Diafine questions (beginner)

[stupido]

OK, diafine sounds great.

So I need:

1) Diafine
2) Fixer
3) Changing bag
4) Daylight developing tank
5) Three conainers to hold the Diafine parts A and B developer, and one for the fixer.

So would any fixer work? Is Kentucky hard water too bad to use for rinse?
Am I missing anything?

Thanks Sleeping for getting me to think about developing B&W film again.

[monkeybort]

i always used photoflo for a 30 second or so bath after rinsing the fix – i think it was supposed to help with water spots.

ooo, and there was actually a different soak after the fix, to get rid of even more fixer, but i can’t remember what it was called. shoot.

/no help whatsoever

[sleeping]

I haven’t had any problems with tap water, but if you do I’ve seen people recommend using the final rinse with wetting agent in distilled water.

[stupido]

For first roll with Diafine:

I do need to get a wetting agent for the rinse as the streaks have driven me nuts. But still cool

Some of the scans.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mariser/sets/72157594161061944/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stupido/sets/72157594161065244/

[yahso]

I don’t have any experience with diafine but with a traditional film developer after fixer you use hypoclear. It helps clear the fixing agent off of the negatives so they will last longer. If you don’t use hypoclear they say you should rinse the negatives in running water for 20-30 minutes to clear the fixer.

[DeaconBlues]

i know a lot of people push film with diafine, can i use hp5+ ISO 400 with the camera set on ISO 400 and still use the standard diafine times and method?

[sleeping]

You aren’t really pushing film with diafine the way you can with a normal developer. Diafine may give you a different speed than the rated ISO, but that’s pretty much the speed you get – time and temperature don’t have much effect on development*.

That said, you can get pretty decent results even with significant overexposure, especially with films like HP5 that have pretty wide exposure latitude anyway. I expect shooting HP5 at 400 wouldn’t pose a major problem, although you may lose a little detail in the highlights compared to shooting it at 800 (recommended speed).

(* I have seen some examples of pulled film, where the film was removed early from bath b, but I’ve never tried it. I believe you’d have to be much more precise about the time and temperature that the normal diafine process, and at that point you might as well get some d76 or some other standard developer…)

[DeaconBlues]

when i was a kid, my father used a different a-b developing method, mixing the chemicals himself, but he doesn’t remember what it was, and cant find the book he got the recipe from, and it allowed you to shoot hp5 at 400 speed, and process it with essentially the same method as diafine. anyone happen to know what he was using, or was he essentially making his own diafine?

[Author]

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