Any advice for new Rondinax user?

RLangham · Jul 6, 2020

AgX said:
At the operating side you will see an opening with right to it the figures 12, 24, 36. In the opening you can see an indicator, connected to the funnel you had it about in the contetext of scratching. The funnel thus acts as feeler for the windings.
By reading this "meter", due to its imprecision rather a indicator, one gets an idea of the length of film already fed to the spool. Thus if knowing about the numbers of exposures done, one can by this indicator roughly control the lenght to be cut off and be processed. This is an alternative to opening the camera in the dark and cutting off the lenght already exposed. The daylight alternative of course fits the daylight-handling idea behind this Rondinax.

I understand what it is. I was just confused as to what you meant by "use it," since in normal operation that meter is operated automatically by the film passing through the funnel.

I just cut off the film when it's all the way pulled out of the cartridge. The meter just serves as a nice confirmation that nothing has gone wrong with the process. To be sure, this has already resulted in me developing the exposed tail end of the film when I developed a roll of self-loaded bulk film, but I already did that all the time with my inversion tanks and I don't think it noticeably affects the life of my developer.

MattKing · Jul 6, 2020

I'm guessing that the indicator that AgX refers to is actually there to permit users to develop portions of a roll, while leaving the rest of the roll for either later exposure or later (and different) development.
Perfect for the real estate listing photographer!

AgX · Jul 6, 2020

Exactly, Matt.
Seemingly I was not clear enough about in my post.
As said such can be done in a darkroom, but this device allows to do so in daylight.

But as the indicator is not very precise, and if it was there still would bre the issue of the leader length, I wonder, and asked above, if anyone uses this feature.

AgX · Jul 6, 2020

Another aspect: cleaning

Just this moment I am busy cleaning the two Rondinaxes. As I got them from a school lab, there was a lot of Calciumcarbonate residue all over. Both, getting this off and in first place drying the devices (especially the 35mm version) is a hassle, due to the complex design.

Of course, one could just not bother and keep the carbonate building up...

Or rinse them after use Calcium-free.

RLangham · Jul 20, 2020

So not to resurrect a dead thread, but I finally used my Rondinax a second time, on a roll of what should have been properly-exposed Foma 200. I used d-76 and the partial-submersion/continuous agitation method (7 oz of liquid in each bath, one half turn every two seconds).

One of youse guys said it would be a shorter development time due to the constant agitation, so I It wasn't a good roll so I just tried developing for about the recommended time to see how badly overdeveloped that would make it.

I developed for six minutes, than fixed for four in acid fix. At the end of it, I came out with a completely blocked negative, with dense opaque images. I know the fixer was good because I fixed two dry plates in it for three minutes yesterday--they both cleared almost instantly.

Should I have developed for a lot less time? Have I somehow killed my fixer? Was it wrong to twist in half turns?

Deleted member 88956 · Jul 20, 2020

RLangham said:
So not to resurrect a dead thread, but I finally used my Rondinax a second time, on a roll of what should have been properly-exposed Foma 200. I used d-76 and the partial-submersion/continuous agitation method (7 oz of liquid in each bath, one half turn every two seconds).

One of youse guys said it would be a shorter development time due to the constant agitation, so I It wasn't a good roll so I just tried developing for about the recommended time to see how badly overdeveloped that would make it.

I developed for six minutes, than fixed for four in acid fix. At the end of it, I came out with a completely blocked negative, with dense opaque images. I know the fixer was good because I fixed two dry plates in it for three minutes yesterday--they both cleared almost instantly.

Should I have developed for a lot less time? Have I somehow killed my fixer? Was it wrong to twist in half turns?

How fast were you rotating the device, It is a very slow motion. Have you seen the Youtube on Rondinax use? The guy seems to know. I don't think development time is much shorter then standard. Rotation consistency is critical.

AgX · Jul 21, 2020

Witold said:
How fast were you rotating the device, It is a very slow motion.

As said, Agfa specified the the kind of agitation, but of course anyone can do his own thing.

Deleted member 88956 · Jul 21, 2020

AgX said:
As said, Agfa specified the the kind of agitation, but of course anyone can do his own thing.

I have never used Rondinax, I was merely referring to Youtube video where the guy seems to know and was happy with results.

RLangham · Jul 21, 2020

Witold said:
How fast were you rotating the device, It is a very slow motion. Have you seen the Youtube on Rondinax use? The guy seems to know. I don't think development time is much shorter then standard. Rotation consistency is critical.

As I said, half turn every two seconds. Turns out that's way too much; people are saying it's like a tiny little jerk on the wheel every two seconds for a total rotation of about 1/2 RPM.

Donald Qualls · Jul 21, 2020

Obviously, you need to make at least one full turn immediately after pouring in the developer (I'd probably crank continuously for at least 30-60 seconds), so the emulsion gets coated and can start to soak the liquid into the gelatin. Beyond that, if you're turning continuously, you probably need to use the "rotary" processing times instead of the usual inversion process times -- and if you're not, I'd think there's a hazard of uneven development, as some of the film is standing in the liquid and some is developing only with the film and soak-in developer, up in the air.

Deleted member 88956 · Jul 21, 2020

RLangham said:
As I said, half turn every two seconds. Turns out that's way too much; people are saying it's like a tiny little jerk on the wheel every two seconds for a total rotation of about 1/2 RPM.

This is all I know about Rondinax, seems like keep on turning and I'd trust the man.

Rondinax website

Youtube One

Youtube Two

Any advice for new Rondinax user?

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