UN54 - Rodinal vs. Diafine

Well that's quite interesting. Good to know we have different developers for different purposes.

That's remarkable. How big are the prints? Were the scans sharpened at all?

Very well done, and many thanks. What a fabulous illustration of the two developers.

Ed

Could you tell us which dilution of Rodinal you used as well as the time?
Thanks

The Diafine contrast is considerably lower. This influences the judgment of grain and sharpness.

PE

You don't have the same contrast in both negatives, which renders them incomparable.

Both were printed with the same VC filter, a 2 1/2

I tried to match them in terms of darkness during printing.

I scanned them and played a long time until I got (I think) the same image on the screen as I did in the actual prints.

paper was Ilford MGIV

I used Rodinal at 1 + 50, 16 minutes at 20C. My temp was actually 21, so I scaled it back accordingly

Both prints were 5 x 7's. The 35mm image on my enlarger baseboard was 18" across, so these are enlarged a fair bit

Jerry

a good example of the softening of the grain from diafine and the lack of the softening of the grain from rodinal-----i much prefer the accutance provided by rodinal.

Your results represent the first step in getting the two developers compared.But until you have the same contrast in both negatives, you cannot fully make a comparison. All you see is an inclination.This highlights one of the problems with Diafine - it's good for shooting in the middle of the day with bright and high contrast light. That's what it was designed for. The core weakness of Diafine is that you just cannot adjust contrast, like you can with Rodinal, by altering time, agitation, or temperature. So, in order to make a comparison that's fair, you should expose your film, and process it to get the same contrast as what's in the Diafine negative. Or else your comparison doesn't really show anything. Sorry to be so critical, but all you're highlighting is how Diafine is limited in how it works, and Rodinal is not, in terms of adjusting tonality at the processing stage.

JerryWo said:

Both were printed with the same VC filter, a 2 1/2I tried to match them in terms of darkness during printing.I scanned them and played a long time until I got (I think) the same image on the screen as I did in the actual prints.paper was Ilford MGIVI used Rodinal at 1 + 50, 16 minutes at 20C. My temp was actually 21, so I scaled it back accordinglyBoth prints were 5 x 7's. The 35mm image on my enlarger baseboard was 18" across, so these are enlarged a fair bitJerry

Click to expand...

I take your point Thomas. I'm at an early stage in acquiring knowledge regarding B&W processes, etc., so I guess I really was high-lighting, for my own edification (and perhaps others), what these two film/developer combinations provide as a starting point in the printing process.

This little "comparison" has helped me better understand the various discussions/comments regarding Diafine and Rodinal.

Thanks!
Jerry