Rodinox

derek andrews · Sep 4, 2017

Hi, I've just picked-up 35 mm photography after a break of 35 years and bought an Olympus camera. I have just used up my first roll of film and ready to develop. I primarily used Ilford products to develop my films, but after such a long break, I re-visited what I used to use but have heard good things said about Rodinol (which I've never used before) and wondered if some advice could be given as to it's suitability with ILFORD/ KENTMERE film?

Hilo · Sep 4, 2017

You mean Rodinal film developer? Adox makes that now. I use it for Ilford FP4 and Kodak Tmax 400 at the normal 1+25 dilution . . . great stuff

http://www.digitaltruth.com/devchart.php?Film=&Developer=Rodinal&mdc=Искать

R.Gould · Sep 4, 2017

The adox version of Rodinal can be difficult to get in the uk, I only know one stockist.the Rollei/Maco version, RO9/One shot is both a little cheaper and widely availabe and is pretty much the same, I never use any other film developer, It keeps forever (I have just finished a 5 year old bottle, black as treacle but working as good as fresh) as far as ilford films are concerned, yes it will work fine with any of them, and with Kentmere in fact pretty much any film around, I use it at 1/50 for Foma 400 film, but have in the past used it with Kentmere/HP5+/FP4+ and it works fine
Richard

derek andrews · Sep 5, 2017

Hilo said:
You mean Rodinal film developer? Adox makes that now. I use it for Ilford FP4 and Kodak Tmax 400 at the normal 1+25 dilution . . . great stuff

http://www.digitaltruth.com/devchart.php?Film=&Developer=Rodinal&mdc=Искать

Thanks for the info

derek andrews · Sep 5, 2017

R.Gould said:
The adox version of Rodinal can be difficult to get in the uk, I only know one stockist.the Rollei/Maco version, RO9/One shot is both a little cheaper and widely availabe and is pretty much the same, I never use any other film developer, It keeps forever (I have just finished a 5 year old bottle, black as treacle but working as good as fresh) as far as ilford films are concerned, yes it will work fine with any of them, and with Kentmere in fact pretty much any film around, I use it at 1/50 for Foma 400 film, but have in the past used it with Kentmere/HP5+/FP4+ and it works fine
Richard

derek andrews · Sep 5, 2017

Thanks Richard. I'll post my results when I've developed my first roll and what I ended up using. Still undecided what developer is best. Any suggestions appreciated.

AgX · Sep 5, 2017

Rodinal is 126 years on the market. Can't be that bad...

Craig75 · Sep 5, 2017

Rodinol is a good one to try first as it has looog keeping properties so you can work at your own pace without developer dying and you can get different effects with it as you change films and dilutions.

Works really nicely with hp5+ if you want sharp grainy negatives

barzune · Sep 5, 2017

AgX said:
Rodinal is 126 years on the market. Can't be that bad...

There has been a "Rodinal" developer available on the market for ( if it's true) 126 years,
but I don't think the Rodinal that I bought in 2001 (which I'm still using)
is the same as the Rodinal that I bought in 2015 ( which I dumped out in June).

Ron789 · Sep 5, 2017

AgX said:
Rodinal is 126 years on the market. Can't be that bad...

It seems there have been some marginal changes in the recipe over the past 126 years but in essence it is still the same developer. It's the only developer I use for all films and formats and I love it.

derek andrews · Sep 16, 2017

Ron789 said:
It seems there have been some marginal changes in the recipe over the past 126 years but in essence it is still the same developer. It's the only developer I use for all films and formats and I love it.

Hi, well just spent a nerve-wracking hour in my bathroom/darkroom. I developed a 24 exposure 100 ASA kentmere film in Rodinal
Diluted 1-50 for 15 minutes. I had some trouble keeping the temp at 68 (kept dropping to 60-65) so increased time to 20 mins. But the negs look decent. Currently hanging from the shower rail!

John Koehrer · Sep 16, 2017

If you partially fill dishpan or bowl* with your 68 degree water, just set the tank in it between agitation, it should keep the temp pretty close
*anything: sink, pan, bath tub etc.

MattKing · Sep 16, 2017

derek andrews said:
Hi, well just spent a nerve-wracking hour in my bathroom/darkroom. I developed a 24 exposure 100 ASA kentmere film in Rodinal
Diluted 1-50 for 15 minutes. I had some trouble keeping the temp at 68 (kept dropping to 60-65) so increased time to 20 mins. But the negs look decent. Currently hanging from the shower rail!

This is why I always develop at room temperature.
Just adjust the time accordingly.

pdeeh · Sep 17, 2017

MattKing said:
This is why I always develop at room temperature.
Just adjust the time accordingly.

Exactly.
Remember that the temperature of the process is completely uncritical between reasonable limits, and your negatives won't be better or worse because they were developed at 17C or 23C rather than 20C.
For the ordinary darkroom worker temperature only affects the rate at which the film develops.
Worrying about keeping temperature within an extremely narrow margin is a good recipe for anxiety and frustration. And water-baths are a waste of (expensive) water
These remarks only apply to ordinary b&w film of course, and not to C41 (colour or black and white) or E6 (colour slide) processes, where temperature is critical!

derek andrews · Sep 18, 2017

Hello thanks for the tips re temperature, but I've come up with a solution that seems to work for me. Your thoughts would be appreciated I have to make do with my bathroom but I realised that my electric shower has an extremely accurate temperature control. So after some testing, I found that setting the dial to 3 the water comes out at a steady 68. I use this to make up the developer. I also put the bathroom radiator on an hour before starting to process. I use the same shower set at 8 to provide a bowl of very hot water to stand the fix in for 30 mins. Just in case you were going to ask...the shower head has a mineral filter. By the way...is it possible to 'over fix?'

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