Polypan F 50 + Rodinal

Since I have a 90 meter roll of Polypan F that I intend to shoot and make nice pictures from, as well as half a liter of Agfa Rodinal (the real thing) I have started to look on the net for different ways of exposing and developing using this material.

I found this shot, in which I really like the tones:

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5032/5904201575_bf938ece0d_b.jpg

According to shooter, it's box speed, developed with Rodinal 1+25 in 6 minutes, unknown temperature.

The thing I dont like with this picture, is that I find it to be quite a lot of grain for being a 50 iso film, I do understand that this has to do with the choice of developer, and this is what I want to bring up here, what would be a good measure to take when using Rodinal in this case, in order to decrease the amount of grain?

Anyone?

(And "stand 1+100, 60 mins" doesn't count, as I am pretty sure that would give even more grain...).

Cheers
/J.F. Felinik

The flickr shot You are referring to, show high compression, thats one of the reasons it looks so gritty.
Rodinal 1+50 is optimal in my opinion. Contrary to what You wrote

stand 1+100, 60 mins...

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would give You less grain.

I have posted some recent Polypan F box speed shots here (there was a url link here which no longer exists) as You have probably seen them, developed in Rodinal 1+50 for 16 minutes @ 20°C, 30 sec initial agitation, then 3 slow inversions every 30 sec.
So, here goes again scanned on cheap Plustek film scanner:
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Not long time ago there was similar question here. I use semi stand Rodinal 1+100 with 30-60sec initial agitation, and agitation after 30min.

examples:

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regards,

How do you prevent the hightlight glow/glare, in case if you experience them?

georg16nik said:

The flickr shot You are referring to, show high compression, thats one of the reasons it looks so gritty.
Rodinal 1+50 is optimal in my opinion. Contrary to what You wrote would give You less grain.

I have posted some recent Polypan F box speed shots here (there was a url link here which no longer exists) as You have probably seen them, developed in Rodinal 1+50 for 16 minutes @ 20°C, 30 sec initial agitation, then 3 slow inversions every 30 sec.
So, here goes again scanned on cheap Plustek film scanner:
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Click to expand...

baachitraka said:

How do you prevent the hightlight glow/glare, in case if you experience them?

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I always use a hood on the lens, I don't care what film I have in the camera.
Usually folks who complain about glow/glare are the ones that shoot with lens without a hood.
I am not saying that Polypan F couldn't capture some extra glow in some situation.., I am just saying that usually the forum tigers are exaggerating the glow theme, a lot.

georg16nik said:

Rodinal 1+50 is optimal in my opinion. Contrary to what You wrote would give You less grain.

Click to expand...

No, I meant that developing using the "stand 60 minutes method", I assume will produce more grain.

So your advice is:

"1+50 for 16 minutes @ 20°C, 30 sec initial agitation, then 3 slow inversions every 30 sec."

Your shots looks pretty nice, still a bit grainy sky, isn't it?

darkosaric said:

Not long time ago there was similar question here. I use semi stand Rodinal 1+100 with 30-60sec initial agitation, and agitation after 30min.

examples:

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regards,

Click to expand...

That looks quite ok too, though tell me, the greenish tint/color, is that natural or something you've added in post?

Felinik said:

That looks quite ok too, though tell me, the greenish tint/color, is that natural or something you've added in post?

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I think it is scanning problem - prints are looking more natural / on the warm yellow side. I use cheap old scanner.

edit: prints are made on Fotokemika emaks grade 2 FB, Ilford multigrade developer.

Felinik said:

No, I meant that developing using the "stand 60 minutes method", I assume will produce more grain.

So your advice is:

"1+50 for 16 minutes @ 20°C, 30 sec initial agitation, then 3 slow inversions every 30 sec."

Your shots looks pretty nice, still a bit grainy sky, isn't it?

Click to expand...

Rodinal is what keeps (roughly speaking) the actual film grain, everything beyond that is due to the cheapest scanner here, that is noisy enough to make even Adox CMS20 look grainy
Also note that when You click on the images, they open at 100%, they are scanned via Vuescan @3600 dpi, and there is Vuescan tif size reduction that was used, thats it.
When printed, Polypan F is very smooth, even if it was developed in Rodinal but then again I come from film and never left it, so if You come from digital, Your grain definition might vary, big time.
Some of the grain You see is just the scanners own interpretation of the actual grain.
If You are shoot for scan type, then Rodinal might not be Your fav developer.

Jump into Polypan F and have no fear, its more than good enough.
Try it with various developers, if that's gonna help You thru the break in period.

georg16nik said:

Rodinal is what keeps (roughly speaking) the actual film grain, everything beyond that is due to the cheapest scanner here, that is noisy enough to make even Adox CMS20 look grainy ......
.......... When printed, Polypan F is very smooth, even if it was developed in Rodinal but then again I come from film and never left it, so if You come from digital, Your grain definition might vary, big time. Some of the grain You see is just the scanners own interpretation of the actual grain.

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This is true. You need a scanner with about 4,000dpi optical ACTUAL resolution to actually resolve grain. My V700 is stated to have a lot of pixel resolution, but it's more likely in the neighborhood of 1,200-1,500, and a scanned print looks completely different from a scanned negative in the grain department.
Unless you have something like a Nikon, Imacon Flextight, a drum scanner, or the like, what you see is the scanner's approximation of grain since it actually can't resolve it. With a really high end scanner, Rodinal might be the very best developer for scanning, because you will actually see the grain. But for lower grade consumer scanners, such as my V700, a solvent developer might be a better choice for 'apparent' fine grain.

Thanks guys!

Yeah, I will use Rodinal, as stated in my initial post, as I got half a liter of it that is bought to use with my Polypan roll.


I will experiment with 1+25, 1+50, using their corresponding times, and see how things come out.

Only on APUG, You can read the very insightful article on shaping the tone curve of a rodinal negative by df cardwell - (there was a url link here which no longer exists)

Very interesting reading!

georg16nik said:

Only on APUG, You can read the very insightful article on shaping the tone curve of a rodinal negative by df cardwell - (there was a url link here which no longer exists)

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Don't limit it to Rodinal either, as it's possible with many developers to do similar things.