texts The "agfa"-book of photographic formulae

esearing · Mar 18, 2017

For those interested in old developer formulas https://archive.org/details/agfabookofphotog00barrrich. Published in 1910.

There are also a ton of basic photography books for beginners or more focused editions those needing to brush up on certain techniques. Ilford Monochrome Darkroom Practice gives a very good look at production of materials to the photographers use.
Most of these can be downloaded as PDF or ePub.

Ian Grant · Mar 18, 2017

The better book is this one:

Written by Dr Momme Andresen himself, the chemist who discovered p-Aminophenol and formulated Rodinal.

Ian

Jim Noel · Mar 18, 2017

Thank you for posting this. It contains some very important information, especially for those of us interested in older methods.

Trask · Mar 18, 2017

Interesting link. And interesting to note that back in 1910 Agfa recommended Rodinal + sodium sulfite or salt so that the dilute developer would last longer. No mention of this producing finer grain, however. And I wonder what "Eikonogen" is in today's parlance; Toogle Translate German to English says it means "eccentric"?!

Harry Stevens · Mar 18, 2017

Rodinal at 15c I may try it, very intresting Rodinal listen for me (others will follow) the automatic reader worked well.......Nice link thank you.

AgX · Mar 19, 2017

Trask said:
And I wonder what "Eikonogen" is in today's parlance; Toogle Translate German to English says it means "eccentric"?!

I translate it as "Imagemaker".

You erroneously considered it as German. It is in no way.
Back in times of Andresen researchers (and marketing people too) had a penchant for the classic languages Greek and Latin. Greek in this case.

JensH · Jul 29, 2017

Harry Stevens said:
Rodinal at 15c I may try it, very intresting Rodinal listen for me (others will follow) the automatic reader worked well.......Nice link thank you.

Yes, interesting - it says:

"Water 20 to 40 parts
The most advantageous temperature for the developing
solution is 15 degrees C. (equal to 59 degrees F.)."

15°C?
What is the advantage over 18 or 20°C? OK, over 20°C foc would get more.
Has anybody tryed it?

Best
Jens

Ian Grant · Jul 30, 2017

Jens Hallfeldt said:
Yes, interesting - it says:

"Water 20 to 40 parts
The most advantageous temperature for the developing
solution is 15 degrees C. (equal to 59 degrees F.)."

15°C?
What is the advantage over 18 or 20°C? OK, over 20°C foc would get more.
Has anybody tryed it?

Best
Jens

In those days emulsions were largely unhardened and would reticulate easily, working at 15°C causes less swelling of the emulsion so lessens the risks. There was also a myth that working at lower temperatures gave finer grain however this was proved incorrect.

Ian

JensH · Jul 30, 2017

Ian Grant said:
In those days emulsions were largely unhardened and would reticulate easily, working at 15°C causes less swelling of the emulsion so lessens the risks. There was also a myth that working at lower temperatures gave finer grain however this was proved incorrect.

Ian

That makes sence.

Best
Jens

Trask · Jul 30, 2017

AgX said:
I translate it as "Imagemaker".

You erroneously considered it as German. It is in no way.
Back in times of Andresen researchers (and marketing people too) had a penchant for the classic languages Greek and Latin. Greek in this case.

It may be that I dumped the word into Google and it detected it to be German -- or I misread it when it said Greek. I just ran it again and GT translates it as "pictured". FWIW, I read a few months ago that Google turned on some new computer programming/capabilities, and dramatically improved the accuracy of its translations.

JensH · Jul 31, 2017

AgX said:
I translate it as "Imagemaker".

You erroneously considered it as German. It is in no way.
Back in times of Andresen researchers (and marketing people too) had a penchant for the classic languages Greek and Latin. Greek in this case.

+1
Correct, greek, a combination of eikon (Image) and gen / gignestai ( to be made, to arise).
Best
Jens

texts The "agfa"-book of photographic formulae

Privacy & Transparency

Privacy & Transparency