Diafine question

[brianentz]

Ive never used diafine before but it sounds interesting. Ive heard that you can process different rolls of different films together because the temp/time for all is the same. But the massive develop app provides different times for different films.
I'd like to hear different users impressions of this chemistry.

 

[jbrubaker]

Diafine is the easiest developer to use. You simply soak the film in Part A for about 4 minutes, then transfer into Part B for about 4 minutes. Timing and temp. are not very critical since it is a compensating type developer, and films of different type can be done together. In my experience, the drawback for Diafine is a rather flat compressed look to the finished negatives. This can be adjusted if you scan and post-process, but not so easy to deal with if you're wet printing. I did find that Diafine works quite well with high contrast films like Agfa Copex microfilm. Regards ---john.

 

[pschauss]

I agree that some films come out a bit flat in Diafine, but I get very good results (for wet printing) with Eastman Double-X rated at 650.

 

[Jeff Searust]

I use it daily/weekly -- only problems have been a lack of swishing and what looks like bromide drag -- but I have chalked that up to my own lack of swishing--- 4 minutes is good-- don't short change the time. -- there are many MANY threads on diafine and everyone has their own way of doing things. Get a working procedure down and don't stray from it.

I teach film developing in Texas, and use Diafine as everyone's first developer. It is difficult to get new students to understand temperature control off the bat, and I like to get them to have done something positive right off the bat, and then teach the patience and more care required for other developers.

I have used it for years, and love it for the ability to get good negs out of unknown generic foreign made film. Does it make flat negs-- no -- you are going to find everyone who has ever used it will have some sort of complaint or opinion--- it adds a stop, it drops a stop, it's flat, it's contrasty, its ugly looking, it's got chunks floating in it... Use it and make your own decision about it.

 

[ntenny]

Some people do modify the times, apparently, but in my limited understanding the effects should be fairly marginal.

The idea with two-bath developers is that the first bath soaks the film in developing agents, then the second raises the pH so the absorbed agents begin actually developing at a reasonable rate. The first bath by itself is a SLOW developer, so if you leave the film in for a long time you get some additional development there, but I don't know how much difference it's realistic to expect in a matter of minutes. In the second bath, more time should have essentially no effect---once the amount of developing agents absorbed from bath A has been used up, it's been used up, and there you are. I guess the most effective control for reduced development would be a shorter time in bath A, followed by a normal bath B (absorb less developer, then use up what you absorbed).

I use it occasionally for the speed boost---HP5+@800 and Tri-X@1250, in my experience---but mainly for its compensating effects. Works well with high-contrast films as jbrubaker mentioned; I get contrasty mids but with a well-controlled toe and shoulder. Something similar happens with the late lamented Efke IR820, making the IR effects a little less extreme; and I've had good luck with it for long (tens of minutes) nighttime exposures on Fomapan 100, of all the strange things. It's not clear to me how much of the compensation is special to Diafine and how much is a general property of the two-bath approach.

Also, the A solution goes through various attractive colors from the antihalation dyes. The B solution seems to converge on a kind of honey color.

-NT