Comments on: Diafine Developer and TX…Part 1.5

By: Daniel

Daniel — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 07:34:25 +0000

I’ve been back and forth to this post at least a dozen times over the last 3+ years, mesmerized by these breathtaking images. Life has been demanding – not giving me the time and mental breadth to focus on photography to the extent I’d like – so for the longest time I’ve been a spectator. Thats changing now, and I’m grateful for that. I plan to use the time to reinvent myself through my lifelong passion for making photographs, which brings me to my point: I’ve been dying to try out Tri-x and Diafine. From your posts/videos I’m assuming it’s a flat 4.5 mins in a/b. I admit I was somewhat discouraged by the images I’ve seen posted to the Diafine user group on Flickr. Having seen these marvelous images onces again I’m inspired.

Is that offer to drop by for a peek at the prints still on the table?

By: Craig Goodrich

Craig Goodrich — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 05:14:31 +0000

All of the advantages cited here for Diafine apply pretty much to any divided developer. One which has most of Diafine’s advantages and none of its disadvantages is Divided D-76, formula at http://www.jackspcs.com/dd76v.htm (FSD-76 is closest to the original).

Back in the mid-’70s when I had the time, youth, and enthusiasm for this kind of messing around, I did a lot with Divided D-76 and had very good luck with it, especially when I needed very long-scale negs. But the chemicals have to be mixed in a specific order; find a good article on the subject before just dumping them into a jug.

An advantage of DD-76 is that you can use a big tank and develop everything — PX, TX, FX, FP4, HP5, … — together, since the emulsion thickness and thus the amount of developer absorbed varies with the speed. If you have a carload of different films to develop at once, this is handy, as long as they have all been exposed at around their nominal ASA.

Another trick is to use normal Kodak D-76 1:1 for the first bath with little agitation (other than the obligatory bubble knock) for about half the normal time, then put the film in the DD-76 B bath (50 g/l Borax) with the recommended agitation. Lose about half a stop but lots of compensation effect. Do not not not presoak; the only reason to do that with Diafine is to in effect dilute the A so the B doesn’t act quite so much like boiling your film in lye.

I used Diafine at one point, was not impressed. However, with TX or HP5 it produced between a half and a full stop speed increase (probably from the phenidone) without excessive grain if you use the Diafine A and the DD-76 B. Save the Diafine B for cleaning your oven.

Damn, this makes me wish I still had the time …

By: Benny Drawdy

Benny Drawdy — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 06:24:25 +0000

Thanks, you guys explained everthing I needed to know and very quicly 10 out of 10!

By: ED Med

ED Med — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 18:12:56 +0000

Great content which I found very useful – will surely come back again.

By: figitalrevolution

figitalrevolution — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 14:10:51 +0000

Hello- your english is just fine… depending on the film you are using there may be no purple cast to the water when you dump the pre wet… LFN is a wetting agent that you can use or not use… in most cases it is used to help film dry without spots but in the prewet it can also be used but again it is not necessary… I’d try this… fill the tank with the distilled water and then do standard agitation for 1 or 2 minutes and dump… no color no worries…. just be sure to dump all of the water as overtime extra water left in the tank will dilute the Part A… I have stopped using the prewet myself except for a few film which I find to be prone do bromide drag. Hope this helps.

Stephen

By: Orange Mask

Orange Mask — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 12:22:44 +0000

Hi Stephen, Very interesting !!!! I just tried your method today but unfortunately its not work (the Pre-wet part). Its must be terribly wrong with my pre-wet. Im already follow your procedure for prewet, time and temperature. But i don’t even see any purple water (the water always looks clean after i dump the water). Plain water and distilled water makes no different in my case.
I got several question about Pre-wet :
1.What is LFN? how much important for adding it on your pre-wet? How much the ratio between LFN and water?
2.Did you ever try to pre-wet without LFN?

Until now, i never got good negative with Tri-X400 (EI-1000,1250 and 1600) yet, the negative always look very thin.
The only film that work for me with diafine is Lucky SHD 100 (EI 200). Very beautiful!!

Sorry if my english is not very good.

Thanks,
Davi Arzika

By: figitalrevolution

figitalrevolution — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 13:58:18 +0000

Here is another great option that I have used:

http://www.adorama.com/PYTF44L.html?searchinfo=TF+4

Just give T grain film around 5 minutes and your all set.

Cheers-
Stephen

By: Felix

Felix — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 02:47:40 +0000

That’s a good news. Or it was, until I visited Adorama’s site again. They only sell solution A in 5-gallon (or to make a 5-gallon). My options are to buy the A&B and discard B (since this is cheaper and the quantity is sufficient) or buy some other Kodak, such as Kodak Professional Fixer with Hardener (powder). This seems to be very cost-effective. Would this work? However, how rapid is the Rapid fixer? In other words, what’s the time saving by using the Rapid fixer?

Thanks again.

By: figitalrevolution

figitalrevolution — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 00:37:41 +0000

No worries… Part B is a hardner that is optional… I don’t use it myself but some people do with film as it makes the negs more scratch resistant… with traditional wet darkroom prints don’t use it if you plan on toning the print. You can just buy the part A version.

Cheers-
Stephen

By: Felix

Felix — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 00:16:16 +0000

Enjoyed your posts, text, videos & supplied photos. Since I’m new to processing my own film, you said you use Kodak Rapid Fixer, so I went over to Adorama’s website and found two different Rapid ones, one is two part solution, A&B, and the other one, only A. I’m confused – I thought there was no A/B fixer but rather just a fixer. Help!!