Diafine Substitute

[beemermark]

I can't buy a quart of Diafine. I don't want a gallon. BHvideophoto won't ship quarts. Adorama will sell and ship gallons. There is a formula in Steve Anchell's 4th edition to brew your own. I have all the necessary chemicals. Do I mix them in any particular order? Can I dump them all in one container and add water? I generally mix D23, D76, and a few other simple ones.

 

[reddesert]

I just googled "diafine developer quart" and found that both Glazer's and Omega-Brandess have it in stock, consider calling one of them.

Next, Diafine is a two bath developer. You have to mix the two parts separately and keep them separate. Some of part A will carry over into part B in use, but if you get any of part B (the alkali) into part A, you have to start over.

I believe that the recipes in Anchell's Darkroom Cookbook, like in most recipes, list the ingredients in order of addition.

Lastly, in my copy, I noted that people said the borax in Anchell's part B wasn't active enough and to try another alkali, but I haven't ever used that recipe, so you may want to search photrio for feedback on Anchell's recipe.

 

[loccdor]

@reddesert Thank you for the information, not wanting a gallon was also keeping me from trying it!

 

[loccdor]

The cheapest I found for a quart for US shipping was from Adorama through Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Diafine-Black-Developer-Concentrate-Solution/dp/B00009XVDX

 

[Paul Howell]

I bought 2 quarts kits on Ebay, in cans, work just fine.

 

[jim appleyard]

I tried several times to use the recipe in Anchell's book thinking I was doing something wrong, but I could never get it to work. I tried increasing the borax, using sod. metaborate, but it just wouldn't work.

Some folks think that todays emulsions are much thinner than those of yesteryear and don't soak up enough of the PART A bath to be effective; could be.

I tried using an equal amount of sod. carb and that helped, but I still have some fine tuning to do for a homebrew Diafine.

 

[Alan Johnson]

A modified carbonate part B was given on Flickr, I did not try it:

Availability of Diafine

All I mean is that the image developed onto the sheets in bath A alone was very faint (but still visible) and may have disappeared completely if fixed. It also stands to reason that, in the process of going from dry film to fully developed, there is a point where some development has occurred...

www.photrio.com

 

[Paul Howell]

I tried several times to use the recipe in Anchell's book thinking I was doing something wrong, but I could never get it to work. I tried increasing the borax, using sod. metaborate, but it just wouldn't work.

Some folks think that todays emulsions are much thinner than those of yesteryear and don't soak up enough of the PART A bath to be effective; could be.

I tried using an equal amount of sod. carb and that helped, but I still have some fine tuning to do for a homebrew Diafine.

New emlustiona are thinner, which means you do get the speed increase that we did in the 70s and early 80s. My old box of Dianfine recommends Trix at 2400, the new data sheet is 1600, while Tax 400 a very thin emulsion 500. Delta 400 is 320.

 

[loccdor]

From the current product

 

[relistan]

While not intended to be an exact Diafine replacement, if you are looking to mix up something that works better than the Anchell recipe and is a two bath, this formula of mine works quite well and does give a speed boost on some films (e.g. Silvermax 100 works great at 200).

A Phenidone/Hydroquinone Two Bath Developer: 2B-1

Two bath and divided developers are pretty cool. You get a nice compensating effect and often can use similar times for most films, due to the way the development is self-exhausting in the second bath. I used to be a frequent user of Diafine, which is a nice, speed increasing two bath developer...

imager.ie

Example: