour it back. I have mixed up five litres of sol A and sol. B but still using the first bottle. The A has residue on the bottom, the B is discoloured - or is it the other way around, dunno - but there is no sign of change in their quality.
It does not matter if you mix a bit of soltion A into the solution B, in fact that is what happens when you put sol. B on the film that is still wet with solution A. However, be CAREFUL not to put any sol. B into sol. A. It will mess the whole thing up.

I do have another developer ready if needed, though. I think surviving with diafine only might be difficult, unless you only use high speed film.
 
Looking at results for flickr tag searches, it seems people are getting pretty good results with Diafine and foma, which is lucky. The main reason I want to switch from D76 is that I am developing in rather non-ideal conditions, no control over water temperature and stuff.
It just looks so easy.

EDIT: I nearly always shoot at 400 anyway, but I think I will order it now and keep the remaining D76 just in case I need to push.
 
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Diafine is good for shooting Tri-x at 1250 or even 1600, and I like the results alright, but it's no substitute for D-76 on my book. A very different look.
 
I've been running film tests over the past year - shot about 80 rolls through various methods.

Two primary films: Fuji Neopan 400 and Arista.EDU Ultra 400 (Foma)

I tried EVERYTHING to get a great neg out of HC-110. While I was able to get highlights under control with less agitation the blacks were never what I expected. This held true for all films tested.

Neopan 400 in Diafine - YUCK. Shot at 640 and 800 but consistently had blown-out highlights and mushy blacks. Good grain but too much messing around with photoshop curves to make it work. Probably prints well on a condenser enlarger...

Neopan 1600 in Diafine - not so great. Shot at 1600, 2000 and 2400. Never found a way to make this work without getting super high contrast results.

AEU/Foma 400 in Diafine - excellent. Shot at 320 (one of the few films that has a speed DECREASE with Diafine). Here are some results:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gdbrekke/1896314733/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gdbrekke/1897155008/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gdbrekke/1897349368/

Well, after a year of testing and trials I'm returning to my old standard of Fuji Neopan 400 (and 1600) in D-76 (1:1). It isn't exotic but it works for me. Nothing was as consistent as this or the old Tri-X in the same soup - YMMV.

That said, I have two bricks of Neopan 400 to shoot though and may return to the AEU/Diafine combo at some later date as it delivered results that I really liked.

As for Diafine use - always pour the used developer back into its respective bottle. That is supposed to "season" the developer and I can say that my 2nd and subsequent batches out of a fresh mix of Diafine always looked better than the 1st.
 
Diafine is fine. I have been using mine so much my A solution is just about gone (from absorbing into the dry film).
 
I agree with the mixed responses in this thread. It's very easy but not for all films.

I like APX400s @ 500, Foma 100 @ 100, Tri-X @ 1250-1600.

I don't like what is does to HP5+, FP4+, Neopan 1600 or PanF+. Well, rather I prefer what I get with D76 or DDX (for the HP5+).
 
for me,diafine is good for some things,but I dislike it for others.

I love it with 120 across@200 and with 35 trix@1600(I never could use this with daylight - the whites were grayish,but with streetlights,candlelight,halogen - all good).
 
I'm thinking Diafine might be a good developer for the LF tank I've just ordered ... using a large quantity of developer for six 4x5 negatives and then dumping it was making me wonder about the potential chemical consumption when shooting large format. Has anyone used Diafine with 4x5 and tri-x or hp5 .... I wouldn't expect it to be the LF holy grail but it might be an economic way to develop during the learning process of using my Crown Graphic.

I have some coming from Freestyle in a week or so and I'm looking forward to trying it!
 
Keith, I have EFKE 50 4x5 sheets and Diafine on the way. Will let you know about the results. Another option for more economic development is to grab a Unicolor drum and base for cheap and you can dev 4 at a time with a small amount of developer.
 
Originally Posted by rich815
That should not be a problem, just change your times accordingly:

http://www.digitaltruth.com/chart/timetemp.html

FrankS said:
Diafine develops to completion, so there is no time variable, as long as the minimum time is reached, and no temp variable - just keep it in a reasonable range between 60 and 100 F.
Click to expand...

Frank I was referring to his comment about D-76, not the Diafine.
 
FrankS said:
Diafine develops to completion, so there is no time variable, as long as the minimum time is reached, and no temp variable - just keep it in a reasonable range between 60 and 100 F.
Click to expand...

I've been reading up on Diafine a lot lately since ordering some, and I ran across some posts either here or on pnet where a guy was reducing dev times in solution B and actually saw some interesting results. I think it came down to souping box speed TriX for 2.5 mins in B and get less dense negs than 'full' development would give at that EI... there's probably some room to affect things a bit though reducing the times much would no doubt lead to troubles.
 
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