Rodinal Newbee Question - Highlight control

Tom Stanworth said:

Mix it with Xtol. Basically the same speed as Xtol with sharper grain/more bite, more granular. I mix 1:100 rodinal into the 1+3 xtol. Works nicely for D100 and Neopan 400 for certain scenes.

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Tom, I just started researching this yesterday. Very interesting! Do I just go with times for Xtol 1:3? What is your time for Neopan 400? Are you shooting 120 or 35mm? Thanks!

As a starting point, try 1+3 Xtol with rodinal added to that solution on a 1:100 basis for a touch less than Xtol 1+2 times. You will need to experiment.

Some people go for Xtol 1+4 with rodinal added, but I like to keep the balance more in favour of Xtol with a little more bite.

I shoot 120 and 35mm. So far I like this effect with Neopan 400 120 not enlarged too much, D100 in btoh formats. makes visible difference to bite (and grain) and also TriX in either format. Gives gritty look but not out of control in 35mm.

A little more experimentation and few more prints under my belt...

So far, the finest contact prints I have made have come from the following development routine with Rodinal. This process seems to handle N-1, N, and N+1 without making a change.

Minimal Agitation. For 1 roll of 120 or 1 sheet of 4x5 TMY2 in a DOULBE 120 stainlesss tank. Presoak for a few minutes. Add 900 ml of Rodinal diluted 5:900 for 40 minutes. Agitation for the first minuted or so and then for 30 seconds every 10 minutes thereafter. (I turn the sheet film upside down with each agitation).

These have made lovely prints for me on Azo, Velox and Lodima papers. Very sharp and certainly compensating.