Rodinal

[noseoil]

Jim, thanks for this post. Beautiful shot and nice tonality, the print must sing on this one. You may have come up with a new version of the "brown bottle flu" with that Rodinal.

Looks like the burn in the Santa Ritas will be under control this week. We finally had rain last night, hopefully no more temps of 111 like we had sunday. Best, tim

 

[geraldatwork]

Jim nice shot. The tones are wonderful. I went over to the Rodinal article in the Unblinking Eye site. What interested me was combining Xtol with Rodinal. Does anyone have any thoughts or experience on this. Ed said in the article he used this with Delta-400, the film I use with good results.

 

[jim appleyard]

Good shot! All the non-Rodinal users should see this.

 

[Ed Sukach]

I think "modafoto" - Morton Damkjear - must have just had an org.... Uh... A sharp pang of absolute ecstasy!!

 

[Earl Dunbar]

Jim: That is one beautiful photograph... you have contributed to my day. I wouldn't care one whit how the neg was processed to get these results ... besides, your eye/composition was as important as your technical process. But I can confirm that at least IMO Rodinal was a damned fine enabler for the wonderful technical results.

Earl

 

[P C Headland]

This is an old glass bottle that came with my C1 Calumet outfit that brought me my Ries Tripod. It was still sealed until last evening. Came out very brown. It was warm in the darkroom so I used 5.25 minutes 1:100 for 5 sheets of Efke 25 in the Jobo 3010. Tim I was thinking of you and your recent (still?) burn of a favorite area. This is just S of Mono Lake on US 120. I've never seen such beauty set in stark sorrow.

"Hope" ​

Lovely shot.

The dev time is way shorter than the "hand processing" I've done with this film at this dilution. Mind you, I always get the temperature to 20c.

Paul

 

[jimgalli]

Lovely shot.

The dev time is way shorter than the "hand processing" I've done with this film at this dilution. Mind you, I always get the temperature to 20c.

Paul

Thanks all for the nice comments. Normally I would have given 6 minutes but with the heat wave I was guessing my developer temp to be about 78+ degrees. I reserve Rodinal for zero grain high contrast films like the E25 since my normal developer is Pyrocat HD.

 

[garryl]

Ok. some clarification please, from the church elders. On another forum there is advice(supposed from AGFA) that you need 10ml of Rodinal (minimum) for each 35mm roll for proper development. That means that you mix 10ml in 1000ml of water (for a 1:100 dil.) -pour half in a 16 oz tank - and throw the other half away. Or you buy a 4 reel tank- pour all the developer in- develope only one roll of 35mm film.
Now this seemed nuts and a bit wasteful. But I might be wrong- am I? I've always mixed 5:500ml for a two roll tank for one roll processing.

 

[modafoto]

I think "modafoto" - Morton Damkjear - must have just had an org.... Uh... A sharp pang of absolute ecstasy!!

I did!

 

[titrisol]

Ok. some clarification please, from the church elders. On another forum there is advice(supposed from AGFA) that you need 10ml of Rodinal (minimum) for each 35mm roll for proper development. That means that you mix 10ml in 1000ml of water (for a 1:100 dil.) -pour half in a 16 oz tank - and throw the other half away. Or you buy a 4 reel tank- pour all the developer in- develope only one roll of 35mm film.
Now this seemed nuts and a bit wasteful. But I might be wrong- am I? I've always mixed 5:500ml for a two roll tank for one roll processing.

If you mix 1l and then throw half of it you still are just using 5ml (the other 5 are going down the sink)!

4 or 5ml are more than enough, ut the CI may not be as high as AGFA reccomends

 

[Gregg Brekke]

If you have only ascorbic or erythorbic acid (either works as well) mix 4 grams of it with 2 grams of common baking soda in a small amount of water and let the effervescence subside before adding it to water to make a liter...

For those of us without chemical scales - what do 4 and 2 grams correspond to in US dry measure? The best online triangulation I can find gets me close to 1 teaspoon (1 tsp) and 1/2 tsp. Does this sound correct?

Thanks,
Gregg Brekke

 

[jim appleyard]

1 tsp.= 4g

 

[gainer]

For those of us without chemical scales - what do 4 and 2 grams correspond to in US dry measure? The best online triangulation I can find gets me close to 1 teaspoon (1 tsp) and 1/2 tsp. Does this sound correct?

Thanks,
Gregg Brekke

Yes, I use that combination often. It is close enough for government work.

 

[Ed Sukach]

Ok. some clarification please, from the church elders. On another forum there is advice(supposed from AGFA) that you need 10ml of Rodinal (minimum) for each 35mm roll for proper development.

I, too, have read that - somewhere - before. I have systematically and chronically ignored that requirement. I have an idea that someone, AGFA or some self-styled expert, was trying to cover their gluteus maximus by suggesting - rather intensely - that a 1:25 concentration was necessary. Concentrations of greater than that might require more careful handling, especially when it comes to agitation patterns.
I do know that I have never had satisfactory, uniform results in the JOBO Processor with Rodinal diluted 1:100 or greater - I'll attribute that to the constant agitation. Intermittent hand agitation - and "stand development" seems to work wonderfully at all concentrations.

The other problem with Rodinal is measuring small amounts. 10ml can probably be accurately measured without much trouble; 3ml (as in a 1:200 = 600 -- OK, 603ml -- total) is another matter.

