Topic: CineStill Df96 Monobath developer

[Late Developer]

Anyone used this chemical?

I've decided to try to get back into developing my B&W film and saw an article on it. It's available in the UK, so I've bought a couple of bottles and I'm hoping to try it out in the next couple of weeks.

The one thing that seems odd is that you have to get it to +/- 1 degree of 27 degrees Celsius for it to work properly.   I suppose a sink full of water at about 28-29 degrees should do the trick.  Assuming no push / pull, it takes 3 minutes then rinse.  It can, supposedly, process 16 rolls of 35mm (8 rolls of 120) by adding 15 seconds at each re-use.

Anyway, I'd be interested to see any results or hear any tips.

[Francois]

I know Eduardo Pavez Goye tried it on his channel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSD49mXp0_U
And yes it does work. But you have to still do some calculations.
As for the results, it's probably not that bad from what I've seen.

These things are not new per say. Years ago I found in a book Henri Calba's monobath. This one was specialized for producing out of this world grain. Never tried it but looking at the formula I know it works.

[Late Developer]

Hi Francois.
I'll check out the YT feed and see what's what.
The Df96 instructions seem very simple and where I bought it from said the grain isn't too noticeable. It's supposed to be really good with the CineStill B&W film.
I've got a couple of rolls of TMax and HP5 to process, so I might do one of each this weekend if I get time. If I do, I'll scan and post the results.
Cheers, Paul.

[cs1]

Paul, I've only tried CineStill's Cs41 kit. However, regarding the temperature if the threshold is +-1 °C I would recommend the following: fill one "reference bottle" with water that has the same temperature as the room where you store the Df96. That way you can stick the thermometer into water instead of chemicals and you can leave the Df96 bottle closed. Stick both bottles into a water bath of ~30 °C. Keep some really cold tap water close by. Watch the thermometer in your reference bottle. When it reaches 27°C, cool down the water bath to exactly 27 °C with the cold tap water. The water bath together with the bottles inside will keep that temperature for at least 10-15 minutes (depending on the room temperature) which should suffice. You can either use the water in the reference bottle for pre-soaking or for rinsing (you can also use the water in the water bath for rinsing so that it doesn't go to waste). I use the trick with the reference bottle full of water when I develop C-41 and this method is quite reliable (I develop C-41 at 25 °C).

[Late Developer]

That is great advice.  Thank you.

As the Df96 pushes / pulls the development if the temperature varies up / down even a little, it's important that the 27 degrees temperature is maintained.  I was reading that TMax needs to be pre-soaked to get rid of some layer or other.  I don't think it affects processing, it just turns the Df96 a weird colour! 

I'm not sure how much time I'll save using a monobath - probably not as much as I'd like - but I'll give it a go. If it's a faff, I'll revert to the traditional dev, stop bath, fix and rinse routine.

Cheers, Paul.

[cs1]

I guess that pre-soaking is a matter of taste. Some films have anti-halo coating (don't know if this is the correct English term) which is often greenish. I agree that it shouldn't affect the developer other than colouring it, however, I'd also rinse it away. And you'll get the film up to developing temperature which isn't bad either. If it was C-41 I'd even place the developing tank into the water bath in between agitations but the +-1 threshold is so generous that this shouldn't be necessary. I'm looking forward to reading about your experiences with Df96. Please keep us posted.

[Francois]

I know that when it came out inwas really tempted to get some. I even opened an account with them, but when came time to pay and I saw 40$ shipping on the site, I just backed down. You can get a lot of developer for that price.

[Late Developer]

Francois, it might be worth checking again.  I bought mine for about £16/17 a bottle (1 litre) and the retailer charged just a few quid for courier delivery.  I got 2 bottle for less than £40 and that'll develop 32 rolls of 35mm - which I don't think is too bad.

[Francois]

I was trying to get it from the US website and the shipping was for sending it across the border.
There might be other suppliers who now have it... but we ain't really lucky in Canada when it comes to choice of products and suppliers. The only serious supplier we have that I know of is Argentix.

[cs1]

CineStill Cs41 was also very expensive in Germany compared to other options like the Digibase C41 kit. What's the expiration rate of Df96? I do like a number of developers that turn bad so quickly that I hardly get the maximum of films out of them. I've learned to factor that in when purchasing developer (one of the reasons why I stick to Caffenol wherever I can; it takes longer to prepare it and it doesn't work equally well with every film; it's also not the cheapest e.g. compared to Rodinal but it gives me better results with Fomapan 100 and 400; however, since it's always "freshly made", I think that I get the best value out of it; as said before, Rodinal is an exception because it stays usable for ages).

[Francois]

One thing I like about always good developers is that they are also quick to prepare from concentrate.
Though I'm thinking that it would be possible to prepare all the dry ingredients for cafenol and store them ahead of time. When ready, just open the bottle, dump in a beaker and add water.

[cs1]

Unfortunately that's not so easy since the ingredients of Caffenol have very different grain sizes and also very different densities. If you put them into one container it's very likely that the soda will end up at the bottom at some point and the instant coffee at the top. Since we're talking 4.8g per 300ml for soda, there's too much of a risk of getting the proportions of the ingredients wrong. I guess that the only way would be to mix it in water and deep freeze it. If you don't freeze it it will develop mould quickly due to the coffee. But after a few times of mixing Caffenol you get very proficient doing it and I don't mind the little extra time. I regain that by not having to go to the toxic waste collection with the developer since Caffenol isn't toxic waste.

[Francois]

What I was thinking is making "one shot" containers. Like an old film can that contains everything already measured in it to process 1 roll of film. 2 containers for 2 rolls and so on.

[cs1]

Yes, that should definitely work, François. Old film canisters should do the job.