100 year old Rodinal

Mainecoonmaniac · Jan 2, 2018

And it still works! HC-110 hasn't been around that long, but I wonder if it's just as bullet-proof?

https://petapixel.com/2018/01/02/guy-got-100-year-old-bottle-film-developer-tried/

Helios 1984 · Jan 2, 2018

My 25yo+ bottles can be considered fresh juice then.

blockend · Jan 2, 2018

The comments suggest it's not that old, my first impression looking at the label was 1950s. Rodinal is still my developer of choice for slower films. There was talk that some of the Rodinal derivatives don't have the same shelf life as the original formula, I don't know how true that is. The biggest surprise is a leaky old bottle of chemicals got through customs.

ant! · Jan 2, 2018

The bottle says VEB Wolfen, which means it is from East Germany, post 1949. VEB = "People-owned enterprise"
This VEB was founded 1953 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ORWO).

OK, others saw this as well in the artcle's comments...

pentaxuser · Jan 2, 2018

I was convinced that I recognised that cat as belonging to Lloyd George when he was Prime Minister during WWI. He found it in a distressed state outside Number 10 during a Zeppelin raid so it had to be 100 yr old Rodinal. Then somebody spoils it by pointing out the DDR label.

In the spirit of the modern Zeitgeist, shame on you for shattering a good tale and sacrificing it to mundane and overrated truth.

pentaxuser

jvo · Jan 2, 2018

i still believe it a 100 year old bottle... i also believe trump is gonna make america grate again!

Andrew O'Neill · Jan 2, 2018

Grate what? Cheese?

BMbikerider · Jan 3, 2018

There is a anecdotal story that in the late 70's when they were still restoring the old part of Dresden which the allies nearly obliterated in 1945 they uncovered an old bottle of Rodinal which was nearly empty from what had been a photographers shop and the contents were still perfectly usable. Not quite the 100 years some claim but still a long time to have an opened bottle and it still work.

RalphLambrecht · Jan 3, 2018

pentaxuser said:
I was convinced that I recognised that cat as belonging to Lloyd George when he was Prime Minister during WWI. He found it in a distressed state outside Number 10 during a Zeppelin raid so it had to be 100 yr old Rodinal. Then somebody spoils it by pointing out the DDR label.

In the spirit of the modern Zeitgeist, shame on you for shattering a good tale and sacrificing it to mundane and overrated truth.

pentaxuser

Yeah;don't destroy my illusions with facts.

AgX · Jan 3, 2018

So much about the expertise of Petapixel.

tezzasmall · Jan 3, 2018

I wonder if a teaspoon of Rodinal a day will help extend human life, as gin, sherry etc has been quoted to do? It could then be quoted as being the reason of getting to 100+ years old.

Terry S

pentaxuser · Jan 3, 2018

jvo said:
i still believe it a 100 year old bottle... i also believe trump is gonna make america grate again!

Grate. Nice one. Sometimes we maybe are not so divided by a common language

pentaxuser.

trendland · Jan 3, 2018

Mainecoonmaniac said:
And it still works! HC-110 hasn't been around that long, but I wonder if it's just as bullet-proof?

https://petapixel.com/2018/01/02/guy-got-100-year-old-bottle-film-developer-tried/

Yes thats indeed a very old rodinal in original package.
It seams so. The rodinal much older I would,t use.
Not from characteristics - obvoiusly (some made experience and stated it very often) aged rodinal is just fine - thats right.
But to 100 years old rodinal I truly not belive it is usable.
If you will find it - better give it to
Sotheby's.
But to be sure, - the 1918 design should look like this :

And if you will find some films it should be with this font :

trendland · Jan 3, 2018

with regards

Helios 1984 · Jan 3, 2018

If Rodinal can last over 50 years in a leaky bottle, imagine if it were in an airtight one.

baachitraka · Jan 3, 2018

!!!Ausserordentlich haltbar!!!

Also for paper...

trendland · Jan 3, 2018

Helios 1984 said:
If Rodinal can last over 50 years in a leaky bottle, imagine if it were in an airtight one.

Did you know Helios that rodinal was
announced to Voyager1 in 1977 ?

But then the decision came to the golden
record.....

...
Imagine rodinal has passed the heliopause and would be in interstellar space meanwhile.

with regards

Colin Corneau · Jan 3, 2018

50 years or 100 years - doesn't surprise me in the least.

Alan Johnson · Jan 3, 2018

I have some of the very similar Azol which was tested and working at 62 years old:
https://www.photrio.com/forum/threads/vintage-chemicals.67677/
After the test the clear liquid was decanted to another sealed bottle and has deposited a lot of crystals again.
It seems the early formulas of Rodinal type do this.

trendland · Jan 3, 2018

Colin Corneau said:
50 years or 100 years - doesn't surprise me in the least.

Look above - best method to reach billions of years shell live (bejond the heliopause) frozen at 0,0237 kelvin vacuum dryed.

Seriously rodinal is not the worst developing stuff and remember - it was a very early photo patent.(1891)

with regards

Gerald C Koch · Jan 3, 2018

Most acutance developers work on the principle of restricting the amount of developing agent(s). The more heavily exposed portions of the negative are therefore starved during development and development stops or is slowed in these areas. Examples would be the Beutler formula and Geoffrey Crawley's FX-2. Kodak HDD (High Definition Developer) used a different principle in that it limits the amount of alkali present instead of developing agent. The developer was never marketed in the US (it was marketed in the UK) nor was the formula ever published. Crawley did make a stab at what the recipe might be in one of the BJ annuals. AFAIK HDD is the only developer to use this principle.

Helios 1984 · Jan 3, 2018

Behold, the great panacea of film developers.

Found this one on a German photography blog, the person who bought this bottle succefully developed a roll of 44 years old ORWO. He had to drill a hole through the rubber plug which had fused with crystallized sediment.

On the bottle you can read:
I.G Farbenindustrie AktienGesellschaft - Agfa Berlin
Agfa was part of I.G Farben from 1925 to 1945 which mean this bottle is at least 72 years old.

Full article here.

Helios 1984 · Jan 4, 2018

Not pinpointing anything, but according to this 100 years commemoration of the mark, the Agfa Diamond appeared in 1923.

pentaxuser · Jan 4, 2018

Helios 1984 said:
Not pinpointing anything, but according to this 100 years commemoration of the mark, the Agfa Diamond appeared in 1923.

Your post made me check a bottle of original Rodinal I have in my darkroom but still a lot younger than 1923 - probably more like 2003 in my case. It has the red Agfa diamond with Agfa in white on it so presumably at some point beyond 1926/27 it became the Agfa red diamond you show at the bottom but without a date. I wonder when that change came about?

pentaxuser

Helios 1984 · Jan 4, 2018

pentaxuser said:
Your post made me check a bottle of original Rodinal I have in my darkroom but still a lot younger than 1923 - probably more like 2003 in my case. It has the red Agfa diamond with Agfa in white on it so presumably at some point beyond 1926/27 it became the Agfa red diamond you show at the bottom but without a date. I wonder when that change came about?

pentaxuser

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100 year old Rodinal

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