Using Tri-X Developed in Diafine
A great combination if you know the secret to making it work...

Diafine is a classic 2 bath fully compensating developer that yields negatives with a very short toe and wonderfully compressed highlights. I became interested in it after mixing my own D-23. I liked the results of D-23 but the bulk chemical mixing was inconvienent.

Two bath developers work best with thick emulsion films like Tri-X. This is because the first solution which contains a developing agent with out an activator saturates the emulsion. Very little of the silver is converted in this bath. The second bath is activator withot a developing agent. As the highlights develop they exhaust the developing agent in the emulsion more rapidly then the shadows where less silver is being converted. As a result of this action the highlights cease development long before the shadows. This produces negatives with excellent shadow detail and contrast with nicely compensated highlights.

You can generally discount the manufacturers recommendations with any given film developer combination if you want to get optimum results.

 


This is an extreme case where the times and film speeds were so far off that you would reject the result as nearly unusable.

Running tests is the only way to really see what is going on but it takes time, equipment and specialized knowledge…

A simpler way is to get a good starting point from someone who has done some testing and give it a try.

Here are My Results...

Tri-X @ EI 100 - Develop in solution A for 10 min then in B for 3 min @ 70

Close control of temperature throughout the development and wash cycles leads to finer grain.

Agitation for Solution A:

1 cycle of agitation takes 5 seconds and consists of 3 twists L-R-L and 1 inversion.

At the start of development rap the tank sharply on the countertop to dispel any air bells.

First 30 seconds continuous (6 - 5 second cycles)

1 cycle per 30 seconds thereafter

DO NOT PRE-SOAK FILM IN WATER!

Agitation for Solution B:

1 cycle is 3 twists L-R-L

1 cycle per minute


This produces full range negatives of normal contrast with lots of shadow detail and a rich tonal scale. The D-Max is low due to the compression of the highlights. Things that would have blocked up with a more active developer are still very printable. The negatives have very powdery grain and if you control the temperature through your developing line you can minimize the grain further.

This combination is very good for outdoor photography as it can handle the extreme lighting ration of direct sunlight in a way that TX/D-76 never could. The highlights will not burn up and block as the developer clinging to the highlight exhausts itself before blockage occurs.

Due to the compression of the Zone V through VIII areas it is also wonderful for portraiture and yields a good flesh tone.

This is an extremely forgiving film/developer combination.

I used to print these negs on #2 paper and get an excellent result. For hybrid Film/Digital application I have found these negatives to scan very easily due to the limited D-Max.

If I had to use one single film developer combination this would be high on my list…

 
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