I use little plastic syringe, intended for giving small doses of liquid medicine to small children; graduated in 0.1ml. Works well.

 

[modafoto]

I use little plastic syringe, intended for giving small doses of liquid medicine to small children; graduated in 0.1ml. Works well.

Same here. I use syringes for Rodinal all he time. I measure how much I need, inject it into the water and suck some of the solution back into the syringe and inject it back.

Morten

 

[Jimi]

Ok. some clarification please, from the church elders. On another forum there is advice(supposed from AGFA) that you need 10ml of Rodinal (minimum) for each 35mm roll for proper development. That means that you mix 10ml in 1000ml of water (for a 1:100 dil.) -pour half in a 16 oz tank - and throw the other half away. Or you buy a 4 reel tank- pour all the developer in- develope only one roll of 35mm film.
Now this seemed nuts and a bit wasteful. But I might be wrong- am I? I've always mixed 5:500ml for a two roll tank for one roll processing.

I have done 1+100 with 6ml, I have 600ml tank, and it worked well. I have read somewhere that 2,5ml is enough for a one 35mm roll... Think it was from here, under discussion of very diluted use of Rodinal, 1+severalhunders.

 

[BBMOR]

hey
from the other side of the ocean ,Belgium,Rodinal even if it is black as coal it stays good on efke 25 1+12 6 min at 20 °C a good neg easy to print

Greetings
BBMOR

 

[Gay Larson]

What a great son, hope you had a great birthday Tim!

 

[noseoil]

BBMOR, is that 1:12 for 6 minutes at 20c? That seems a bit thick for Efke 25. Have you tried this combination on Efke 25? I would think it might be a bit too well done with this film's reaction to "hot" developers like a 1:12 dilution. tim

P.S. Gay, thanks for the kind birthday wish.

 

[garryl]

On the other thread, someone Emailled Agfa the dilution question. He kindly fowarded a copy of the answer he received- which I'm posting below FYI.
___________________________
Dear David,

Thank you for contacting AgfaPhoto USA.

You need 10 ml of Rodinal concentrate per roll of 135-36 B&W film
regardless of whether you use 1+25 or 1+50 dilution. In other words, you
would use 10 ml of Rodinal + 250 water to process one roll in a dilution of
1+25 or 10 ml Rodinal + 500ml water at a dilution of 1+50. There would not
be enough developing agent in 150ml of 1+50 Rodinal to fully develop one
roll of 135-36.

Sincerely,
John Auer
AgfaPhoto USA Corporation
Agfa@ezaccess.net

 

[Lee L]

On the other thread, someone Emailled Agfa the dilution question. He kindly fowarded a copy of the answer he received- which I'm posting below FYI.
___________________________
Dear David,

Thank you for contacting AgfaPhoto USA.

You need 10 ml of Rodinal concentrate per roll of 135-36 B&W film
regardless of whether you use 1+25 or 1+50 dilution. In other words, you
would use 10 ml of Rodinal + 250 water to process one roll in a dilution of
1+25 or 10 ml Rodinal + 500ml water at a dilution of 1+50. There would not
be enough developing agent in 150ml of 1+50 Rodinal to fully develop one
roll of 135-36.

Sincerely,
John Auer
AgfaPhoto USA Corporation
Agfa@ezaccess.net

Interesting, and I've heard this a number of times. I wonder if this is to ensure enough capacity to develop a 35mm roll of any film type, completely exposed to daylight, to completion.

I've been using as little as 3 ml per 35mm roll for nearly 3 decades with no problems, and got that from people who've been doing it much longer than I. In fact, I've found it pretty easy to overdevelop APX25, Panatomic-X, Pan F(+), and Efke 25 with only 3ml per roll. Perhaps it varies with the film.

I haven't shot much higher speed film and processed in Rodinal. I've done a few 120 rollfilms of APX100 in Rodinal with 6ml per roll and semi stand development with good success as well, and managed to overdevelop one or two getting it down.

I seem to recall Gainer mentioning a particular film that wouldn't go to a gamma of greater than about 0.6 with Rodinal, but would have to search for it in all the Rodinal posts. I have multiple rolls awaiting development (in Rodinal 1:100), so I don't have time to search. Gotta get into the darkroom (and hopefully miss this weekend's storm of digital vs. analog postings).

Lee

 

[gainer]

Two things to remember. First, AGFA people consider in their recommendations that a contrast index of 0.65 must be obtainable. Second, HP5+ is one film that will not reach that index with 1+50 Rodinal.

The dilution and the total amount of the concentrate both enter into the maximum CI that can be obtained. Those of us who have achieved what we call satisfactory results outside the bounds set by AGFA have probably welcomed the fact that extended development doesn't affect the highlights as much as the shadows.

The actual amount of developing agent is not usually the limiting factor. Rodinal is sensitive to bromide content, which increases as density increases. The activity of the developer depends upon the ratio of bromide to developing agent. You can see where this is heading.

 

[djkloss]

I'm really intrigued with all this talk about the wonders of Rodinal. I think my dad has some in his basement that's *really* old. Are there any books out there with detailed instructions on how to use it? I'm experimenting with my TLR and would like to try Efke too. Hope this is related to this thread..........if not, I apologize. (I'm new at this).

 

[djkloss]

Oooops! I forgot to sign my name!

Thanks for all your help in advance............Dorothy