Question about Diafine

[wclavey]

Now I will follow up my last post with saying that my current usage of Diafine is slightly different than that:

First, I use it as a 1 shot developer, rather than a reusable developer. In doing that, I dilute each solution 50/50 with water immediately prior to use (see below).

Since I am dumping it after each use, I try to develop as many roll or sheets as possible at 1 time. I use the tall Jobo developing tanks and a roller base to continuously agitate throughout the development. But it allows me to develop quite a bit of film in only 800ml of 50/50 solution - - so dumping it out isn't that bad, economically.

My development sequence is as follows - - all in the Jobo tank and Steps 2-8 with continuous agitation:

1. Load all the film in the Jobo tank - - all film gets treated the same, sheet or roll, no variation by brand or speed.
2. Pre-soak the film 4 minutes in 800ml of water with 7 drops of Photoflo in it. Dump.
3. Process 4 minutes in diluted Solution A (400 ml Solution A + 400 ml water). Dump.
4. Process 4 minutes in diluted Solution B (400 ml Solution B + 400 ml water). Dump.
5. Wash 30 seconds in 1000 ml water.
6. Process 4 minutes in Rapid Fixer. Keep or dump - - whichever you want).
7. Wash 2 minutes in running water.
8. Process 1.5 minutes in 800 ml Hypo Clearing agent, mixed according to the directions. Dump.
9. Wash 6 minutes in running water.
10. Dunk each reel in Photoflo solution for 30 seconds then in/out dip in distilled water.
11. Hang to dry - - do not squeegee.

Following this process, I shoot all my B&W film at box speed - - no "speed improvement" that you usually get from Diafine. The real benefit, to me, of this process is that it flattens the contrast a bit and yields much more manageable images down here in the bright TX sun... so everything is not so high contrast that you can't do anything with it.

YMMV...

[venchka]

Clever GOOGLE thing. Neither is better than the other. Just different.

[ronocnikral]

i push all film one stop from box speed with the diafine. i skip the rinse step westley alludes to and i give a few taps, take a nap, dump out a, dump in b, take another nap, , dump out b, stop, fix, rinse, dry.

i may add, i used to rinse before development and i like my negatives w/o...

some reading for the over-zealous...to discuss!!!

Do's and Don'ts of Diafine - Rangefinderforum.com

[ronocnikral]

negative pushed one stop, no pre soak.


cairnAZ

[wclavey]

Conor, a nice full range of tones. Here is an example of how the process I use (above) helps tame the TX contrast a bit...