reusing diafine?

[jano]

Hi,

I was snooping around a camera store yesterday and saw they had a small box of diafine for $9. I've seen it mentioned here a lot, but never gave it any thought, then on an impulse, bought it. 😀

It appears one can reuse the solutions, A and B, as long as one is careful about preventing cross contamination. So uhm.. how do you keep that from happening after you pour solution A back into the designated container? Pouring solution b into the tank will still have some A in it. The instructions say no rinsinse between the baths.

Just making sure that it is "okay" to reuse B after some minor contact with A.

Thanks 🙂

 

[T_om]

Hi,

I was snooping around a camera store yesterday and saw they had a small box of diafine for $9. I've seen it mentioned here a lot, but never gave it any thought, then on an impulse, bought it. 😀

It appears one can reuse the solutions, A and B, as long as one is careful about preventing cross contamination. So uhm.. how do you keep that from happening after you pour solution A back into the designated container? Pouring solution b into the tank will still have some A in it. The instructions say no rinsinse between the baths.

Just making sure that it is "okay" to reuse B after some minor contact with A.

Thanks 🙂

Diafine can stand a bit of A going into B. What it cannot stand is the reverse... never get B into A.

By the way, my current batch of Diafine will be one year old next week. It is just hitting it's stride. Diafine actually gets better as it ages a bit. I expect this batch to keep going about another year, given my current film consumption. I do not shoot nearly as much film as I used to. Probably only 15 to 20 rolls a month now.

Tom

PS: After a while, part B will look like a science experiment gone terribly wrong... but it will be perfectly fine. If it bothers you too much, you can always strain out the big chunks and keep right on going. Personally, I don't bother as no matter how bad it looks, it never effects the film. 🙂

 

[kaiyen]

Actually, from a technical standpoint (assuming I got my stuff straight, of course), you _need_ A to be in the tank when you pour in B. The idea is that the emulsion soaks up A, then B activates it. The reason why it's such a great contrast controller and speed increasing film is that, since you aren't introducing any _more_ A into the 2nd phase than what was already soaked up, the development in the highlight areas will exhaust and stop way before that activity in the shadows.

Of course, I'm sure you'll want to get as much of the _excess_ A out of the tank before pouring in the B.

allan

 

[T_om]

Actually, from a technical standpoint (assuming I got my stuff straight, of course), you _need_ A to be in the tank when you pour in B. The idea is that the emulsion soaks up A, then B activates it...

Allen is correct... you need the film to have soaked in, and absorbed, solution A and that is what actually develops the film when part B activates the process.

But you do want to drain as much part A out of the tanks as you can. You want the A solution carried forward to be what the film has soaked up, not what is left sloshing around in the tank.

There is no hurry for this at all. Take your time and drain the A solution back into it's jug very thoroughly. Time is pretty meaningless when developing with Diafine.

Tom

 

[wlewisiii]

A side qusetion regarding Diafine. I recieved yesterday an old Agfa Rondinax 35U daylight dev tank. It works by spooling the film out of the canister and onto a reel in the tank for developing. The instructions assume that you continuously turn the reel during developement. I was wondering if anyone had tried this kind of tank with Diafine?

Thanks,

William

 

[RayPA]

Actually, from a technical standpoint (assuming I got my stuff straight, of course), you _need_ A to be in the tank when you pour in B. The idea is that the emulsion soaks up A, then B activates it. The reason why it's such a great contrast controller and speed increasing film is that, since you aren't introducing any _more_ A into the 2nd phase than what was already soaked up, the development in the highlight areas will exhaust and stop way before that activity in the shadows.

Of course, I'm sure you'll want to get as much of the _excess_ A out of the tank before pouring in the B.

allan

...and of course not unique to Diafine, but common to all divided/compensating developers.

I am amazed at Diafine's longevity though. On the simple divided developers I make (1 liter), I see a decrease in activity after 5-7 rolls, such that I won't trust them beyond that to do the job anymore.



.

 

[kaiyen]

Ray is absolutely correct - that's the basic principle of any divided developer.

I keep meaning to try divided development, but never get around to it. Perhaps after I'm done testing Microphen. Which I will do after I finish testing Perceptol. Oh, and I gotta finish that F76, too...

hm.

allan

 

[Doug]

The instructions assume that you continuously turn the reel during developement. I was wondering if anyone had tried this kind of tank with Diafine?

Hi William... continuous agitation is ok in Bath A, as all that's happening is A soaking into the emulstion of the film. But that would be a major problem in my experience in Bath B, and would tend to wash the A developer out of the emulsion and cause underdevelopment as well as loss of the compensating action. Very minimal agitation is best in Bath B, just an occasional twitch. 😀

 

[Stephanie Brim]

T_om: My part B looks as though it could start supporting strange lifeforms very soon. Works better now than it did when I started using it.

 

[derevaun]

I've gotten bromide drag wth Diafine; I assume that's due to insuffucient agitation in the B bath. I haven't got it dialed in, but I'd guess that it's the "gentle" part that's important and that it shouldn't be confused with "infrequent." Or, like Doug put it, an occasional twitch. I'm moving to a twitch every 30 seconds, and loading the film with the sky at the bottom of the tank.

 

[wclavey]

My current batch of Diafine is 17 months old. The solution A had gone down in volume some from the original 1 gallon so I got a 1 qt size kit, mixed up new solution A and added it to the old... still working great. I love to watch the change in solution colors when I develop Tmax in it... reminds me of growing up in the 60's.

 

[wlewisiii]

Heh. You want color change? Develope some chromogenic C-41 with it. It works fine (although I doubt the long term stability of the negs) and it makes some amazing colors in the B solution... 😱

William