Diafine Developer: How to develop film at home at room temperature – high contrast B&W

In this video I show how to develop black and white film at room temperature with acufine diafine developer, and kodak’s general purpose hardening fixer. I do also use photo-flo since I have hard water, but that step is optional. I did practice my infomercial voice in this video, but this isn’t a paid advertisement. Diafine and Neopan Acros 100 is my favorite film and developer combination, so I made this video to show how to do it and what the results look like.

Why I think diafine is the best developer:
Using these chemicals, you don’t need stop bath, and you don’t need to worry about bringing down the temperature, just use the chemicals at room temperature. Also, unlike most developers, this developer lasts a long long time. I don’t know exactly how long, but I have used mine for over a year and it still works great. And last but not least, this developer gives you high contrast negatives.

Developing film isn't that difficult, once you have done it a couple of times it becomes much less intimidating.

If you are shooting film:
Tag your film instagram photos with #oldcameranewfilm

[Raychristofer]

LOL I'm dying, I love your style bro you're not hung up on temperatures and colored containers and measuring photo flow or nothing LOL developing black and white I used to add jatate religiously on the 30 second mark and if the temperature was a micron off I would freak out but after a year I realized those minute differences don't really matter especially since you're going to tweak it in the editor anyway

[flutgraben]

Hi, you mentioned that with a two bath developer one can't push.
Of course you can!
According to Ansel Adams (I proofed it as well), you simply repeat 2-bath development 2 or 3 times.
In between, you use an acid stop bath in order to neutralize the alkaline from bath B and do a washing thereafter before using bath A again.

Another repetiton of the two-bath will give you N+1 to N+1, 5 of push. Two repetition N+2 to N+3, and so on.

Bath A -> Bath B -> Stop -> Wash -> Bath A -> Bath B -> Stop -> Wash -> Bath A - > Bath FIX->Wash.

It's like charging/discharging a condensor....

[randallstewart]

I used Diafine for a short while when it first came out back in the 1960s. It has all of the virtues of non-critical time and temperature development presented in the video. It didn't take over the B&W developing world then because it yields average sharpness and rather large or punchy grain compared to many other developers. There is a major error in the video which you need to avoid if you choose to try Diafine. YOU DO NOT PRE-WASH your film before development. This process works by absorbing the first part of the developer into the film emulsion; no development occurs during this step. Adding the second part of the developer activates the development, which continues until all of the absorbed first part has been chemically exhausted. At that point, no more development occurs no matter how long you continue. When you pre-wash, the film first absorbs water only, which then inhibits the absorbion of the first developer. At least you may underdevelop for lack of developer in the film; at worst, you'll get uneven development. Originally, Diafine came with written instructions not to pre-wash the film. Probably it still does.

[GirdHerd]

I'm interested in using Diafine and am watching every YouTube video I can find. Several of the people mention that you should NOT pre-rinse your film when using Diafine because the water will soak into the emulation and not allow the developer to soak in. Have you developed both ways and compared the difference?

[renemies]

I just discovered this type of developer while reading people's comments on a different video and I find it difficult to find a place to purchase it onlinr. The only place selling it online was on Ebay. So I'm glad I checked out your video before deciding to purchase it. It looks extremely easy to use. Do you happen to have a video of you mixing the powders into what you're using? Thanks

[dalehammond]

Question: Have you ever tried rinsing the film between part A and part B to help keep part B from contamination? I was wondering if this is possible or would it ruin the process?

[SilntObsvr]

I have some Diafine that's been stored for twelve years, and was two or three years old before that. I should test it -- it's probably still good. Might have to shoot a roll of Fomapan 100 through my RB67 just to see.

[Jayenh]

Let's see:

* Don't prewash/prewet Diafine, as mentioned -- the purpose of the first bath is to saturate the emulsion with developer solution, not with water
* First developer, the usual 30 sec agitation is fine
* Second developer, you don't want to "rinse out" the developer, so, less agitation is good, just make sure the film surface will get fresh solution periodically
* It doesn't matter how disgusting the developer looks; it will work fine, although you might filter it very occasionally (or if a very old bottle) to get any precipitate out of it
* I don't think it *ever* goes bad, on the scale of a few years at least
* Does not oxidize -- you will never see a Diafine A or B container "sucked in" from oxidation as you will with other developers
* Your film's masking dye will rinse out eventually, if you care (a slight tint to negs is not a big deal if printing in d/r, is zero big deal if scanning) ... it does take quite a while for some dye to diffuse out of film so you might let the film sit in water with a drop of detergent in it for a half hour, then rinse as normal (10-30 minutes gently flowing water) ...
* I use Ilford Rapid Fix with Diafine and Ilford dump wash (fill tank, invert 5 times, dump, fill, invert 10x, dump, fill, invert 20x, dump, all done, rinse more if you feel like it) -- I do not have problems with non-hardened negatives and I'm definitely not a gentle safekeeper of negatives
* Make the final rinse with distilled water only. Hang the film. Wet your clean fingers thoroughly with distilled water. Rather than use a squeegee (God no!), put the film between your index and middle fingers and "squeegee" it manually in one pass top to bottom. Remaining water is fine. It will dry nice and clean. To hell with Photo-Flo/detergent/etc.

IMO Diafine is the *very best* developer for scanning, particularly if you are using grainy film and want the grain (otherwise why aren't you shooting digital?).

Exceptions in cases where you must use some other developer for a special purpose, but generally, just use Diafine for your soup if you're shooting B+W film that's going to be scanned. Probably works OK on color (for B+W results) too ... resulting negs might be thin but still usable. I've accidentally processed a roll or two of color in Diafine and yes you get the usual B+W result.

I've developed at least 100 rolls of Neopan 1600 shot at 800-1000 in Diafine. My favorite grainy combination of all time. TMAX P3200 will work well also, at 1000-1250 -- no need for TMAX developer -- results will be grainy with sharp grain. You can always take the edge off in post if scanning. I would give TMAX a little extra time in both baths (maybe as much as 5-8 minutes apiece depending on temp and your results) but in reality many/most B+W films are tablet grain now.

You can underdevelop if everything is too cold. Either significantly lengthen development time (especially in part B where development occurs) or warm everything up to at least 70F.

[terrywootton]

Those stainless tanks leak like a sieve.