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Rodinal name change?

Rodinal Special?

Freestyle lists Rodinal, Rodinal Special and Studional with little differentiation between them - all are Agfa products. Any clarification?
 
Blazinal - I hope the importer reads this. It's a BAD name, OK?! I'd rather call it 'superman-inal'.

"Keep yer schtick on the ice". How about "duct tape-inal"?

- Thomas
 
Wasn't "Azol" the name of the version of Rodinol-type developer made by the much-missed Johnsons-of-Hendon-Ltd, in the UK in the 60's?
 
Yes, Johnsons - Azol, Ilford - Certinal, and Kodak - Kodinol.

Activol No's 1-8 were Johnsons colour developing agents, not Praraminophenol. However ICI now use the Activol trade name for Paraminophenol used in hair dyes

Ian
 
KenR said:
Freestyle lists Rodinal, Rodinal Special and Studional with little differentiation between them - all are Agfa products. Any clarification?
Click to expand...

Rodinal Special and Studional are identical, but they are a completely different developer from Rodinal.
 
Blazinal

Blazinal is 100% the original formula developer supplied previously under the Agfa brand name of Rodinal. It is manufactured in the original A&O plant which also seems to have gone through a series of name changes. The name Blazinal is derived from the name of my company , which is Blazes Photographic Inc.

Rather than raise the price 30% to continue supplying Agfa branded Rodinal; I chose to purchase it in bulk and bottle it under my own brand.

Although Mr. Bertilisson thinks it is a bad name, my biased view thinks it is not. My thoughts were to keep it familiar to the Rodinal name while creating a bit of a buzz. It would seem to be working already.

I think that most Canadians I know might appreciate this strategy.

A rose by any other name....
 
A lot of stir is better than no stir. I wish you good fortune with your business and that you sell heaps of the stuff. It is on my top 2 list.

- Thomas
 
I must admit I don't favor the new name either, but I do like the product and will continue to buy it. What's in a name?
 

Seen bottles of RO9 myself in Gunn's Photoshop Dublin this weekend .. just doesn't look right! even though logically it is only a label on the bottle
 
How does it happen that Hurter and Driffield speak of rodinal (note the lower case "r") in this sentence, after extolling the virtues of ferrous oxalate:"We do not wish for a moment to imply that other developers may not have their special uses. On the contrary, we have found rodinal to be of the greatest value in the case of certain plates, when dealing with extremely short exposures, and also in flashlight work."
 
To hell with bogus names. I have two full bottles and a mostly full opened bottle of genuine Rodinal. If I should happen to use all of that in my lifetime I'll just switch over to homebrewed Parodinal.
 
What I was trying to say is that it appears that the name "rodinal" may be older than the trade name "Rodinal." Perhaps it was another name for potassuim aminophenolate. That and a sulfite, either sodium or potassium, make up the essential ingredients of Rodinal.
 
Rodinal was registerd in Germany as trade name in 1894.
(References to 1891 are wrong, but relate to the developer being patented.)

I do not see any links between the ingredients and the name, at least not in German.
 
The paper in which Hurter & Driffield mentioned rodinal, "Latitude in Exposure and Speed of Plates", was published in "Photography", July 13, 1893. Rodinal was patented in 1891 and registered as trade name in 1894. Rodinal was possibly introduced to the "Fraternity" at or before the time it was patented, as a disclosure to one who affirms "Read by me and understood" is required in this country. At least it was required when I worked at NASA. Thus, it seems reasonable that they would have known it as rodinal, and a few years later it would be known as Rodinal. Is there any indication as to why that name was chosen?
 
My understanding was the various eastern european "R09" versions (Calbe and Foma) were based on the pre-WWII formula made by Agfa Wolfen, and that Agfa Leverkusen which started over after WWII claimed some modern "improvments".
 
I just got a bottle of Rodinal from Freestyle. It is labeled "AGFA Rodinal, made by A&O". It uses the rhombus AGFA logo, not the round AGFA-Photo logo that was in use for several years. It came in the same bottle Rodinal has come in for many years, but it no longer comes enclosed in a box and no longer had an info sheet with dev. times for different films.
 
I remember when Rodinal disappeared from the U.S market--late 1970s-early 1980s--then reappeared clearly marked "Made in USA". It clearly was not the same in my unscientific view. It did not seem as "potent" or "hot" as the stuff Bill Pierce, Bob Schwalberg used with sodium sulfite. I stopped using it on Pan-X 1:100 with sulfite on copy negs. That previously workable combo for me became flat. I siad the hell with it and went to FG-7, 1:31 with 9% si\ulfite and never looked back.
 

I've never used any that wasn't made in Germany. I started using it when I was 15 yrs old, taking photography in high school. My high school photo teacher loved Rodinal and i've used (and use) several other developers, but Rodinal is still my favorite. I began using it in 1990. Do you think the current stuff compares well to the old stuff?
 
In the interest of re-branding narcissism, there's no reason why alternates like All-inal, Dorinal, or even Canadal couldn't have worked (Walter Gordon might have nodded on that last one were it manufactured here by a Canadian chemist). But some like to leave their mark everywhere they go, even when it's crass.
 
Chris,

A&O producing chemistries is also already a thing of the past. But that former Agfa chemistries plant does still exist, meanwhile owned by a fourth company. However they seemingly do not sell chemistries any longer on their behalves. But only on order of trade companies. Those then can choose what brand name to have put on. It's a question of where the name Rodinal is still protected and of licensing then.
 
Just found this thread - I know - I'm very, very slow!

I'm just glad the Canadian distributor isn't named Yuri.

(Sorry, but someone just had to.........!!!)
 
BobNewYork said:
Just found this thread - I know - I'm very, very slow!

I'm just glad the Canadian distributor isn't named Yuri.

(Sorry, but someone just had to.........!!!)
Click to expand...

Theres always one isn't there?


Strange its usually me
 
As far as I know the Agfa chemistry is still in production. The new owners of former Agfa factory in Vaihingen (Connect Chemicals Production & Services GmbH) agreed to produce Rodinal, and other former Agfa stuff: Rodinal, Rodinal-S (Studional), Neutol NE, Neutol WA, Agefix, Agefix Plus, Sistan, Agepon and Viradon. The only difference is that to avoid legal battles and fees for the use of the Rodinal names, the products are labelled with a different name, for example Rodinal is now known as R09 One Shot and it is available trough macodirect: http://macodirect.de/index.php
 
And there still is Calbe Chemie. A survivor of the the Orwo company, also producing a Rodinal version (`R09´, the former Orwo designation).
 
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