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Storing Diafine

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BetterSense

BetterSense

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I just bought some Diafine in anticipation of low-light shooting. I have heard that TriX (my main 35mm film) works well in diafine at about EI 1200. I suppose it might also come in handy if I ever get two precious exposures on the same roll that are oppositely mis-exposed.

Anyway, I normally store my developer in wine boxen, and print developer in soda bottles, but I need to pour the diafine back so the wine boxen are out, and finding 1 gallon PET bottles is not easy either. The box does not say what kind of containers to use, but I have heard that Diafine is nealy immortal if you do not mix the two baths. I was thinking of either mixing up half the powder, or just using empty milk jugs. 1Gallon of each baths seems like a lot. What do you store Diafine in?
 
I use light proof 1 Gal. plastic jugs. I've had a mixed batch of Diafine for 8 months so far, and all's well.
 
Almost anything will work. Being a DD, you virtually can't use it up. Unless you are developing a bunch of rolls a week, I would put Bath A into glass wine bottles or a wine bladder, evacuate air or add CO2 or Freon from an "air" can. That should keep nigh unto forever. Bath B is forever all by itself.

Or put it in milk jugs, keep in a mostly dark place like under the sink.
 
I store mine in black plastic 5 liter containers that originally held Printspeed paper developer. I got them from a B&W lab that would have just thrown them out otherwise. I just rinsed them thoroughly first. I'm on my second batch of Diafine, first lasted for about one year.

Mixing only half the powder is never recommended as far as I've read.
 
I used to keep Diafine in empty DIH2O bottles, but eventually one ruptured while I was out of town. (It was the B bath; it turns out sodium metaborate does a bang-up job of cleaning the tile in the darkroom!) I've now switched to opaque 5L containers intended for chemical use---they're relatively cheap (mine came from Freestyle). I think it's worth the few bucks (especially given that you only have to buy them once) for the confidence that the bottles won't fail.

-NT
 
I store my Diafine in two coated Schott glass bottles (1ltr.) but I am using the 1 Quart/950ml version.
I can keep the Diafine working in it for about 2 years but glass is 100% diffusion tight which is for plastic (polymer) not the case. HD-Polyethylene is however a good compromize.

I am working with 35mm and roll film. Tri-X (400) in Diafine I rate at iso 1250 and 3+3 minutes development.
Further I can recommend:
Acros 100 (E.I. 160) 5+5 minutes
Neopan 1600 (E.I. 1600) 3+3 minutes
Neopan 400 (E.I. 640) 3+3 mintes

Best regards,

Robert
 
I can also recomment Daifine with FP4+ @ 250, 3+3 -- looks great.

Regards

Dave
 
I keep mine in clearly marked 1L soda bottles. One set is a working batch and the other I use as a replenisher. The working batch is going on 2 years old now and it works as it did when fresh. It is, of course, quite discolored; but that is of absolutely no consequence.

Replenishment is the way to go with this developer and the routine is dead simple. Most replenishable developers rely on a constant turnover to keep the solution in spec. You need to keep track of how much film you've run, and carefully replenish with a special replenisher at measured rates. This doesn't usually work to well for the home worker whose output is typically not nearly enough to provide a rapid enough turnover. Not so with Diafine. Replenishment for Diafine consists of replacing the volume of solution lost to use and not much else. Losses to Part A are higher than to Part B. To start draw off enough of Part B to equal the remaining volume of Part A. Then simply top off parts A and B to their original volume and you're done.
 
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I keep my Diafine in the plastic photochemical bottles B&H sells.

Anybody used Diafine with 135 APX 100? Diafine box says EI 320, the little I've found online says not more than 200.
 
Thank you Robert for the link. That looks like an official Diafine data sheet so I must be remembering the Diafine box recommendations incorrectly. I probably looked at the wrong film name or something. I'll check when I get home tonight.
 
Yes, it's an official document I received 2 years ago from BKA, Chicago, USA.

Happy shooting!

Robert

PS. I made some personal notes of highly recommended combinations of this nice 2-bath developer.
 
Anyone ever tried Delta 3200 in Diafine? Would that be the highest EI possible for extremely dark situations?
 
I got 1600 with Diafine recently shooting in an old barn. If you need a higher EI, I would suggest Acufine or maybe UFG. I've used quite a bit of Acufine and you can get a higher EI by extending the dev times. Diafine is really good for only 1 stop.
 
ghost said:
Anyone ever tried Delta 3200 in Diafine? Would that be the highest EI possible for extremely dark situations?
Click to expand...

Doubtful. Delta 3200 isn't actually a 3200 ASA film; it's something like 1000, I believe, but designed to be optimised for pushing. I don't know if it gets a full stop of speed, but if so it would only come to around 2000.

Diafine also has the rep of not working well with T-grain films, but I've never tried so I'm just passing on hearsay.

-NT
 
That's interesting. I've tried Plus-X at 400 in Diafine and wasn't happy with it at all. I thought that the shadows were far too thin and the highlights all blocked up. Of course, it didn't help that the light was very hard when I exposed the film. An overcast day might have changed my opinion of the combination, and I might give it a whirl next chance I get. Lord knows I have plenty of that Plu..., er Arista Premium 100 to try it out on.

On the subject of Foma 100, I liked the way it looked when exposed at EI 100 and then developed in Diafine. The negatives were dense and needed about a stop extra exposure in the enlarger, but there was plenty of shadow detail to play with and the highlights were not so dense that I couldn't work with it.
 
I stored Diafine in clear 1 liter soda bottles. I only used it a few times, not long after it was mixed. At the end of a year it was dead. My next batch will be stored in brown glass bottles.
 
fschifano said:
On the subject of Foma 100, I liked the way it looked when exposed at EI 100 and then developed in Diafine. The negatives were dense and needed about a stop extra exposure in the enlarger, but there was plenty of shadow detail to play with and the highlights were not so dense that I couldn't work with it.
Click to expand...

Frank, from what you describe you need to up your EI.

I played with a 100' roll of Foma 100 last year. It was fun, forgiving, and cheap. But bottom line is that it is old Plus-X, if you know what I mean. RMS granularity is 13.5, halfway to Tri-X from Plus-X's 10. With the Arista Premium so cheap, there's no need to suffer old technology.

Foma 100 is one of the most developer reactive films out there. Just compare D-76 developing times. In some aborted experiments, Foma gave a full quality image when the same process gave a thin one on TMX and zipola on Forte 400. You could also try cutting Bath A to 2 minutes.
 
dynachrome said:
I stored Diafine in clear 1 liter soda bottles. I only used it a few times, not long after it was mixed. At the end of a year it was dead. My next batch will be stored in brown glass bottles.
Click to expand...

I just pillaged the fridge and managed to come up with 2 gallons worth of PET containers in the form of 2 2L bottles, one spaghetti sauce bottle and a juice bottle, and mixed up my gallon. I will keep an eye out for 1gal glass bottles and transfer over, because I don't want mine to go dead.
 
BetterSense said:
I just pillaged the fridge and managed to come up with 2 gallons worth of PET containers in the form of 2 2L bottles, one spaghetti sauce bottle and a juice bottle, and mixed up my gallon. I will keep an eye out for 1gal glass bottles and transfer over, because I don't want mine to go dead.
Click to expand...

I don't know where you live, but I haven't seen a glass gallon container is at least a decade.

PET is not an ideal long term storage. You will do better looking towards wine containers. Your options are 750ml bottles with artificial corks, 1.5 liter with screw caps, or the mylar bladders of box wine. Obviously I am using consumer articles and not including "real" stuff you can buy.
 
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