Diafine Problems

[joeyrsmith]

Hi all,
I will try to make this short and concise.
I have been testing Arista edu 4x5 for the last 2-3 days with diafine.
I followed Sandy Kings article in his great VC article. I then followed the box instructions.

Using 8x10 tray development.
Used prewash on some and no prewash on others
Also, tried different agitation schemes.
(Sandy Kings and the box recommendations)
Tried very slight agitation all the way to my last test of 3min constant agitation.

Temp at 72deg
No rinse btw A & B
H2O stop
Normal fix

Problem is:
Mottled patterns in sky/water areas of neg.
I am guessing for sure agitation problems.
Really do not know how to approach it next
Of doesnt show up in vegatation type areas/trees etc.

The neg looks great in busy areas. Scans great which is my workflow, then to digital ouput.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

[Bill_1856]

Using distilled water?
Try a different batch of film?

[Kirk Gittings]

Read this thread. It may help.
http://www.largeformatphotography.in...ad.php?t=38670

[joeyrsmith]

Yes, Bill
Using distilled water for all steps.
thx
Keep those tips coming plz.

[joeyrsmith]

Thx Kirk,
I did read that thread and followed alot of the advice to start my test.
Thats what is driving me crazy.
No matter what scheme I follow, i get the mottled skies.
Thats a large part of my sales down here in The FL Keys.

I hope to crack this, from what i see it looks great when i scan and test print.
Thx again

[sanking]

Thx Kirk,
I did read that thread and followed alot of the advice to start my test.
Thats what is driving me crazy.
No matter what scheme I follow, i get the mottled skies.
Thats a large part of my sales down here in The FL Keys.

I hope to crack this, from what i see it looks great when i scan and test print.
Thx again

Joey,

If you are not already doing so I would suggest a pre-soak of a couple of minutes with this film. I have found this helpful with some films, though I have not tested Efke film.

You may also need to agitate the film more than I recommend, and remember that the first thirty seconds of agitation, in both baths, are the most critical. And the first agitation should be done fairly vigorously.

Sandy

[BetterSense]

You are never supposed to pre-soak using 2-bath developers. With Diafine, bath A IS the presoak.

[Wallace_Billingham]

I use Diafine a lot with Efke films, but have also used it a bit with Foma sold by Freestyle as Arista. I have always gotten the best results when I use a presoak and for the presoak I use 80-85 degree water. For the presoak I just use plain tap water. We are on a well and have hard water with a PH of 7.7-8.1 depending on the season. For sheet film in trays I put the film in and let it soak for 3-5 minutes. The trays I use for the presoak, the stop bath, and the final rinse are $1.99 plastic dishpans from Wal-Mart. They work very well for 8x10 and 4x5 and are much deeper and thus hold much more water than a regular developing tray.

Once I finish with the presoak I move the film into a tray filled with part A letting the film float on top and very gently rock the tray 2-3 times until the film starts to sink, then I let it sit for 1:30. Then I rock the trays much harder 4-5 times and then let it sit for another 1:30. Then I rock the tray again for another 4-5 times and let it sit for another minute. So the total time in part A is 4-5 minutes.

Then I slide the film out of the tray with A and let it very gently slide into the tray with part B I then wait for about 30 seconds and let the film sink on its own, and then very gently rock the tray 4-5 times then I wait for 1:30 and rock the tray again, then wait 1:30 and rock the tray again, then wait a minute and slide the film out of part B. Total time in part B is 4-5 minutes.

Then it goes into a tray of plain tap water for a stop bath where is just sits for 4-5 with a few rocks of the tray every now and then.

From there it goes into a tray of rapid fixer where it sits for 1:30 then it goes into a series of 3 dish pans filled with water the first two with plain tap water and the last with distilled water. The film sits in each dishpan for 4-5 minutes with a few rocks every now and then.

I develop one sheet at a time, but once I get the line going, I can have a sheet in each tray/dishpan.

Recently I have developed X-Ray film under a red safe light and was quite surprised that it only takes around 15-20 seconds for an image to pop into view once the film hits part B. My guess is that if you do hard inversions right off the bat when you put the film in part B you can wash away a lot of part A which can lead to uneven development so by doing nothing for the first 30 seconds or so you avoid this problem.

I also think the presoak in warm water softens up the thicker gelatin with the Eastern European films and helps part A soak in much better

[wclavey]

I shoot almost exclusively the Arista EDU ASA 100 film in 4x5... and what I don't shoot of that in 4x5 is TMY-2... and I use exclusively Diafine to do the development. I am on my 3rd box of 100 of the Arista using this combination. However, I use a rotary processor (Jobo 2500 tank with 2 2509 reels in it, each with 6 sheets of film). So, because of that I cannot say that my process will eliminate your problems, but I will say that I had a lot of trouble with blotchy skies until I went to this process. I hesitate to share it beacuse there will be more people who will say that it will not work right, but I have now hundreds of negatives that say the contrary.

All these steps use the Jobo drum with a reversing roller base. I start with a 4 minute pre-soak of the film in tap water (900 mls) + 7 drops of photoflow. Then, 4 minute in Solution 1, diluted 1:1 with water. Then straight into Solution B, diluted 1:1 with water for 4 min. Then a 30 min water rinse, and then 4 minutes in the fixer. Finish with rinsing (whatever method you prefer); a 30 secod rinse in photoflow and a single dunk of each reel in pure distilled water. Hang to dry.

Prior to this arrangement, I used Yankee Tanks (I had 4 of them set up for dunking) and I did not do the pre-wash. Moving to the Jobo tank with the reversing roller improved the quality a good bit, but adding the 4 minute pre-wash really made a difference. Perhaps Wallace's rationale is the answer, but my experience is the same as his.

I also do both blue sensitive and green sensitive x-ray film, cross-processed C-41, as well as my TMY-2, in this same process. YMMV.

[joeyrsmith]

Thx Guys.

Sandy, I will try it vigorously tonight. I was just kinda rocking it slightly for all my tests.
But, I did alot of agitation schemes with different times. Not a vigorous style though.
Wallace, I will try your style tonight.
Westly, wish I had a drum setup. Gotta sell some more I guess to move up. Heard good things about drums.
You guys gave me some things to try tonight. Thx
Joey