Strange Problem - HIE + Diafine

[NickTrop]

The negs are drying... I'll see if any are salvageable, but I can see in the negative "dark" (which would be lighter when printed) "stripes" that align with the sprocket holes, which run 1/3 of the way up the negative. The first few frames are okay than the "stripes" get worse further into the roll straight to the end. Weird. First time out with HIE... Used Diafine because I thought it would be better than Rodinal (the only two developers I currently have "stocked" at the moment).

First time I ever had something like this occur... Must have something to do with how I developed them. Diafine is usually fool-proof.

Anyone ever have this problem? They're like these overdeveloped stripes that align with the bottom sprokets. Kinda bummed. Was looking forward to my fist stab at self-developed HIE.

 

[FrankS]

Could be something called bromide drag caused by too little agitation with Diafine.

I found Diafine anything but foolproof with regards to agitation: too little and you get what you describe, too much in sol'n B and you get underdevelopment due to washing out of the developer (sol'n A). On top of that, Diafine gives you no control of contrast or density. I fairly quickly dumped mine out and kept looking for a better developer <for me>.

One thing Diafine has going for it is that you can develop different kinds and speeds of B+W film together because it is a "develop to exhaustion" type of developer.

 

[NickTrop]

Thanks FrankS... Yep, bet that's what it is, "bromide drag". I read about that before but never experienced it. This is probably because I developed it 5 minutes A, 5 minutes B, per Digital Truth and agitated infrequently, based on both directions and some bad info I recalled that you don't have to agitate Diafine at all (read on some photo blog somewhere...)

I agree about Diafine. I usually only use Diafine with Tri-X, which is my favorite high-speed black and white combo, and is also economical. My Lynx 14 pretty much always has bulk-loaded Tri-X in it for high-speed stuff.

Sigh... live n learn. Today's lesson, "bromide drag".

 

[FrankS]

Ah yes, Tri-X and Diafine is another good reason to use it.

 

[NickTrop]

Well, next time I use Diafine I'll be on-guard for bromide drag and agitate more carefully. Thanks again for today's lesson, FrankS.