tmax 100, rodinal 1:50 12min 20c too thin

I did a 120 roll of tmax 100 in rodinal 1:50 for 12 min. at 20c last night and the results were noticeably thin. I don't have a densitomiter (unless there is a way of measuring it using a film scanner?) I plan on trying some prints this afternoon but the negatives were well exposed, in fact I usually meter for 64 iso on this film. I've developed it before in tmax developer and they always came out much denser. Is this a normal thing for this film/dev, should I try 1:25 next time, or simply extend the developer time? What times are you folks using in this combination? I mix using appropriate graduated cylinders and the concentrate is stored in a tightly sealed dark glass bottle.

Hmmm... that's what I've been using and my results are fine. Is this the first time with this combination? It's possible you didn't use quite enough developer. I had something similar happen with a staining developer. I apparently didn't quite use enough developer and my negatives turned out thin. It's easy to do when you are dealing with concentrate formulas.

The dev time & temp sounds about right, I've shot a lot of Tmax 100 & processed in Rodinal, but I preferred to use 3:100 dilution for my normal development only using 1:50 for contrasty subject matter. 1:25 I always found too problematic giving excessive negative conttrast. I did extensive Zone system tests to get dilutions & dev times that suited my printing requirements.

Remember that slight variations in water, thermometers, shutters, lightmeters can all play a small part in affecting the right times etc that you require, and may have played a part in your negs being thin.

Ian

I've been using Rodinal 1:100 with a 20 min dev time at 20 deg C for quite a while now and it works well for me. Boring, but it gives me what I want.

Did you have enough shadow detail? If yes - develop longer. If no, check your light meter and/or give more exposure.

It is a fine combination that I used a lot in 35mm once. I too had thin negatives when I started out. So I started exposing the film to an exposure index of 50, and I increased the amount of developer agent in the tank, as a matter of fact, I always filled it to capacity just to make sure the developer didn't exhaust. That was more of an issue with the 1:100 dilution. 1:50 should not exhaust if you cover the spool fully and add some on top of that.

- Thomas