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rodinal special now at freestylephoto (no special orders needed)

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What are the differences between Agfa Rodinal and Agfa Rodinal Special?

I've never even heard of Studional before! Is it new?
 
Studional isn't new. I have seen reference to it in old AGFA literature and developing charts. It is back in production. That almost counts as new.
 
Are either of these equivalent or similar to what was being sold a couple years ago? I still have 4 bottles in the cabinet that I bought and haven't used up yet. Between not much shooting, and experimenting with others when I do, I've not even finished the first bottle.
 
Nitai108 said:
Why do they say that rodinal is a fine grain developer? http://www.freestylephoto.biz/9720-Agfa-Rodinal-17-oz.
Click to expand...

Because with modern films like APX, Tmax & Delta 100 it produces very good fine grain. It wasn't really suited to older style emulsions.

With the current modern films the grain is more a characteristic of the emulsion and is less affected by the choice of developer than the early 35mm films available in the 30's 40, 50's etc.

Ian
 
My understanding of Rodinal was that it produces very fine grain results with low speed films, and very high grain results with faster ones. The difference between Pan F+ and HP5+, for example.
It's a bit of a shame they cant ship the original Rodinal internationally, my local only stocks it in the 125ml bottles. And said local is about 2 hours drive from my darkroom, currently.
 
Fleath said:
It's a bit of a shame they cant ship the original Rodinal internationally, my local only stocks it in the 125ml bottles. And said local is about 2 hours drive from my darkroom, currently.
Click to expand...

It is a 742 km drive for me (to Winnipeg) to buy Rodinal in a store.
 
E76 said:
What are the differences between Agfa Rodinal and Agfa Rodinal Special?

I've never even heard of Studional before! Is it new?
Click to expand...

There is a huge difference between Rodinal and Rodinal Special. They are not at all the same developer.
In simple terms, the ordinary Rodinal contains little or no "silver solvent", which in turn makes the grain look sharper than with most other developers. A side effect of this is that the grain is more pronounced.
The Rodinal Special is more of an "ordinary" developer in which it has more silver solvents in it, which partly smooths the graininess out, making it look similar to say D76 or something similar. I have not used this developer myself, but I've seen results from friends, who had expected something else from the developer.

While the ordinary "Rodinal" is quite special and there is just about nothing else like it, "Rodinal Special" is more mainstream and it's similar to many other developers. (Please note that I'm not saying "Rodinal Special" is a bad developer, I'm just saying that it's somewhat "misnamed".)

//Björn
 
Yes Rodinal special = Studional as far as I know. The developers although called Rodinal are not really the same at all, I feel they are similar to developers like Ilfosol.
78866813.jpg

This is APX400 is Rodinal special, slightly less grain than Rodinal but not 'special' more like good standard dev.
 
I think I might be inclined to agree with those who say Rodinal is good with slower films and higher-grained with higher ISO films. That's been my (admittedly limited) experience...Im a new convert to Rodinal and am amazed by how it works with Rollei Retro 100. I've made 16x20 prints with this 35mm film and am blown away by the detail and sharpness even at that enlargement.

The only thing that puzzles me about this developer is how they sell any, given how little I use. A few millilitres here and there, and it seems like it'll take me forever to use up a bottle! Good thing it lasts so long.
 
Fleath said:
My understanding of Rodinal was that it produces very fine grain results with low speed films, and very high grain results with faster ones. The difference between Pan F+ and HP5+, for example.
It's a bit of a shame they cant ship the original Rodinal internationally, my local only stocks it in the 125ml bottles. And said local is about 2 hours drive from my darkroom, currently.
Click to expand...

While not listed on his on-line price-list, Les Porter has 500ml Rodinal for sale and can ship within continental Australia (I got some from him just before Christmas). http://www.lesporter.com.au

Cheers
 
Can we please not digress from the topic. This is about special/studional rodinal which is a completely different developer from rodinal.

rodinal = paraminophenol developer
rodinal special = PQ developer
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Rodinal Special is a fantastic developer. I've used it with APX100 and APX400.
It gives box speed, high sharpness and tiny grain. Due to very short development time I use it 1+30, increasing development time by 50%.

apx100:

http://flickr.com/photos/90094587@N00/3169596530/sizes/l/

http://flickr.com/photos/90094587@N00/2370002880/sizes/l/in/set-72157604249313466/

http://flickr.com/photos/90094587@N00/2640072227/sizes/l/


apx400:

http://flickr.com/photos/90094587@N00/2377574023/sizes/l/in/set-72157604249313466/
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Rodinal Special is the same as Studional. The "RS" name is what it's been known as in Europe since it came out. 1st available here in the States in '94, I started using it then for all my APX films, and the results were fantastic.

No, it's never been out of production (although same dilemma as Rodinal for a while), I've been asking the Special Order Manager @ Freestyle for this for 2 years. I did special order a case (as that was the only way they'd sell it at the time), and the price was substantially lower than the current selling price, but at least it's here.

Stop by http://www.flickr.com/groups/rodinalspecial/ and check it out.
 
edtbjon said:
There is a huge difference between Rodinal and Rodinal Special. They are not at all the same developer.

The Rodinal Special is more of an "ordinary" developer in which it has more silver solvents in it, which partly smooths the graininess out, making it look similar to say D76 or something similar. I have not used this developer myself, but I've seen results from friends, who had expected something else from the developer.

"Rodinal Special" is more mainstream and it's similar to many other developers. (Please note that I'm not saying "Rodinal Special" is a bad developer, I'm just saying that it's somewhat "misnamed".)

//Björn
Click to expand...

Oh, not at all. I've been using it since 1994, and quickly dropped standard Rodinal altogether as Studional gives tighter grain, and opens up more tonal range than standard Rodinal, or any other manufacturer's developers.

It's also great with Tri-X and Plus-X and of course the APX films. The current Fomapan films are the closest to APX, and I would expect future testing to give similar results.
 
sbelyaev said:
Rodinal Special is a fantastic developer. I've used it with APX100 and APX400.
It gives box speed, high sharpness and tiny grain. Due to very short development time I use it 1+30, increasing development time by 50%.
Click to expand...

That has more to do with the way Agfa used the DIN system to test their film speeds rather than the ASA/BS system used by Kodak which measures toe speed. The current ISO system allows testing by either method.

Agfa films have always been good at delivering their box speeds in a wide variety of developers unlike Kodak films which many people rate at half their box speed to get good tonality etc.

Ian
 
Rodinal Special, Studional

Regular Rodinal does in fact contain some sodium sulfite. It acts as a preservative. If you want a developer with no sodium sulfite at all you can mix up some PC-TEA. I have an unopened 1 liter plastic bottle marked Agfa Studional Liquid. I don't know exactly how old it is. The bottle shows potassium sulfite, TEA, hydroquinone and EDTA. I'm pretty sure it also has phenidone in it. The fact that it has TEA and looks pale in color leads me to believe that it might still be good. When I have some time I will test it. I think I will order some of the new stuff from Freestyle and see how they compare. On my bottle there is a diagram showing a dilution of 1:15, a temperature of 20C/68F and a time of 4 minutes for either APX 25 or APX 100. There is a 4.5 minute time shown for Agfapan 400. Maybe APX 400 was the last APX film to be introduced. I remeber Agfapan 400 and I liked it more than I like the APX 400.
 
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