Another Diafine question

philipus · Jun 22, 2015

Hello everyone

I received very helpful advice in (there was a url link here which no longer exists) about the storage of Diafine and now have a follow-up regarding the use of Diafine.

I am aware that Diafine is useful for pushing but would I risk the photos if I were to develop a film shot at a lower EI/ISO?

I am thinking specifically of Double-X/5222 which I use a lot. I currently have a few rolls shot at about EI200 but I am not sure what to expect if I soup them in Diafine - will they be poorly developed?

In case it is relevant, I scan my film (though am in the process of learning to print too so I don't want to develop them in a way that prevents printing them later).

Thank you very much in advance
Philip

Dali · Jun 22, 2015

I don't foresee any trouble. I did some unscientific tests with TRI-x exposed from ISA 100 to 1600 and developped with Diafine and negatives were pretty good whatever the speed used.

philipus · Jun 22, 2015

Thank you for the reply. That's great to know.

Gerald C Koch · Jun 22, 2015

I usually rate 5222 at an EI of 400 and develop it in Hc-110 with excellent results. Diafine is something else. There is usually some increase in speed and some wishful thinking as I have found negatives a bit thin for my liking. Results with Diafine are somewhat film specific. Remember too that 5222 was designed as a cine negative film with a specific developer D-96 in mind. So while I would not anticipate any problems it would be good to run some tests first.

PatTrent · Jun 22, 2015

I just developed some HP5+ shot at box speed, that is @ISO 400, and is beautiful.

drmoss_ca · Jun 22, 2015

Hi, Phillip!
I've used a lot of Diafine and have found that it is very forgiving about speed, especially if you don't mind rather flat negatives for scanning. I tend to regard the official list of film speeds in Diafine as maximums, and expose at slower speeds in most cases. Nowadays I use Diafine either because I need the speed or the convenience. The only film I would actually choose to develop in Diafine is Plus-X, which is absolutely magical at 400 in Diafine. Other films work OK, but probably can look better in other developers. I've not used Double-X, so I can only speculate based on the above. In general, I find cutting EI to 2/3 of the official Diafine value is safe and often beneficial.

Chris

philipus · Jun 22, 2015

Hello everybody, thanks very much for the further replies, I am very grateful.

I feel much more confident now. I had initially intended Diafine as a developer for push processing, which I do quite a bit using HC-110. I've tested Double-X and find that I can get good results to EI800, 1000 in a pinch, but that will become a bit grainy. So I was interested in using Diafine for this purpose. But then it began to intrigue me, due to the simplicity and also because of the supposedly flatter negs which I like for scanning.

I realise there could well be trade-offs and that other developers will give better results, but it's worth a shot. I will bathe one film as a test at EI 200 and see how it turns out.

best
Philip

DarkMagic · Jun 22, 2015

drmoss_ca said:
Hi, Phillip!
I've used a lot of Diafine and have found that it is very forgiving about speed, especially if you don't mind rather flat negatives for scanning. I tend to regard the official list of film speeds in Diafine as maximums, and expose at slower speeds in most cases. Nowadays I use Diafine either because I need the speed or the convenience. The only film I would actually choose to develop in Diafine is Plus-X, which is absolutely magical at 400 in Diafine. Other films work OK, but probably can look better in other developers. I've not used Double-X, so I can only speculate based on the above. In general, I find cutting EI to 2/3 of the official Diafine value is safe and often beneficial.

Chris

Do you think Plus-X is more magic in Diafine than 1:1 in XTOL @ISO64? And have you then also tested Ilford FP4 @400 in Diafine? I have tested FP4 @250 in Diafine and think its pretty nice.

www.tmax100.com

drmoss_ca · Jun 22, 2015

I haven't used FP4+ with Xtol, and it seems to me that when I have developed it in Diafine it has been at box speed. An example on 4x5 sheet film:

Lladro by chrism229, on Flickr

Chris

philipus · Jun 22, 2015

That looks really nice Chris (and apologies for not recognising you!). Amazing tonality I think.

Another Diafine question

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