Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2007/07/23

[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]

Subject: [Leica] Diafine anyone?
From: pswango at att.net (Phil Swango)
Date: Mon Jul 23 20:45:05 2007

Hoppy wrote:
Phil, sorry if it is a diversion from your thread. I haven't used that
developer.
How are you scanning? Your pics are very smooth. Cute doggie of the handbag
kind!
My Nikon scanner is savage on bw film no matter what I try (apparent grain
from anti-aliasing, I think).
===============================

Hoppy, I scanned these with an Epson 3170 flatbed.  It's very smooth with
BW, probably because it uses a cold light source.  Not so great with color
because of limited Dmax.  The (small) print I made for the dog's owner
looked great.  I've heard other people complain about the Nikon scanners
with BW, for the same reason.

Diafine is an interesting developer.  It's a two solution developer.  The
first bath is hydroquinone, for 3 minutes, without concern for temperature,
emulsion type or EI.  The second bath is the activator (sodium sulfite),
also for 3 min.  This was my first try so I'm not ready to jump on the
bandwagon yet but I was pretty happy with the results.  If you go to Flickr
and search on Diafine as a keyword you can see what others have done with
it.  Some users find it grainy but with Plus-X that doesn't seem to be a
problem.  I'll probably try it with Tri-X sooner or later but I don't shoot
a lot of film.

-- 
Phil Swango
307 Aliso Dr SE
Albuquerque, NM 87108
505-262-4085

Replies: Reply from chs2018 at med.cornell.edu (Chris Saganich) ([Leica] Diafine anyone? Now Nikon scanner)