Ok, I know Diafine, what's next? Wishlist.

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Ronald_H

Don't call me Ron
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As some of you might remember, since this year I've joined the ranks of 'home developers'.

I started using Diafine with Tri-X, because that does near miracles for low light high-contrast shooting. Other fast 'traditional' fast films do well too (Neopan 1600, HP5+)

Now I want to progress to optimum development for slower films. I like Ilford FP4+ a lot, but I also want to try Delta 100 and Kodak TMX.

Here is my wishlist:

- Optimal development for slower films
- Compatible with traditional and new emulsions
- Long shelf life (like rodinal and HC-110 are rumoured to have)
- Preferably (economically) usable as 'one-shot' for the working developer

I'm looking for something pretty universal I guess, I'm not looking for extreme pushing, stand development etc. I just want sharp negs with good tonality and I intend to rate the films at box speed.

Fire away!
 
Barry's two bath.

You get the ease of use of the Diafine and it is more versitile than Diafine. It's relatively insensitive to time or temperature.
I don't use it as a one shot, because it works so well reused. I reuse it for about 15 rolls and saw no degredation from roll to roll. I only dumped it because I read that 15 was a good limit and because the 2nd bath starts to smell like last week's gym socks.
I've gotten good results with efke 25, efke 50, PanF+ and FP4 (everything I've tried).
I'm going to get about 90 rolls out of my first batch of chemicals that cost about $25. Only one of the 3 chemicals is running out and I expect to get upwards of 250 rolls done for a total of about $35 (being conservative here I think).

So, if you liked the 2 bath method for Diafine, Barry's is a natural follow on. In fact, that's the two developers I have on hand now.
 
Mix your own! 😀

PC-TEA & 510-Pyro are two great candidates, easy to mix, simple formulas, keep forever in stock solution, very economical (you use respectively at 1:50 & 1:100 dilutions), and - did I mention they held great results? 😀
 
You already said it: Rodinal and HC-110. I have to shoot Rodinal with TMX at 50 though. Here is TMX at 100 using Rodinal 1+100 semi-stand development.

2350541675_60d8b06b95.jpg
 
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Rodinal. D-76. Oldies but goodies.

Join the Large Format Photography Forum and read the current discussion about Diafine and Fuji Acros and scanning quality negatives.

charjohncarter: Your photos continue to amaze and inspire me. Thanks!
 
I ordered a bottle of HC-110. Also found a good site on it, with plenty of practical info.

I do not shoot enough to try everything at once, but looking at my needs HC-110 looks a good candidate. I decided against Rodinal for now, because I don't think I'm going to like scanning my HP5+ much if I develop it in Rodinal.

I am too unexperienced in this to take all the nuances into account just yet, something I learned all to well in 10 years into photography. But that's for another thread.

Btw John, that shot you posted looks glorious!
 
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