EZ Rodinal

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(there was a url link here which no longer exists) - EZ Rodinal

EZ Rodinal

To 400 ml water, add:
85 g anhydrous sodium sulfite.
40 g p-aminophenol base.
Stir well. Add
13.8 g sodium hydroxide or 19.2 g potassium hydroxide.
Add water to make 500 ml.
No matter how you stir, there will be some precipitate of p-aminophenol. Don't filter it out. The theory is that as p-amonophenolate is oxidized by air, the hydroxide is formed which combines with some of the precipitate to form more phenolate.

With the chemicals we can buy from Photographer's...

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(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

Same dilutions as with "store bought" Rodinal and activity level the same? Thanks, tim

noseoil said:

Same dilutions as with "store bought" Rodinal and activity level the same? Thanks, tim

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Yep. I tried it with the times listed on the side of an old Rodinal bottle with Agfa 100. At first I thought the negative was much too flat, but it printed very well on a VC RC paper without any filter, and also scanned very well. I had set the Elan IIe meter for ISO 125, a slight underexposure, and photographed the edge of a deep woods with plenty of highlight and shadow.

I tried this formula with Pan F+ at box speed and 6 minutes as per MDC and got what I feel are identical results to Agfa's Rodinal.

EZ Rodinal has become my developer of choice for traditional films shot under 100 EI. I will be trying it on T-grain film soon, I hope it works as well.

Hello Gainer,

Sorry to bring such an old topic.
I'd like to know how are the keeping qualities of your EZ Rodinal. Does it last at least a year?

Regards,
Guilherme

Hi Guilherme,


I've been doing this for the last year. And to be honest, if you make small batches of 250 ml (30 Paracetamol tablets 1000mg, 20gr NaOH and 50gr Sodium Sulphite) you'll most probably use it before it get bad. And when (or if) it gets bad, being so easy and cheap.. just make another batch.

In my case, I had a batch that lasted at least 6 months, without any "special" protection (the last solution was on an almost empty bottle, and worked the same.. to me).

It's fun.. enjoy!

amouco said:

And to be honest, if you make small batches of 250 ml (30 Paracetamol tablets 1000mg, 20gr NaOH and 50gr Sodium Sulphite) you'll most probably use it before it get bad.

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A true Rodinal-like developer cannot be made using both sodium sulphite and sodium hydroxide. Either the one or the other, or both, needs to be potassium. With all-sodium chemistry, you will only get 80% of the total solubility required, and the developer will be prone to early failure. If you use potassium hydroxide, it is possible to make a full-strength developer with zero precipitate forming, and which lasts as long (practically forever) as Rodinal. Check my post history for a calculator in Excel that will calculate the quantities for any combination of paracetamol, p-aminophenol, sodium/potassium sulphite or metabisulphite, and sodium/potassium hydroxide. My oldest batch is now 3 years, with no sign at all of deteriorating.