Fresh Fomadon R09

Reading all the fans of Rodinal in here I decided to give it a try again. The sales rep at Freestyle tells me that Fomadon R09 is the original formula for Rodinal so I got two bottles. They arrived and are the color of black coffee. In the olden days when I used Rodinal (the 80s) it was much lighter when fresh and turned dark with age. At some point in my experience it would just up and die. This makes me wonder of the Fomadon R09 is already old when sent out by Freestyle. Anyone have experience and is the developer usually dark when you first get it?
Dennis

Hi Dennis,

The R09 I got from Freestyle some time ago was slightly dark, but not black upon arrival. That said, though, I've heard that Rodinal (and by extension R09?) has a long shelf life and still works even after it turns very dark. Hopefully, some other more experienced R09 users will jump in here.

Good luck.

Take notice of this thread: (there was a url link here which no longer exists)

and especially on our test: (Fomadon) R09 versus Rodinal.

Best regards,

Robert

I am on my second bottle of Fomadon R09 from Freestyle and I am by no means an expert... But I'll tell you what I know...

Yes, both bottles I purchased from them were strong, dark coffee-colored when they arrived. But they both worked fine right off the bat. I had some problems with the first bottle, when I got down to the bottom third of the concentrate, or so (as documented in the thread above) and finally tossed it. I have just started the second bottle and all is well.

Both my bottles came from the same batch number (#1105) with a use-by date of 2008-05. Good luck. Gald to answer any questions I can...

The testing referenced by Robert (Fotohuis) was great reading and very informative. I highly recommend it.

Yes that is the same batch I got and you are right it is darker than coffee unless you like coffee as strong as I do. I looked at the previous thread and read some of it but there are too many pages to read it all. I will process some film in this batch this afternoon. But if at some point the developer is going to up and go bad on me it isn't worth the gamble.

thanks, Dennis

Since Rodinal is easily available again, I'm not sure why you'd want to try Ro9? Is it much cheaper than Rodinal? Does it give a different look? Better for Fomapan?

Maybe still interesting to read the whole thread and the links.

Yes, Fomadon R09 will be slightly cheaper than Rodinal R09 but this is a complete wrong decision to use a particular developer anyhow.
Going to the 500ml Rodinal packing the difference will be neglectible here in Europe.

Main difference is that R09 can fail after some time in use and Rodinal will not (I am talking in a few years time span now).
Getting back to our reference test with APX 100 (new)/Rollei Retro 100 you can see that the grain is more pronounced with R09. Looking at our APX 100 negatives themselves, the acutance and sharpness are both in the same order with THIS film under test.

The main problem for the R09 after months (a year ?) in use will be the decision when to dump it. The developer will still have the same color. Same problem is valid for e.g. Kodak Xtol after 6 months or so. Also still the same color and suddenly they can fail!

Well, I hope to give you all more insight information in these two para-amino phenol developers. And for those who are thinking Fotohuis is giving crappy information:
We are also the Dutch Foma distributor.

Best regards,

Robert

Does it give a different look? Better for Fomapan?

Click to expand...

The look is slightly different, especially on 35mm material when you have to enlarge more.
Here some examples of Fomapan T200 (Creative 200), Fomadon R09 and Rodinal (and the Dutch Amaloco AM74/R.H.S. developer). Also here you can see the differences in grain but that DOES NOT mean grain is always a problem! I like the pictures of Prague very much which has been made by myself

Dead Link Removed

Freestyle offered both the R09 and Rodinal. The salesman told me that R09 was the original formula for Rodinal. I am an original formula sort of guy so I went that way. In the early 80s Rodinal was magic for me in processing 8x10. It seemed always to be right and gave my negs a beautiful bluish glow. Though my process lasted 17 minutes. A bit long for one sheet at a time.

If you like history and a Dutch translation dictionary:

Sommige namen zijn bekend, andere wat minder. Rodinal een filmontwikkelaar van Agfa die op 27 Januari 1891 onder Patentschrift no. 60174 van het Kaiserliches Patentambt werd ingeschreven en later dat jaar op de markt werd gebracht.
Een vinding van Dr. M. Andresen uit Berlijn.

Een receptuur die in bijna alle tijden vrijwel onveranderd is gebleven en naar goede bronnen, voor het laatst in 1992 door Agfa is gemodificeerd.
Agfa (Aktien Gesellschaft Für Anilinfabrikation), een gekende naam in de fotoindustrie draait nu op zijn laatste benen. De splitsing met Agfa Gevaert heeft Agfa Photo duidelijk geen goed gedaan. Agfa, een bedrijf dat in 1964 nog fuseerde met Gevaert en vanaf 1981 een 100% dochter van het Bayer concern in Leverkusen. Onder dit pharmaceutisch concern werden destijds miljoenenwinsten geboekt, zie nu wat er van is overgebleven.
Zoals het er naar uit ziet is het gebeurd met een lange traditie in de Duitse fotoindustrie. Voor iedereen die zelf zijn z/w films ontwikkelt is RODINAL een begrip. Een ontwikkelaar die tot vorige week vrijdag nog werd geproduceerd in de Agfafabriek in Valhingen/Enz. Een unieke receptuur, hoge verdunningen mogelijk met superscherpte (1+25 - 1+100). Een vloeibare ontwikkelaar die bijna net zo lang houdbaar is als de patentvinding. Zou het daarom verkeerd zijn afgelopen met Agfa Photo.................??

(Article published by Fotohuis in 2005 in the Dutch APUG forum)

When Agfa had a merge with Gevaert in 1964 the East German part of former Agfa agreed under payment of West German D-Marks the new name of OrWo (ORginal WOlfen). They went further with their production of pre WWII Rodinal, which is still sold under R09. This production is still done by Calbe (Germany) and Foma (Czech Republic).

This batch of R09 is obviously still good as at 50 to 1 for 12 minutes it significantly over processed my ACROS EI 64. That time was correct awhile back with Rodinal. I think I better try it at 100 to 1.
Dennis

To illustrate the R09/Rodinal case: here in the Czech Republic, where R09 is manufactured, the price for R09 is more or less half of Rodinal. But when I finish the stock of R09 I have at home, I'll buy Rodinal. To save me from the stress of losing my negatives.

Others might feel different, though.

The color of Rodinal depends a lot on the amount of crud in the p-aminophenol they used. Many years ago, p-aminophenol for photographic use was fairly pure and cream colored to light tan. Even the technical grade material was fairly light. The currently available stuff is almost black, contaminated with pot tar. the sodium hydroxide in Rodinal is not easy on it, and it becomes even darker as the developer stock solution is mixed. It still seems to work, though.