[pure-silver] Re: Diafine
----- Original Message ----- From: "Bogdan Karasek" <bkarasek@xxxxxxxxxxxx> 
To: <pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, February 25, 2008 9:41 PM
Subject: [pure-silver] Re: Diafine



Hi Joel,
Fuirst place I tried was The Formulary. But no go. It was considered a hazardous material so it would have to be shipped in a Hazmat unit, it's a bummer to ship across the border. I read the MSDS pdf given with the ad, and Richard K. was right in his speculation that hydroquinone must the the culprit. In the pdf file (see below)that comes with the ad 

http://www.freestylephoto.biz/pdf/msds/acufine/Diafine_Part_A.pdf
under Hazardous Ingredients, one listing, the culprit: hydroquinone
It occurs to me that if what you want is fine grain and relatively low contrast you would do better with a developer like Kodak D-23. If the film is quite high in constrast it might need something like POTA. This is something like D-23 but made of Phenidone and sulfite rather than Metol and sulfite. Phenidone in low pH and alone results in very low contrast. The grain structure of microfilm will be pretty fine no matter what developer its used in. Note that this is something like the late, lamented Technical Pan whose special developer Technidol was a complicated form of POTA. Some people even used Rodinal 1:100 for TechPan with decent results. I can't personally vouch for this.
Haz-Mat regulations all seem to me to have gone overboard (sea polution), often confusing small amounts with regulations which might make sense if shipping many tons of something. I don't know what is in Diafine that is a hazard but it also has a phosphate (TSP, used as a sequestering agent and alkali). Phosphates are environmental hazards because large amounts of them affect aquatic life. Phosphates were once very widely used in all sorts of detergents. There are legitimate envirionmental protection issues behind most of the materials bans but sometimes they do go too far. 

---
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles, CA, USA
dickburk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
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