Rodinal Stand Dev Issue

[Gerald C Koch]

Gerald,
As you directed that to me, a few considerations:

1- Not everybody lives in the same country as you, nor in the same social-economic and cultural conditions as you. You have no idea of my income nor my conditions.
Just remember this: statistically, the average room is 3 times smaller in the UK than the average US room. And I share a kitchen with 3 other people and have no space nor conditions for a darkroom. Nor even in the only shared toilet.

2- You are right that developers are cheap, but they still cost money. Every penny I save is for my photography.

3- I don't do the full stand: I do invert 4 times on the initial 10 seconds and twice at the end.
I got the results I like.

4- You are entitled to your dislikes and so do I: I particularly dislike Digitography.

Your sentiments were not unique but have been expressed by others several times before. That was why I did no attribution on the quote. Have you tried Rodinal at 1+49? This is what I have used. You might like those results too. There are several threads on stand development, its pro's and con's.

 

[Ricardo Miranda]

There are other developers and techniques available as Richard posted above.
I have used Fomadon LQR and loved it with F100 for its higher contrast results.
As a matter of fact I'm trying soon a new developer: Special Retro developer with Retropan 320 soft.

 

[Xmas]

And bromide streaks.

Yes thanks for reminding me but I've never had streaks except after exhausted fix which vanished after refixing.
I frequently get zero artistic merit but don't blame that on the stand but it might be?

Stand is merely an alternate to intermittent or motorised.

An Agfa daylight tank needs rotation about every two seconds but not used mine for decades but that works as well.

 

[37th Exposure]

presoak? and HP5+ at 1+50?

I sometimes stand develop with Rodinal at 1+100. Presoaking the film for about 3 min. in tempered water with gentle agitation took care of uneven development problems for me.

As for HP5+ not doing well in Rodinal 1+50, Ilford's data sheet for HP5+ does list Rodinal 1+50 as a viable development choice despite the last Agfa tech sheet.

www.ilfordphoto.com

Years ago Agfa in Germany replied to my query about minimum volumes, by air mail (remember that?). The numbers they gave work out to a minimum of 5ml Rodinal concentrate per 120 or 135-36 roll. Other sources say 10ml. I've seen both figures all over the internet.

 

[gone]

If you're looking to save money, get some Microdol and replenisher. You can get a lot of films developed w/ that. Or D76 and dilute it 1:3 (although I must say I love it full strength). No matter where you live there must be at least a few other economical alternatives to Rodinal and stand development.

I like Rodinal, but it doesn't work for every usage, to put it mildly, and if you're ruining rolls of expensive film trying to economize on the developers you're shooting yourself in the foot. I would not recommend that at all. All my problems generally come from getting away from what I know works. Not that there's anything wrong w/ experimentation. I discovered a lot of neat things that way. But sticking to proven developers and films generally gives me the best results in the easiest manner. I spent a lot of money and time understanding what agitations work w/ which film in my water at which temps. It's all written down, and I may as well use it. It works, for me anyway.

It's no fun losing good shots, and its just money down the drain.

 

[EASmithV]

I like using the rodinal because it allows me to multitask, go for a run, walk the dog, etc when it's in the dev. I like being able to mix and match films and I like the rodinal look with the grain and the lower contrast that I get from the more dilute soloution.

I'm confident it's not a light leak, it's hard to get a leak with a barnack.

I guess I'll give pre-soak and 1:50 a try. Or maybe my fixer is dying, I'll give that a try too

 

[Xmas]

Have you looked at the negative?

 

[EASmithV]

Have you looked at the negative?

Yeah, the neg definitely shows it, but it doesn't look like a typical fixing issue. Seeing as how I've done this so many times before without issue though, I'm starting to think that the cause actually is depleted fixer, since that's the only variable between what I was getting and what I'm getting now... That and neglecting a prewash since I assumed that an hour long dev would be fine without one.

I'll make a fresh batch, refix the neg strip and report back