Efke 50, 'Rodinal', Stand Development

[timing]

Background:
I recently bought a few rolls of Efke 50 from my local supplier here in Belgrade but could not find any times for the developer that I had so, after reading a number of posts on APUG I decided to give Rodinal a go. Now I couldn't get Rodinal but we have another supplier here that can sell Fomadon R09 - apparently a Rodinal equivalent.

Amongst the posts I came across the idea of stand development which I had not heard of before (I have only developed 2 films before this) and quite liked the idea of leaving the whole kit 'n' kaboodle without fretting about timings, agitation every minutes etc. I also liked that stand development can compensate and I figured this might help where my exposure is not quite perfect (again shooting film with just a light meter is also a new thing).

Anyway, after a bit of reading around I came out with the following process:

Process:
Fomadon R09 at 1:125
Pre-soak for a couple of minutes
Add developer and agitate for 1 min (20 inversions)
Tap hard 5 times
place into water bath at 20 degs C and leave well alone for 59 mins.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Stop with plain old water for around 4 mins
Fix with Efke FF-1 for 4 minutes
Wash.
Hang to dry for hours and hours.

I was using a Paterson Universal developing tank.

Results
OK, now as I'm new this I haven't ventured into the whole printing side so I'll show a few scans to show the results.

1.

2.

Note: Image converted to Grayscale in PS which I didn't really intend which is why the colour of different to the other two images.

3.

Of course, I didn't notice the parked car until reviewing the negatives - c'est la vie!


I'm actually very pleased with the results but I'd be very interested in your comments - this is only the third film I've developed but I can take constructive comments.


BTW: The photos are from a place called Topcider Park in Belgrade - very pretty place and quite too.

Cheers,

Tim

 

[Alan Johnson]

Nice pics but I just note the technical side.
1.A light line can be seen in the sky at the edges of the cross bars.This is an edge effect typical of Efke/Rodinal stand development.
2.A long range of tones with detail in the shadows,the main characteristic of stand development.
3.Lucky to get no streaks with pure stand development.If streaks ever become a problem it has been suggested to agitate once every 10 min for 35mm or every 5 min for 120.

 

[timing]

Thanks Alan, I guess it's these technical comments that I'm really after as that is where I need to learn most at the moment.

I never noticed the light line that you mention in point 1. and it took me a while to see what you meant.

I'll take a look at the other frames to see if the streaks are there - are they obvious or subtle? What would cause that?



On a slightly seperate note is stand development another way of achieving similar results to N-1 development?

 

[Alan Johnson]

I find with Rodinal the streaks generally start from the sprocket holes with 35mm and at the edges of the film by the reel with 120.Hold the negs up to the light to see if they are present.If troublesome they may be avoided by increasing agitation as mentioned,to 5 or 10 min intervals.
Stand development means the developer exhausts over the highlights so they do not get as dense as with ordinary development.I'm not a zone user but I dont think it's quite the same as N-1.