Blank neg -- Rodinal failure?

Dennis, this is the first I've ever heard of this. I've been using Rodinal, new and old, for years. I do, of course, believe you, but I am at a loss as to how to explain it. You didn't dev on a night of a full moon, did you?

BTW, my previous post should read, "bottom of the bottle".

I have been doing a lot of custom lab work in my business for almost 20 years now and that was the only time I ever had to tell a client that his film came out blank and it was my fault. So it sticks in my memory with embarrassment. Even now everytime I get ready to use Rodinal I think of that time and wonder to myself if my developer is dead... sort of like the people who suffered Xtol death once and could never use it again. I know now to find a piece of 35mm film leader lying around and stick it in there for a few minutes to see it turn black. They say the R09 is the original formula Rodinal, which leads me to think the current Rodinal is not the original formula.
Dennis

In my experience with film development , If there are no numbers there was no development, period.
(weak or exhausted, contaminated developer)will still show weak numbers and image.

At our lab when there are no numbers on the film edge is when we start giving our clients recourse to our mistake.

There are thousand of issues with film processing but * no numbers* is a critical error in development. even how embarrassing it is for the operator.

dpodeath said:

I have to disagree. I blame the film. I shot a roll of Neopan 1600 rated at 400 and decided to develop it with HC-110 at 1:99 from the syrup for about 30mins stand development at 78 degrees(5mls to 495mls). it seems nothing got developed passing zone 8. and negatives were really thin. I came to the conclusion that you shouldnt use this type of film with diluted developers. I developed other films (tri-x) with the same combo and they all came out fine.

If im wrong i would like to know the mistake i made.

-charlie

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If you had tried 1:64 for 30 min at 78F you might have got something.

Rodinal 1+50 is a dilute developer. If you had fixer residue in the cylinder it could put it off...EC

dpurdy said:

... which leads me to think the current Rodinal is not the original formula.
Dennis

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This is quite possible and thought likely by Anchell. He states that Agfa/A&O Rodinal now contains Pot Bro (it still does and I don't know when this started to be added) and would not be necessary if p-aminophenol were still the only dev agent.