Rodinal

Speaking of 1:50, what is the minimum amount of rodinal that people have been able to use "normally". By "normally" I mean without making a large adjustment to the development time. I have been making sure of using 10mL, but I think I have heard as little as 3mL. Any opinions?

I use 7ml for my 1+50 i.e. 350 water + 7ml Rodinal

But I have also used 1+200 rodinal (2ml Rodinal + 400 ml water), for 2 hours agitating only the 1st minute and then once 15-20 minutes

titrisol said:

I use 7ml for my 1+50 i.e. 350 water + 7ml Rodinal

But I have also used 1+200 rodinal (2ml Rodinal + 400 ml water), for 2 hours agitating only the 1st minute and then once 15-20 minutes

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Good grief! What was the film and what were the results like?

I've used the 1+200 with APX 100 and APX 400 that were grossly over/underexposed. I had them in my Contessa and shot during a party with variable lights inside/outside.

I guess it's another type of stand development and got me pics without blown highlights while I had some details in the shadows. Not fine art, but printable for friends/family.
Since I did 35mm I didn;t have streamers or defects of sorts

I was going through my files last night and I found an incomplete printout of an article that said that Rodinal works best at temperatures between 15 and 18C....

any comments on this?

titrisol said:

I was going through my files last night and I found an incomplete printout of an article that said that Rodinal works best at temperatures between 15 and 18C....

any comments on this?

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I know from direct personal experience over the last 30 years that Rodinal works very well (and very predictably) at processing temperatures between 18C and 25C.

To quote Grant Haist: " ...Concentrated developers of the Rodinal type are made by dissolving large quantities of p-aminophenol in caustic solution. Developers containing p-aminophenol produce images free from stain with very low fog levels, even in highly alkaline solutions or at high temperatures. Such developers are especially suitable for tropical development conditions or other high temperature processing uses."

Modern Photographic Processing, Volume 1, page 175. Grant Haist. Copyright 1979, John Wiley and Sons, Inc.

The bold italics in the Haist quote are mine (Tom Hoskinson).

FrankB said:

Good grief! What was the film and what were the results like?

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Pan F done in 1+200 (402ml total) stand developed has a graphic quality to it that I don't have grammar for. You need to watch for uneveness in the edges of sky areas and some migration between contraty areas of the film. My experience is with 120 film shot at E.I. 50 with lots of sun.

I like it. It works well for alternative type things such as gumoils and cyanotypes.


tim in san jose

k_jupiter said:

Pan F done in 1+200 (402ml total) stand ...

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I believe that is a new low; 2ml of concentrate for one roll of 120 film.
I will check with Guiness. Dan

dancqu said:

I will check with Guiness.
Dan

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SURE! I'll take one of those! Maybe we can discuss a new developer involving a pint of Guiness or so. I'll drink to that.

Seriously, I don't do this often, just when I find myself in bright daylight with architecurally interesting subjects that lend themselves to this look. It helps to have my favorite Z-I Nettar (518/16) on hand.

Most often I am up to my elbows in W2D2+ or my latest fascination with "777". Rodinal is something I usually save for 120 Eastern European films in the 100 ISO range for general shooting. I develop at 1+50 as my standard so I usually get my 10mls in a half litre tank.



tim in san jose

OK, you guys will be happy to know that after all the discussion (particularly once beer was brought into it) I went and purchased my first bottle of Rodinal today. All the better to process that Panatomic-X I recently acquired.

Bruce

k_jupiter said:

SURE! I'll take one of those! Maybe we can discuss a new developer involving a pint of Guiness or so. I'll drink to that.

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If you can develop film in coffee and in Orange Juice (vitamin C) , I wouldn't raise an eyelid if someone told me that you can process film in Guiness. Developing in D-76 and drinking Guiness is preferable to the other way around, though.

Yes, it has the advantage that if you mess up your development, you can drink it for consolation, and if you have perfect results, you can drink it in celebration.

