Talked to a guy at the darkroom who made me rethink my whole developing process

I was at the community darkroom downtown last Saturday, waiting for my prints to dry, and this older guy named Dave started asking me what developer I use. I told him I've been using Ilfosol 3 for years because it's cheap and easy to find. He just shook his head and said I was wasting my rolls, that I should try a two-bath developer like Diafine because it gives way better shadow detail and you don't have to mess with time and temperature as much. I kind of brushed him off at first, but then he showed me some of his prints from a beat up Canonet he picked up for 20 bucks at a flea market, and the tones were incredible. Now I'm sitting on a bunch of rolls I already shot and I'm wondering if I should change my whole workflow, maybe pick up some Diafine this weekend. Has anyone else switched from a standard developer to a two-bath system and noticed a big difference?

2 comments

2 Comments

sagea886d ago

Drop the Ilfosol 3 man, seriously. I switched to Diafine about two years ago and it was a game changer for me, especially with Tri-X pushed to 1600. The shadow detail is just way richer and you don't have to stress about water temp fluctuations like you do with standard developers. Yeah the mixing is a little annoying at first, but once you get the two baths going it's super consistent roll after roll. Your bathroom sink will probably get stained anyway, just use a plastic tray you don't care about.

the_keith6d ago

Well, I tried Diafine once and it turned my bathroom sink a weird shade of brown I still can't scrub off.