Tetenal Neofin Rot (Red).. What is this?

I was given an unused box of Tetenal Neofin Rot (thats Red in german), containing 5 glass vials of liquid...

Is this a BW or a C41 developing set? Why would one use it? I have no idea.. The instructions were only in german.

It's a Beutler type developer for medium to fast B&W films. It gives very high acutance but can be a little on the grainy side.

It has been discontinued for about 10 years now. The Neofin Blau version is still available and gives you finer grain.

I do believe that the neofin Blue (Blau) was intended for slow to medium speed films and should not be used for films over 125iso

Rot is supposed to be used for medium to high speed films - gives shorter development times than blau. Red variety has been out of production for a long time but do not worry the stuff will be quite o.k. My long time favourite. Quite sharp and can handle wide contrast range without speed loss.

Is there an alternate version available (of either or both)? Like from Freestyle or Photographers Formulary?

I know of no alternative to Neofin Red. Neofin Blue is still made by Tetenal. It is an acutance developer. The closest developer to it is probably the Beutler formula or Ethol TEC. Photographer's Formulary sells the Beutler formula under the name Neofin Blue. This is confusing to people for the two developers are NOT the same if you look at the MSDS. The results are however somewhat similar.

Neofin Blue demands the upmost in care from the user from correct exposure to care in development. Failure to do so will result in poor quality negatives. Tetenal intructions are quite specific in this respect. So for anyone who is sloppy about such things as developer temperature, agitation, etc. then this developer is not for you. Used with a fine grain slow film (<= ISO 50) the results are spectacular. I might add that the developer gives an increase in speed depending on the particular film. So ignore the box speed.

Here is the data sheet:

http://imageshack.us/a/img205/8049/neofin05.png

http://imageshack.us/a/img694/7698/neofin04.png

hallo

i also found some neofin rot some dys ago in the darkroom of an phtographer who has died 10 years ago.

i will give it a try.
--
thomas

AgX said:

Here is the data sheet:

http://imageshack.us/a/img205/8049/neofin05.png

http://imageshack.us/a/img694/7698/neofin04.png

Click to expand...

How does one interpret the columns in the second data sheet above? There are pairs of columns for red, blue, and a third developer. Once column in the pair is labeled "3 sec" and the other is labeled "1 min". Does that refer to agitation? Continuous agitation vs. once a minute?

Just trying to figure it out.

Tnx,

-- Mark

That data sheet shares data for three different developers.

Those figures indicate the rythm of inverting the processing tank (numbers of inversion per time unit), in this case indicated as times between inversions. Thus:

"1min" means one inversion every minute,
"3sec" means one inversion every 3 seconds

yes, I have two glass phials of "rot" as well. Not sure yet how I am going to use it. Any suggestions considering it will be virtually a one off experiment? Film recommendations etc?

Thats a lot of good responses!