How about using Rodinal 1:50 in a rotary (Jobo) processor on TMX or Tech Pan - 120 size or 4x5? I no longer have regular developing tanks or reels. I have used HC110 1:50 in this processor with good results.

harveyje said:

How about using Rodinal 1:50 in a rotary (Jobo) processor on TMX or Tech Pan - 120 size or 4x5? I no longer have regular developing tanks or reels. I have used HC110 1:50 in this processor with good results.

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Sorry my reply is months late but have only just joined. I tried Delta 400 in Rodinal 1:50 in a Jobo and was disappointed. The indoor shots were thin and required grade 4 printing. The outdoor shots were better but still thin. I wrote to Ed Buffalo at unblinkingeye.com and got a very comprehensive reply. He suggested (1) that the Jobo's constant agitation probably destroyed Rodinal's acutance qualities. (2) the D400 film should be rated at 200 not 400 and that a minimum of 5mls of Rodinal should be used. At 1:50 this needs 250 mls of water. My 1 film capacity Jobo tank only needs 140 mls with rotary processing but almost 255mls with hand agitation. However Rodinal is still very economical at 5mls per film. I have yet to try Ed's suggestions all of it would seem to lead to punchier negs. However it seems that rotary processing destroys one of Rodinal's main attributes, namely its sharpness.

In fact the last remark is correct. Rodinal is less suitable for rotation processing. Special when used on high dilution.

In general it is working fine for classical low speed films, unless you want to have special grain effect.

The minimum/film is about 10 ml.
On the APUG thread: (there was a url link here which no longer exists)
you will find more practical hints for using Rodinal.

Best regards and also welcome to APUG.

Robert

When I first started in this great hobby (addiction?) all I had was a several years old half bottle of nice, brown Rodinal. Then I went on an experimenting spree, buying all the types of film I could get my handson (as in : "lets see what this does...hmm..). While, in retrospective, I have to say that some film/exposure combos left a little tobe desired under my by the book Rodinal development, all came out ranging from well to outstanding!!!(factor into that a beginner doing all the processing!).
I found that faster filmsin 1+25 do not come out as nicely detailed (I am not sure if this is the right term... but its the best I can think up right now) as they did in 1+50. Also, the times being longer gave me the luxury of knowing that a second this way or that would have so much less effect than in 1+25 mode.
As to the temperature, here is the biggest example of my "noobism": I have measured the temp of carefully adjusted tap water, and then the phone rang. I picked up, talked a bit, then came back to the running tap and DID NOT re-measre the temp. This occured to me halfway through developer, so I dunked the thermometer in the stop bath (filled at the same time) and had a 27 deg C temp!!! Guess what - it still worked decently well. I have also had the opposite happen - the temp dropped to 18*C... still worked (a little thinner than I expected, but quite sharp and good detail.

Looking at a classic film like a TriX or FP4+ (my new favorite!) though a grain magnifier under a condenser enlarger you feel like someone just punched your eyeball!!! I love it!!! And with Delta 100 and PanF, it seems to work quite well too, with very rich tones - I think because of the little fine grains getting really sharp in that image, yet being so tiny, there is really no grain to speak of (until you magnify it).

The biggest drawback I can see (and really its not a drawback, just a characteristic of hte developer) is that one stop is all you can really hope for as far as a noticeable push is required. After that, I find it makes very little difference (comperatively, of course).

Hope this helps, and please keep in mind that I am a relative beginner, and someof my experiences can be chalked up to lack there of!

Best of luck - love Rodinal and it will love you back - I guarantee it!

gnashings said:

As to the temperature, here is the biggest example of my "noobism": I have measured the temp of carefully adjusted tap water, and then the phone rang. I picked up, talked a bit, then came back to the running tap and DID NOT re-measure the temp. This occured to me halfway through developer, so I dunked the thermometer in the stop bath (filled at the same time) and had a 27 deg C temp!!! Guess what - it still worked decently well. I have also had the opposite happen - the temp dropped to 18*C... still worked (a little thinner than I expected, but quite sharp and good detail.

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It's worth knowing that a chart showing changes to required development time as a function of temperature is available on the Ilford website:
www.ilford.com
To be specific:
http://www.ilford.com/html/us_english/bw.html
(possibly elsewhere as well).

Regards.

David