I have used Diafine with great resultsOriginally Posted by SteveKarr
I have used Diafine with great results
Hey Wallace,
So what's the secret? Still 3 min in each? Do you do trays or hangers? And dare I ask about ASA?
Also did I read you dilute the soup??
Hmmm ....
Thanks for replying...
Steve
Ok,
So trying to show some control over this darn X-Ray film I did some tests the last few nights. I found:
1) The ASA and development times in D-76 1:1 to give a med gray card 130 with the color picker.
2) Blue sensitive Looks really different than Green ... Who woo'da guessed?
In my test the wall is Kermet green. And the Green sensitive is on the Left ...
My test were not to find first image above base fog, or .000001 on a densitometer ...But simply Middle Gray. So I metered off a gray card with a Minotla F Spot & scanned in SilverFast with NO adjustments anywhere. Not even black/white points.
So Kodak HRA Green sensitive a solid 100asa 7.5 min D-76 1:1 68*
Agfa 10T 1/2 Speed Blue 12asa 9 min D-76 1:1 68*
So here yea go ... Enjoy
Hi Steve,
I use a system of 9 trays. For the trays I use Rubbermaid dishpans from Wal-Mart @ $1.88 a pop I also do everything under a Red LED safelight so I can see everything. I also do this in my Bathroom/Darkroom. Also all the chemicals are mixed per the standard box directions.
In tray 1 I use plain tap water as a preasoak. This tray sits on the back left corner of my vanity/sink.
In tray 2 I use Diafine A this sits on the front left corner of the sink
In tray 3 I use Diafine B this sits on the front right corner of my sink
In tray 4 I use plain water as a stop bath and that sits in the back right corner of the sink
In tray 5 I use cheapy Freestyle Brand "Arista" liquid rapid fixer and that sits on the back of the "throne"
I then set up 4 more trays in the bottom of my bathtub all filled with plain tap water.
I do one sheet at a time in each tray and just drop it in and let it float for 4 minutes then I move them down the line. I only have four 8x10 film holders and I develop all 8 sheets from them at one time.
I find that with the Diafine in trays you do not really need to have any significant agitation. What I do is gently lay the film sheet on top of the solution and it will slowly sink but never really get flat on the bottom. I very carefully lift the sheet out of the solution and flip it over 2 or 3 times during the 4 minutes in each cycle. Going right down the line. You need to be careful not to get any Part B into the Part A tray I wear disposable netrile medical exam gloves and only use my left hand for part A and since I am right handed I use my right hand for everything else. I also do not use tongs but just gently use my hands with the gloves and try to grab the sheets by the corner.
Every tray gets around 4 minutes of soak. That is probably more time than is needed for the fix but it really does not hurt anything. Also I don't sweat it if it goes for longer as it will not hurt anything and when you have all 8 trays going it is pretty hetic.
For the 4 trays of rinse water I fill a new one up for each sheet in the tray under the faucet and slide the rest down that way the final rinse tray is always 100% fresh water. So each sheet of film sits in the rinse water baths for 16-20 minutes.
It seems to work well for me and I have not had any serious issues with scratching.
What I notice doing Diafine under safelight is that once the sheet hits Part B in only a few seconds it very quickly gets an image on it. My guess is that 90+% of the development happens in the first 10 seconds
Steve, I'm using minimal agitation. Agitate for 1 1/2 minutes at first, after pre soak that is, then once every three minutes for 10 seconds. ISO 100 is right on and the great thing is you do not have to worry about reciprocity! I have some shots that I metered @ 20-30 seconds and shot them at that time and the negs are great.
Jim
Yes, I too am using Diafine, but each solution is diluted 1:1 with water I use it in a Jobo rotary tank process. I used it on the High Speed blue sensitive and it worked very well. I have been using it on the little of the green that I have been testing and it seems to work fine there, too, although, at least with Diafine on the normal speed green (CXS brand), 100 is too much exposure.
Westley
My LUG Gallery
sorry i came late to the classroomOk i just got KODAK Medical X-Ray Film / General Purpose / Green ..SO
1.Can i use xtol Dev?
2.Should I pr-soak?
3.what iso should i set ?
4.Im gonig to use my Cpp2 (is it good idea or not?)
Goldfish ....
Get some snacks & read the whole thread. It is 98% of what you need to know to make X Ray look great.
Use hangers... BTW
GOLDFISH, I've had success with pre-soak and develop in a weak Pyrocat-HD. Use hangers for sure. I shoot my green sensitive @ ISO 100.
Jim
After quite a bit of effort, and nearly 50 sheets of film, I have finally managed to produce a negative from green sensitive xray which is comparable to regular panchromatic film.
My goal was to produce a negative for kallitypes, primarily studio portraits. I use Rodinal 1:100 in a flat bottomed tray with 1 liter of solution (convenient and cheap). My negatives swung between having compressed tonality--resulting in weird blotchy skin tones--or blown highlights. The key for me was using the ideas in D.F. Cardwell's article "Shaping the tone curve of a Rodinal Negative" to compensate for the oddities of X-Ray film. I dropped my ASA from 100 to 64, which produced nice rich skin tones, and also significantly reduced by agitation, which tamed my highlights. I did not change my development time of 6 minutes nor my dilution of 1:100 which I had come to through a failed (and lame) attempt to apply BTZS ideas to xray film.
As (hopefully) you can see from the attached scan (an 8x10 crop of an 11x14 negative, with only very minor adjustments), my negatives are quite sharp, and most importantly, produce great kallitypes. Much of the sharpness I should attribute to using strobes (which I am a novice, so please forgive the double catch-lights and other flaws in the attached sample). This was of great help, since it reduced the number of variables I was working with. Anyhow, it is too dark and rainy to go out with an 11x14.
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