Cinestill DF96 monobath

[Huss]

Fuji Work Project, Arista 100, DF96

 

[leicaboss]

It's wonderful to see some pretty stellar results here, I've really never strayed too far from Tri-X and Rodinal (1:50) - but after some life changes and having a fiancee move into my small urban dwelling, I've been itching to find a simpler and quicker solution until I can have a wider spread of tools and chemistry again...

 

[Huss]

Leica M3, Zeiss ZM 50 1.5, Arista 100 including it's lovely halation!

 

[Huss]

Leica M3, ZM 50 1.5, Arista 100, DF96 Monobath

 

[madNbad]

Huss, have you developed any Double X 5222 in the monobath?

 

[Huss]

Huss, have you developed any Double X 5222 in the monobath?

I have not.

 

[madNbad]

I have not.

Looks like it's the recomended developer for CineStill's branded Double X and it's available in 120.

 

[Huss]

Looks like it's the recomended developer for CineStill's branded Double X and it's available in 120.

Not surprised they would recommend their own!


Not saying it won't do a good job, as it has been great with most films I've used but still.

 

[Huss]

Leica M3 DS, Zeiss ZM 50 1.5, Arista 100

 

[Donald Qualls]

have you developed any Double X 5222 in the monobath?

I have, it works very well (even pushed to EI 400). However, don't mix up Df96 monobath with the D-96 that Cinestill recommends for Double-X. They're not really the same; Df96 is a PQ developer if you leave out the fixer crystals (possible with the dry package), while D-96 is MQ. Kodak always recommended D-96 for 5222 (and the other formats they sold Double-X in), but that's because D-96 is a low contrast developer, which is desirable for duplication to a film positive for projection -- but if you're developing to a common Contrast Index for still photography, there's little or no advantage to D-96 over more common developers like D-76, Xtol, etc.

 

[Huss]

Leica M3 DS, Rollei 40 2.8, Arista 100, DF 96 Monobath

 

[Huss]

Just finished developing roll #19 in my latest bottle. I'm doing a test strip before each roll after roll # 16.

 

[Huss]

From roll #19

Leica M5, CV 50 1.5 v2 SC, Arista 100, DF96 Monobath

 

[Huss]

Leica M5, CV 50 1.5 v2, Arista 100

 

[Huss]

Leica M-A, CV 50 2.5 Color Skopar, Arista 100, DF96 mono

 

[Huss]

Leica M-A, CV 50 2.5 Color Skopar, Arista 100, Cinestill DF96 Monobath



And a crop to show that is her dog chilling with her!

 

[Huss]

Fuji Work Record Pano, Arista 100, Cinestill DF96. Roll #20.

 

[Raghu Kuvempunagar]

Great result! @Huss you've become the unofficial brand ambassador for DF96 by your continued and successful use of Cinestill's monobath. Any idea whether DF96 is based on Haist's MM-1 monobath? I believe @doctorpepe has used MM-1 on modern films and found it to give good results. Antec has a monobath but not sure it is a variant of MM-1. Cinsestill's capacity and shelf-life is impressive whereas I have not found anything definitive on these for MM-1. And do you filter the monobath regularly to remove the silver sludge?

 

[Donald Qualls]

Based on the SDS, Df96 is a PQ developer; it must have high pH and/or high agent concentration to achieve the short process time (high concentration seems likely given its capacity), and based on the contents of the dry shipped version juxtaposed with the process time, it's a "semi-rapid" fixer. By "semi-rapid" I mean a sodium thiosulfate fixer (the crystals are obvious in the fixer packet of the monobath mix) with ammonium chloride added to increase the fixing rate (but with less improvement on tabular grain and without the significant increase in capacity).

 

[Raghu Kuvempunagar]

Based on the SDS, Df96 is a PQ developer; it must have high pH and/or high agent concentration to achieve the short process time (high concentration seems likely given its capacity), and based on the contents of the dry shipped version juxtaposed with the process time, it's a "semi-rapid" fixer. By "semi-rapid" I mean a sodium thiosulfate fixer (the crystals are obvious in the fixer packet of the monobath mix) with ammonium chloride added to increase the fixing rate (but with less improvement on tabular grain and without the significant increase in capacity).

Haist's MM-1 monobath is also a PQ developer with Thiosulphate in it. But it doesn't have Ammonium chloride. BTW did you find Ammonium chloride in MSDS of DF96 part B? I must have missed it.

 

[Donald Qualls]

BTW did you find Ammonium chloride in MSDS of DF96 part B? I must have missed it.

I did not; it may be low enough hazard not to be included, or might be in the Part A packet. I inferred its presence by getting rapid fixer times (3 minutes in fresh Df96) with clearly visible sodium thiosulfate crystals in one of the chemical packets.

 

[Raghu Kuvempunagar]

I did not; it may be low enough hazard not to be included, or might be in the Part A packet. I inferred its presence by getting rapid fixer times (3 minutes in fresh Df96) with clearly visible sodium thiosulfate crystals in one of the chemical packets.

That's interesting. Ammonium chloride allegedly causes severe fogging when used in a developer. Did you notice any with DF96?

 

[Donald Qualls]

Ammonium chloride allegedly causes severe fogging when used in a developer. Did you notice any with DF96?

Ammonium ion in general does; this is why HC-110 (at least the old syrup) has such a strong anti-fog property, because it also has some ammonium in it. However, I've use it in my own formula monobath with actual ammonium hydroxide added with no visible fog.

The only time I saw fogging in the one liter of Df96 I've used was when I didn't let a roll of XP2 Super fix long enough and then put it back in the monobath (thus restarting development for the remaining, now exposed halide) rather than into separate fixer. Clearly not the monobath's fault. Then again, a significant amount of potassium bromide in the Part A packet could overcome that.

Alternatively, it's possible the thiosulfate is in sufficient quantity to do its job that quickly (with continuous agitation, in the plain vanilla version of the Df96 process); that would fit well with the extraordinary capacity of the stuff...

 

[Huss]

Great result! @Huss you've become the unofficial brand ambassador for DF96 by your continued and successful use of Cinestill's monobath. ..And do you filter the monobath regularly to remove the silver sludge?

Thanks! I forgot to mention, that last pic was roll #20 from the bottle first opened on 12/20/21. It seems the current plastic plug that Cinestill provides, as well as the regular bottle cap, has extended the life once opened.

After using it so much I have standardized my process, which is a variation on what Cinestill recommends.
#1 I do not recommend it to push the 3200 films from their base ISO 800-1000 rating to 3200. Just gets super grainy and blocked up.
#2 I develop at 75, initial agitation of continuous for 30 seconds.
#3 Then 10 seconds agitation on the top of every minute.
#4 - This is important. At the 30 second mark I agitate the dev tank twice. If I do not do that I always get bromide drag after about roll #5. Cinestill just says make sure to not let sit longer than a minute w/o agitating - this is not enough and you will get bromide drag.
#5 I do not filter the DF96 to remove sludge. It just sits on the bottom of the container, so unless you shake the bottle to mix it up that's where it stays. Originally I tried to filter but it is very messy, time consuming and you lose a lot of the developer that remains in the filter. Just not needed if you are careful.

 

[Huss]

More from Roll #20

Fuji Work Record Pano, Arista 100, DF96 Monobath