rodinal dilution for neopan 400

hi all, i just ordered a bottle of rodinal yesterday, and it will be my first time working with this developer. i am a medium format user, i shoot a 6x7 camera mounted on a tripod and loaded with acros, and a 6x4.5 rangefinder loaded with neopan 400 for handheld shots. i plan on starting with the acros at a dilution of 1:100, but am unsure of which dilution to use for the 400. the massive developing chart lists developing times for this film at dilutions of 1:25 and 1:50 when shooting at box speed. which dilution will be graniest, and which will have the highest sharpness? and what dilution do you prefer for this film or similar fast films?

1:50 is a good place to start, but I think you can get great, normal, results from anywhere from 1:25 up to 1:100 depending on what you're shooting and your personal tase. 1:50 is what I use.

1/50 for 12min agitating 10sec every 3min + the first 60sec
Cheers
Søren

The negatives you produce with Rodinal will vary in quality depending on the dilution you use. The lower the dilution (eg. 1+25), the greater the grain and contrast. By increasing the dilution you will decrease apparent grain and contrast.

As the other respondants have stated, 1+50 is a good starting point because the overall balance of granularity and contrast at this dilution works well for general purpose work. Rodinal tends to produce very grainy negs at 1+25, while the grain at 1+50 is more acceptable; however, if you are looking for fine-grain results then you may want to try a higher dilution such as 1+75.

I would avoid the 1+100 dilution if you have never used Rodinal before. The contrast at this dilution is much lower than normal and if you haven't tested this dilution with your film, they you may end up with very thin negs. Even at 1+75, the negs can be thin, so I would definitely echo the other comments here and recommend you start at 1+50 for your first roll.

To use the 1+100 dilution successfully you need to shoot a scene with plenty of contrast or use a film with high inherent contrast, otherwise you may end up with flat results. Your film will be very fine grained, but hard to print.

with the across 100 film the 1:100 can be used and delivers fine results.
(19 minutes) for a difussor head.

Whoops Ay you hit a spot there, Willie.
I used to have a condenser enlarger (Opemus) now I have got a Diffuser. So do I have to get more contrast in my negs now? I used to print @#3 so My own answer would be yes (Is this in Rogers stupid Q catagory?) since Colorheads are limited in contrastcapability.
Btw, Will the filters in those heads degrade over years limiting the possible contrast in the prints furthermore?
Cheers
Søren

many thanks for your help, i'll give it a try at 1:50.

by the way, for the acros - the mdc lists developing times for acros in rodinal at a dilution of 1:100 for box speed and 1:50 at asa 50 and 80, but doesnt give the time for 1:50 at asa 100. does anyone know the proper developing time for acros at box speed in rodinal 1:50?

Soeren said:

Whoops Ay you hit a spot there, Willie.
I used to have a condenser enlarger (Opemus) now I have got a Diffuser. So do I have to get more contrast in my negs now? I used to print @#3 so My own answer would be yes (Is this in Rogers stupid Q catagory?) since Colorheads are limited in contrastcapability.
Btw, Will the filters in those heads degrade over years limiting the possible contrast in the prints furthermore?
Cheers
Søren

Click to expand...

A friend of my has a condensor head and when he want to print my negs he prints at #0 where i print at #2 for the same result.

So you need to extend your development for a diffusor head.

The latest Rodinal data rev. made by A&O (Germany):


Dead Link Removed

Best regards,

Robert

Fotohuis said:

The latest Rodinal data rev. made by A&O (Germany):


Dead Link Removed

Best regards,

Robert

Click to expand...

Beware, the times mentioned in this document for Neopan 400 are misleading.

The pdf specifies 4.5 mins at 1+25. However, it does not state what ISO the film is rated at. The last produced Agfa data sheet, gives the same time of 4.5 mins when rating Neopan 400 at ISO 250. The Agfa data sheet gives 6 mins as the time for ISO 400.

Again at 1+50 the time is for ISO 250 rated film. At ISO 400 it should be 11 mins.

Neopan 400 and Rodinal is one of my favourite combinations especially at 1+25 where I like the gritty nature of the film. 6 mins should definitely be your starting point when using this film. 4.5 mins at ISO 400 is much too short.

The Neopan 1600 times in this pdf are also wrong for ISO 1600. The massive dev chart has the "correct" times to use at ISO 1600.

Mike