Ilford Delta films in Diafine?

[Ronald_H]

Ok, here's my situation:

I started with Diafine and Tri-X because that combo worked great for my high contrast concert shooting. In fact Diafine and Tri-X works well in whatever situation you might want to throw at it. HP5+ also does very well in it.

A slower 'old' film like Ilford FP4 works nicely, but I don't really think I get the most out of it with Diafine.

And here's where the Delta film comes in: I got some for my birthday, but they are not listed on the Diafine box! I know that Kodak TMax 100 works in Diafine, but how will the Ilford films do and how would I rate them?

I just found out that my local photo store still stocks ID-11 and D76, so I might want to try that route.

[Matt(1pt4)]

You can read about my experiences with Delta 100, 400 & 3200 in Diafine here:

http://www.1point4photography.com/blog/diafine-days/

Unlike most films, Delta 100 actually loses some film speed in Diafine.

[Ronald_H]

Thank you Matt. How did you rate the Delta 400? I see you rated the 100 at 50! That's quite different from the 160 I used for Tmax 100 (and even that I consider too low).

It's probably all a case of YMMV, but having taken the first steps with home development recently, I probably should just try it and see what happens. I'm pretty sure the negs will come out usable.

[titrisol]

Also D3200 gives a 1000 speed in Diafine

[sockeyed]

I'm not a fan of Diafine. From my experience, you lose a lot in terms of tonality and shadow detail for the benefits of higher speeds, and if you don't even get higher speeds with the Delta films, it seems to not make sense. It would seem a waste of good film to use it for Delta. I would highly recommend D-76 or ID-11. I've also had good success with Delta 400 + XTOL:

[Matt(1pt4)]

I rated Delta 400 @ 400. That's what my Diafine box recommends. Not sure why I rated the 100 at 50 since the box says 80. I might have changed my mind about how I was planning on developing it.

'From my experience, you lose a lot in terms of tonality and shadow detail for the benefits of higher speeds, and if you don't even get higher speeds with the Delta films, it seems to not make sense. It would seem a waste of good film to use it for Delta.'

With TriX and HP5, you get the speed boost, but you lose should some shadow detail. With Delta, you get no speed boost, but shadow detail does not seem to suffer. The negs are fairly dense. The results of my limited trial were inconclusive at the time, but I think now I know enough about scanning that I could get good tonality out of Delta 400 in Diafine.

It may not be my first choice for developers but in terms of shelf life, flexibility and economy, Diafine scores high.

[stephaneb]

Diafine and Delta do not match very well. I find HC-110 a better match.