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This new bottle of Rodinal looks different the last one I bought.

applesanity

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I've almost run out of Rodinal so I bought some from freestylephoto.biz. Not the new Rodinal or Rodinal+ or whatever, just straight Rodinal.

The last time I bought Rodinal was when I was NYC and I stopped by the B&H brick and mortar store. It came in a red box and had red labelling on the bottle. The Rodinal was dark, like Madeira, apple cider or dark sherry - even before I opened the bottle.

But this new bottle from freestylephoto.biz is really pale, as if one took Rodinal from the B&H bottle and diluted it a lot. The labelling is white. The warning labels on the back are the same as the older bottle, however. Additionally, the size and shape of the bottle (17 oz.) are also the same.

Now I know Agfa is gone and this is some other company making this stuff under Agfa license. I also know that neither of these two bottles are exactly the same as the original Agfa Rodinal. However, I've gone through countless of rolls of film to perfect the dilution, time, agitation, and agitation intervals to get the development I want. I really don't want to start all over again.

So the question is, is this the same Rodinal as I got before? Or, does Rodinal change color and/or chemistry over time? If so, do I have to do anything different to compensate?
 
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It's the same. The liquid, when fresh, will have a slight brown tint to it. Very vague. As it gets older it darkens, which means your old bottle probably had sat on the shelf for a long time.

Rodinal lasts virtually forever. I've used some from the same bottle for many years.
 

Ian Grant

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Fresh Rodinal is very pale, but older stock can vary, it's still perfect. A&O were making Rodinal after Agfa's collapse, now they've given up it's being made to t5he same formula elsewhere.

Ian
 
OP
OP

applesanity

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Awesome. Thanks you guys. Hopefully the day may never come when I can't buy commercially available Rodinal. If it does, however, it's kind of comforting to know that it lasts virtually forever. I can stockpile it next to the stockpile of guns I keep for when the zombies attack.
 

Jeff Bannow

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I like that idea - fighting off the zombies, one bottle of Rodinal at a time ...
 

tim_walls

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Guns won't help you; everyone knows you need an old LP collection for that.
 

Jeff Bannow

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Yes, but I bet it tastes the same!

At the lab at school, we had a student who mixed up his beakers for film processing, and started tasting the mixtures to find out which one was the developer.

Of course, the second question after asking what was wrong with him, was how he knew what the developer tasted like to begin with ...
 

jim appleyard

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I hope that day never comes! If we keep buying it... IF that day does comes, you can mix your own with chems from Formulary. However, you may have to re-test all over again.

Personally, I think 8-tracks of disco "music" would fight off the zombies better than LP's.
 

srs5694

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I found the following very weird item a couple of weeks ago:

http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc152/canklecat/Zombie_Film-vs-Digital-Wars_01.jpg

I'm not entirely sure what to make of it, but it seems apropos....
 

wogster

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I like that idea - fighting off the zombies, one bottle of Rodinal at a time ...

Yes, and most of those Zombies are holding digi-wonder-cams, with the camera in spray & pray mode, as they chant "must buy new model when comes out, must bu..." There are days you want to put a few of them out of their misery. :rolleyes:
 

AgX

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A&O were making Rodinal after Agfa's collapse, now they've given up it's being made to t5he same formula elsewhere.


It is still manufactured at the same plant, by the successor company.
 

Ed Sukach

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Yes, and most of those Zombies are holding digi-wonder-cams, with the camera in spray & pray mode, as they chant "must buy new model when comes out, must bu..." There are days you want to put a few of them out of their misery. :rolleyes:

Hmmm ...

Does anyone have a formula where we can take residual silver from the darkroom and refine it for use in bullets?

I wonder how much film/ paper I would have to develop to obtain enough to replicate a box of Speer .357 140 grain Hollow Point...

Oh, wait ... VAMPIRES. Silver is specifically applicable to WEREWOLVES.

Anyone tried it on vampires?
150 grain are
 

cmacd123

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be aware that rodinal may be called something else next time you buy it, and worse th ename may be differrent in different places.
(thats why I bought 2 bottles recently) (which turned out to be the A&O german stuff.)
 

Anscojohn

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Found this scan of an old Rodinal label the other day...
Anyone care to translate?

http://edkrebs.com/thalia2/vintage/agfabottle.jpg
*****
With apologies to those whose language it is, since my dictionaries are packed away:

The universal developer--Agfa Rodinal. For experts as well as for amateurs. For plates, films, papers. For negatives as well as transparencies. For (something) as well as Time and Tank development. For correclty exposed, as well as over and under exposed (films)). Easiest usage, for 10 to 20 times dilution with water.
Flexible convenient, exceptional keeping qualities. Various sized bottles (can't read in my printout). For additional information, see the collected Agfa Photo Articles in the Agfa Photo Handbook 75 pfennigs at Photo Dealers..
 

AgX

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...For tray-, time- and tank-development...

(I got no idea what the difference between the last two would be.)

And that handbook was already in its 185,000 to 200,000 print edition.