experience with Diafine?

I'm curious about trying Diafine for 35&120 in small tanks and 4x5 & 8x10 in rotary drums (unicolor). The idea of using of a two bath developer seems very intriquing and I was wondering if anyone had any experience and opinion about Diafine or two bath developers in general.

Bill;

 

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I use Diafine for all of my B&W work, including Tech Pan in 35 and

120. It is a great developer to get consistentency in your

development. Results are independent of temperature, time and

agitation, within limits. It is very good for T-max films as they are

very sensitive to all three of these. It should work for LF negatives

as well.

 

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Typically you get a boast of 1 to 1 1/2 stops above the Factory ASA.

If the negative is not on the button, then you KNOW that the exposure

is not on, as the development is always on (barring exhaustion of the

developer). The stuff last for months and months. I use part of the

A and B solution for development and use the rest of the of A and B

solutions to constantly replenish the working solutions.

 

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The company has a web site that explains how to use the developer.

Try a search for ETHOL.

Thanks Gene, I did read your previous posts on Diafine also. Some

other posts say to only use distilled water to mix and one person

reported their negs looked "dull" somehow. Like most things different

people get different results. I've been working with rodinal mostly

with decent but too varied a result and I am curious about divided

developers, theres no perfect developer but Diafine looks good for

my situation. I like the idea of a non critical development temp as

this is one of my usual problems. I will be trying Diafine and some

divided D-76 this week end, mostly on APX 100&400 and TMX100. thanks.

Bill, You'll love both DD76 and Diafine!!! Been using them for years myself. I do think that Diafine is a higher acutance developer but they both are

EXCELLENT. As you probably have read, 2 bath developers will not block up your highlights. The first bath just soaks into the film and the acual

development takes place in bath b. Bath b will only develop out till the bath a is exhausted. This is what is called "compensating developers". You

really cannot go wrong.

results in 120 so far are mixed, APX400 looks very good and I would

use it again, not quite as "sharp" as Rodinal but nice to have a 400

film I can push to 800. APX100 not so good, dull and murkey shadows,

TMX100 was a disaster but I'l try a few more times.

IMHO don't waste your time with tmax and divided developers. I never really got good results and like the glow or luminosity of the older emulsions

anyways.