Foma 100 and home-made Diafine - excellent!

[eumenius]

Hello friends,

today I tried to develop a roll of Fomapan 100 exposed as ASA160 in my home-made Diafine, 5 min. in each bath. The results are just perfect - the stuff knows how to work, the contrasts are truly perfectly compensated. I will definitely put Diafine in a list of my standart film developers - it gives excellent rendition even with Ukraine-made SVEMA film, and it's a pleasure to use it BTW, I was always wondering why everyone makes the phenidone-containing developers not the day ahead, but right before developing? They just don't work right while too young

Cheers,
Zhenya

 

[Donald Qualls]

Hello friends,

today I tried to develop a roll of Fomapan 100 exposed as ASA160 in my home-made Diafine, 5 min. in each bath. The results are just perfect - the stuff knows how to work, the contrasts are truly perfectly compensated. I will definitely put Diafine in a list of my standart film developers - it gives excellent rendition even with Ukraine-made SVEMA film, and it's a pleasure to use it BTW, I was always wondering why everyone makes the phenidone-containing developers not the day ahead, but right before developing? They just don't work right while too young

Glad to hear of good results with your homebrew Diafine. I've been very happy with the real deal on my Fomapan 9x12 cm negatives. It should also work well with Efke, Maco, and Forte films -- in fact, on almost any traditional grain film.

Unlike Diafine (and similar two-bath formulae), single bath phenidone developers, especially with little or no preservative (sodium sulfite) have a reputation for not keeping well; the phenidone is reported to oxidize quickly in water, which changes the working characteristics of the developer. For maximum consistency, then, using the developer immediately after mixing is easier than aging it exactly the same way each time you use it. Developers with lots of sulfite (or other preservative), and those that don't use water as the solvent (generally mixed from a concentrate at time of use, like HC-110) can keep for a very long time with phenidone, of course -- but mixing from concentrate is almost like mixing from raw chemicals at the time of use (though significantly easier), at least in terms of any change in developer characteristics.

 

[psvensson]

Zhenya, what's your formula?

 

[eumenius]

Diafine from Moscow

Hello friends,

the formula is quite simple, I just believed what Internet people say (after having compared the gross weights of the parts with those courteously provided on an original package, though).

Part A:
Sodium sulfite, anhydrous 35g
Hydroquinone 6g
Phenidone 0.2g
Potassium metabisulfite 6g
Water to 1l

Part B:
Sodium sulfite, anh. 65g
Sodium tetraborate, X10H2O 20 g
Water to 1l

I took potassium metabisulfite instead of recommended sodium bisulfite because the former replaces the latter freely weight by weight, and it's more stable. Also, I got only metabisulfite on my shelf The people make much fuss about the alkali used in a part B - the tetraborate works fine, so I see no point to try any kodalk (metaborate) or even carbonate, as some folks could suggest here and there. I am absolutely sure you should make our solutions at least the night ahead your development (as with any phenidone-containing solutions), so it ripens well.

I always use isopropylic alcohol to dissolve phenidone - about 20 ml per liter works fine. Apart from its capabiliy to dissolve the stubborn powder, it probably adds to the shelf life of my mixtures.

The process is quite simple: load your film in the tank, and fill it with enough part A (temp. about 20-22 C, though people claims it makes no much difference). I agitate the film in A quite vigorously, maybe 20 sec of each minute for 5 min. Then you dump the A solution back into the bottle, and fill the tank with part B, the quicker the better to avoid streaks. You should give your tank a good tap to avoid any bubbles clogging to film. I agitate in B not too strongly, like two slow inversions each minute for 5 min. After you're done with B, dump it in its bottle, rinse the film with a tap water, and pour in the fixer. Process as usual further. It should work fine!

Cheers from Moscow,
Zhenya

 

[eumenius]

Glad to hear of good results with your homebrew Diafine. I've been very happy with the real deal on my Fomapan 9x12 cm negatives. It should also work well with Efke, Maco, and Forte films -- in fact, on almost any traditional grain film.

Hello Donald,
thanks for your good wishes! It works just fine when I need a good compensation effect (sunny and snowy landscapes, flash shooting etc.), but Diafine is definitely not an universal cocktail. The real deal is not available in Russia, and my shelves are blooming with reagents - so I don't have much choice but to mix it all by myself

Regards from Moscow,
Zhenya