Rodinal vs RO9

Rodinal and short shelf life


I developed a roll in Rodinal yesterday that has been on my darkroom shelf for over a year. It was a disaster The liquid was quite dark but knowing that Rodinal had amazing keeping qualities I committed the roll to it Grossly underdeveloped at 10 min 1:50 at 71 degrees. I immediately checked the camera and everything was in working order. The developer is labeled RO9 Connect Chemical Product and Services for Comparad KG In all fairness the fine print does say it only has a 6 months shelf life after the bottle is opened. This is not the Rodinal I remember I am setting up a shot for a roll of clip tests covering the normal 10 stop range for future developers before committing a roll to a new developer. . Meanwhile I will get a batch of amber glass bottles to decant the new bottle of Rodinal into 2 oz full capped batches as I do with both HC110 and Claytons F-76. Both of which are claimed to have long shelf lives, but better safe than sorry.

The two developers are the same, that's one of the names Rodinal is sold under. Unfortunately John of J&C registered the Rodinal trade name in the US meaning it can no longer be used there.

Personally I never used any Rodinal that looked quite dark, I just don't take that kind of risk.

Ian

Was the developer labled as RO9 one shot from rollei or was it the older version of rodinal as there are several ro9 type developers on the market, the Rodinal, known as RO9 1 shot from Rollei or the Adonal from adox are rodinal by another name, the RO9 type developers are an earlier version of rodinal, I have never had a problem with rodinal/ro9 1 shot even when it is very dark, I have used the stuff from opened bottles that are 3 years or more old with never a problem, I have even used some from an original glass bottle that I found at the back of my cuboard when I ran out one time and it was fine, and that must have been really old,
Richard

I too have used Rodinal, R09, and Adonal and they have all worked the same and had the same shelf life. Even when the concentrate is as dark as coffee, it still worked for me.

I too have never had problems with R09, the concentrate bottle had a hole in it (I had no idea it was there until I managed to spill quarter of the bottle on the floor) and it had free access to oxygen for several weeks but it still works and I use it.

My current (and last) bottle of Rodinal has been open for three years, in the nearly tropical humid heat of southern Japan, is dark as molasses, and still develops as fine as ever. It's about half full. Although, as your problems are with R09, it's probably better to decant and be safer rather than sorrier (I haven't used R09 yet, thought it was Rodinal, but will remember this issue whenever I get around to using it in the future).

The only problem I had was with the last 10ml in a bottle. It was fine up to that point. I've also used Rodinal from th old glass bottles and again, no issues.

My 500ml bottle of Compard R09 One Shot is at least a year old, probably closer to two years at this point, and I've gone through about half the contents so far. It's very dark. My bottle promises "at least" a six month shelf life... I just used some a couple days ago to process a roll of Eastman 5222 with no problems.

I am using a bottle of 27-year old Orwo R09, it works perfectly. It is in its original glass bottle with rubber top.

rmolson,

The R09 developer you refer to is produced in the same former Agfa processing-chemicals plant that made west-german Rodinal in Agfa times.
Both developers are identical.

I have a few bottles of Rodinal and when I use them they sometimes appear to be really dark. This is an indication that the chemicals have separated out of the solution. You have to remix the chemicals vigoursly ( shake to hell out of the bottle ) works every time.

rodinal

Thank you ,the need to remix the solution that makes a lot of sense.