Do's and Don'ts of Diafine

[kully]

TMZ in Diafine is 1000-1250 from having a quick look around various postings here and elsewhere.

I bought some of this stuff couple of weeks ago - going to dev some Tri-X, HP5 and Fomapan 100 in it this afternoon.

Stephanie: It doesn't seem to 'push' everything - Delta 3200 and Neopan 1600 are both suggested being rated lower than their advertised rating. But then people say these are pushed slower films anyway.

 

[rover]

Here is the diafine box...... As kully says tgrain films don't show the speed increase over their box numbers, but in true ISO I believe TMZ is really an iso 800 film and Delta 3200 is closer to 1000.

Steph, what happened to your last batch of Diafine? I am still working my first.

 

[jrong]

There was a huge thread on APUG dedicated to the topic of how long you should wash your negs for after processing, to get rid of residual traces of fixer. I think eventually, the consensus was that Ilford's method of washing and inversion (5-10-20) was adequate. It was surprisingly economic with the use of water, which is particularly important to me. No HCA was required. Are you guys trying to confuse me again? 😉

Jin

 

[kmack]

There was a huge thread on APUG dedicated to the topic of how long you should wash your negs for after processing, to get rid of residual traces of fixer. I think eventually, the consensus was that Ilford's method of washing and inversion (5-10-20) was adequate. It was surprisingly economic with the use of water, which is particularly important to me. No HCA was required. Are you guys trying to confuse me again? 😉

Jin

Ask 50 photographers about film development and you will get 175 different answers.

I use Ilford fixer and the Ilford wash (fill tank invert 5 times, empty tank, fill tank invert 10 times, empty tank, fill tank invert 20 times empty tank) and then I will fill the tank with fresh water while I go upstars to turn on the shower ( to cut down the dust in the air) for a few minutes. I remove the reels from the tank and place them into a plastic container containing photoflo solution then I hang the film in the shower to dry. It may not be archival but it works for me.

My process for 4x5 is different and I will not list it here.

 

[Jim Watts]

Has anyone tried Diafine with 4 x 5 film in a tank?

I normally tray develop FP4 in ID11 (D76), but no longer have a darkroom that allows me to do this. I do have a Combiplan 4 x 5 developing tank, but have not been happy with tank developed 4 x 5 in the past. The tank takes too long to fill and empty and is not easy to agitate which can lead to uneven development.

Two shot, minimal agitation development may be the answer. I do note that many here don't favour Diafine with FP4 though. Any experiences and recommendations appreciated.

 

[jano]

I'm going to assume so because Diafine pushes almost all film a bit. I'd do some research, though.

You know which ones it does not? So far, I've found I like Fomapan 200 (arista.edu ultra 200) actually at 100, so complete opposite! Weird! But then, I've only shot foma, acros, efke, and trix in b&w. *shrug*

Question regarding gallon diafine.. does it require TWO gallons, or just ONE? i.e. 1 gallon for A and 1 for B, or 1/2 for A and 1/2 for B? My quart sized diafine is nearly run out, I stored it in bottles which were hard to pour from, so I always lost a bit when using it.

 

[kmack]

Has anyone tried Diafine with 4 x 5 film in a tank?

Yes, I have an old FR tank and I have developed some Arista 200 4x5 film. The only real drawback was that the Anti-halation layer stained my Solution A a rich dark green. Normally I presoak and use Rodinal or Clayton F76+ with my 4x5's (Rodinal with semi-stand in the tank, F76+ when tube processing) The Diafine worked OK other wise. I just did not like the Arista Diafine combo.

 

[dagabel]

Thanks everyone for the replies about HCA - I just ordered some from Adorama since it's cheap, and I'll experiment with the different wash methods.

Thanks so much again!
Duane

 

[Dougg]

Question regarding gallon diafine.. does it require TWO gallons, or just ONE? i.e. 1 gallon for A and 1 for B, or 1/2 for A and 1/2 for B? My quart sized diafine is nearly run out, I stored it in bottles which were hard to pour from, so I always lost a bit when using it.

Jano, with the gallon kit you mix up a gallon of A and a gallon of B... same idea as with your quart size of each part... 🙂

 

[jano]

Right. It's monday. I've been up since before 5am, swim practice 😛

 

[Stephanie Brim]

Snippy...

Steph, what happened to your last batch of Diafine? I am still working my first.

It ate through the gallon milk jugs I put it in. I don't know why. This next batch is getting some heavy duty plastic jugs until I can find some glass jugs for it.

 

[bmicklea]

Does anyone know where I can find Diafine in Canada - I would have thought that one of the Toronto stores would have it but they don't seem to.

 

[kmack]

Just order it on-line from Freestyle
or Fotogeeks

 

[bmicklea]

Just order it on-line from Freestyle
or Fotogeeks

Perfect, thanks!

 

[Stephanie Brim]

I just mixed up the batch that I got. I'm putting a roll of Neopan and a roll of Reala (don't ask) through it today. Should be lots of fun.

 

[rover]

I just bought some chemicals too. With the ever reusable diafine the only thing I seem to always have is developer.

Actually, I forgot to check my fixer, I bet I am running low on that. Oh well, two trips to the photo shop in one week, not a bad thing I guess.

 

[tajart]

shake rattle roll

shake rattle roll

i finally got my diafine mixed and developed a roll of hp5+ @800.
i inverted a couple of gentle turns and rapped to dislodge the possibility of bubbles, followed by a gentle swirl each of the four minutes.
the contrast looks good, but there are some areas that appear to be uneven, perhaps streaking or the bromide trails referenced earlier in this thread.
experiment of course, but the question remains, to agitate or not?

 

[Dougg]

That agitation seems suitably minimal to me... so indeed the question. Maybe make the agitation different for each occasion. Like, rock the tank, next time rotate the tank half a turn, next time jiggle it back and forth. I tend to agititate in a similar pattern each occasion and don't see any unevenness, but I'm wondering if deliberately varying the pattern of agitation movment to make the fluid flow in varying ways might be a good thing. It really shouldn't be all that critical... One of the things I like about Diafine is how non-critical the whole procedure is!

 

[NickTrop]

About the only "don't" with Diafine, is "don't" drink the stuff. (Or pour A into the B container...)

 

[dagabel]

I just developed my first roll of Tri-X shot at 1200 in Diafine on Sunday night. Although I felt a real sense of accomplishment at having finally developed my own film, the results were not what I expected:

1. Dusty - I'll try the shower trick next time
2. Chemical trails of some kind in the darker areas. I did one inversion in B, so perhaps I'll alter that
3. Grainy - wow, very grainy - to the extent the images don't even look sharp

However, the exposure on most shots looked OK, so that's a good thing!

So, I'm next going to take more deliberate test shots with two cameras and different lenses to try to rule out user error; I've only been using rangefinders for 6 months or so.

Then, I may come back to you fine people for more advice!

Duane