Less aggressive alternative for Rodinal?

[Seabird]

I develop FP4+ in Rodinal 1+50 and face similar problems - i.e. tap water and ambient temp too high in summer and too low in winter for my preferred 20 degree C dev times. I am in Sydney, Oz where in summer tap water temp can be 25+ degrees and ambient in the high 30s... In these circumstances a water bath is the way to go.

The trick is to use a sufficient quantity of water in the bath, and a non-heat conducting container to ensure the water is impacted by ambient temp as little as possible. My water bath is simply a plastic tub that sits on my bench. It takes about 10-15 litres of water. Once the water in the bath is at 20 degrees C, it holds that temp +/- about half a degree for my average 7-10min dev times. (I use a Jobo 2551 tank sitting on a roller base in a water bath).

Hope this helps

Carey Bird
http://members.iinet.net.au/~cbird/index.html

 

[Usagi]

Hi,

I did test run with Adox CHS 25 Art and Rodinal 1+50, tray development and 20 deg celsius.

Unfortunately even 20 degree gives too short times

I got 4 minutes for N-1, 5 minutes for N and 8 minutes for N+1½, 9 for N+2 and 16 for N+3½


Perhaps use of rodinal is simply wrong tool for slow films? A bit like using hammer when saw is required.

Ofcourse I could check what 1+100 gives, I think it's a bit too compensating.

 

[RobertV]

Well this is not too bad, 5 minutes is OK, 4 minutes is a bit short for a B&W developing time but when taking good care about timing, have a quick change of chemicals and use a stop bath it still will be OK.

Cooling down with ice cubes or capsuled (ice) cubes is the best way to reach the right temperature.

In this way the stability of your temperature is more easier then a long developing time which have to be cooled down.