Topic: Cinestill Powder Developers

[Francois]

Got this in my eMail this morning.
Cinestill now has a 2 bath C41 kit and their DF96 monobath available in powder form.
And it looks like the introduction was a success as they're already backorder on the B&W developer.

So in a sense, it's all good news

[cs1]

It sounds very interesting. I read an article about it. It's also very likely storable for quite some time which makes it attractive for people who don't develop C41 very often. However, if I'm not mistaken they've left out the stabiliser. I never understood the need for a stabiliser anyhow and I personally always rinse after the stabiliser because it always gives me soapy markings on my negatives. I'm perfectly fine without the stabiliser in the kit, though I heard that some people say that the formalin in it makes the film more archivable. Anyhow, there's another thread on this forum that discusses stabiliser, so I just wanted to mention the fact without warming up an old discussion.

[Francois]

I believe that it comes with a perfect timing with Tetenal closing down.
They stand a good chance of getting a good part of their customers.

[cs1]

I doubt that Tetenal will be shutting down. My guess is that they will get rid of the printer dye unit and that they will concentrate on photo chemistry.

[Francois]

Probably, but in the meantime Cinestill has a chance to grab some customers before everything is sorted with Tetenal...

[cs1]

I hope that CineStill will become more affordable, too. Their Cs41 kit is much more expensive than Digibase C41. Though it has the advantage of a combined blix, that doesn't justify the price difference, it's still too big (I can only compare the German prices). Cs41 is a really good kit but Digibase C41 isn't shabby either. But apart from that, I really appreciate that CineStill puts an effort into developing a new developer. It gives me hope that there'll be continuous supply of photo chemistry. I like their products. If the new powder developer has a competitive price over here, I'll definitely give it a go.

[cs1]

P. S.: Is there already a recognisable shortage of Tetenal products? I haven't bought anything from Tetenal recently so I'm sort of out of the loop.

[Francois]

I know Tetenal products have always been really hard to get around here. It was like a well kept secret.
For years pretty much all you could get was Kodak developers. Occasionally you could find Ilford. As Kodak began loosing ground, Ilford stuff came to be more easily found. But apart from that and some Rodinal, very few European products tend to make it here. Same applies to Japanese chemistry and papers.
We can only find Fuji Superia color films. Neopan has always been pretty rare and hard to find. Used it only once or twice in my life.

[hookstrapped]

This is a very thorough tutorial on the Df96 monobath developer. Now with the powder, even more convenient and cheaper. Intrigued...

https://emulsive.org/articles/darkroom/review-cinestill-df96-monobath-developer-by-stephen-schaub