Member-only story
2 Films You Should Not Develop in DF96
These two films result in totally clear negatives — and possibly ruined developer
Cinestill’s DF96 Monobath is an extremely versatile — and generally very forgiving — single bath chemistry. It works great on traditional-grain films like Kodak’s Tri-X or Kentmere 100. And it even does a good job on T-grain emulsions like Kodak T-Max, with some modifications to development time.
If you’re in a hurry, in the field, or just don’t want to deal with the hassle of a separate developer, stop bath and fixer, DF96 is almost always a great choice to develop black and white film. It produces archival negatives, and has the added benefit of developing a reel of 35mm film in about 4 minutes.
But sometimes, it’s important not to use DF96. Two films in particular appear to simply not work at all with the chemistry. It’s important to choose other methods for developing these films. Otherwise, you risk losing whole reels, and the time and effort that went into shooting them.
Adox CMS 20 II
Adox CMS 20 II is a professional, low-ISO film with a clear film base, which is often exposed at speeds as slow as 6 ISO. It’s notorious for being one of the most difficult commercially-available films to shoot properly. And it can also be…
