Undiluted Rodinal - What colour should it be?

philldresser · Jun 29, 2005

Was given a few chemicals by someone clearing out their bits for bytes which included a 1L bottle of Rodinal. Trouble is that the colour is chocolate brown. What colour is the undiluted stuff supposed to be?

Phill

mikewhi · Jun 29, 2005

Don't worry about the color. When it's 'new' it is a very dark ice tea color. As it ages it gets much darker but still works fine. Just use it as normal. It should be fine unless someone replaced it with Hershey Fudge Sauce.

-Mike

philldresser · Jun 29, 2005

Thanks Mike

I have some duplicate shots from todays excursion which I will experiment on tomorrow

Phill

Mongo · Jun 29, 2005

As an aside: Don't worry if you find some precipitate in the bottom of the bottle. All Rodinal bottles do this eventually, and it doesn't matter at all.

photomc · Jun 29, 2005

Actually, I think it works better after it starts to look like coca cola..and it's a lot easier for me to tell I added it to some water when it is older when using a dil of 1+100. The stuff seems to last forever, which is the main reason I started using it.

jjstafford · Jun 29, 2005

Brand new it is quite pale. When it is old it is darker. No matter what they say, fresh Rodinal is better. The precipitate at the bottom of old Rodinal is the encoded secret secret recipe for Guinness.

fschifano · Jun 29, 2005

jjstafford said:
...No matter what they say, fresh Rodinal is better.

That may be true, but in practice I'm hard put to tell the difference. Granted, I'm not a big Rodinal user so I may be missing something. I have developed enough film to see when something has gone off and I just don't see it with fresh vs. old Rodinal.

jjstafford · Jun 29, 2005

fschifano said:
That may be true, but in practice I'm hard put to tell the difference. [...] QUOTE]

You have to taste fresh Rodinal to know the difference.

gainer · Jun 30, 2005

The ideal color of Rodinal is chocolate brown, or whatever comes out of the bottle.

gnashings · Jun 30, 2005

One more vote of confidence - I had a 1/3 of a bottle given to me after a friend had it on his shelf for years. Used it (brown as Coca Cola) to the last drop - worked great. Cannot tell the difference between new and old in practice. I think it looks better brown

modafoto · Jun 30, 2005

When it looks like Single Malt it is about right

The stuff never goes bad. I have done a film in 40 year old Rodinal (bottled opened in mid 60'es. Went down well. I develop for 30% more than stated and ended up with slighty overdeveloped negs.
So the stuff is never to be too old.

Morten

Gerald Koch · Jun 30, 2005

The color of a freshly prepared aminophenol developer such as Rodinal is a pale lavender color when prepared from fresh reagent grade paraminophenol hydrochloride. It will remain this color for many years if stored in well sealed *glass* bottles. I know because I used to make it many years ago when I could not obtain Rodinal.

Unfortunately, Agfa replaced the original glass bottles with plastic which are not completely impermeable to oxygen. The result is that Rodinal now appears brown due to a small amount of oxidation. This does not effect its use. However, I would recommend transferring the contents of the original bottle to several smaller glass bottles especially if you are not intending to use the contents within a short period of time. The same advice applies to Kodak's HC-110.

philldresser · Sep 12, 2005

I finally got round to use the old rodinal tonight. I ran out of pyrocat (mixed) and so took the plunge. I tested it first by dropping the cut of film leader into 50ml and let it develop for a few minutes then fixed. Film was as black as coal which indicated activity (to me anyway)

Developed my 3 films from France using 1:25 and they are very sharp, 'bright', and contrasty. Cool !

Phill

Peter Schrager · Sep 12, 2005

Rodinal

Got back from Atlantic City and developed some Fuji Acros100 in Rodinal 1+50
Results are stunning. Proofs look really great.
Best, Peter

thefizz · Sep 13, 2005

peters said:
Got back from Atlantic City and developed some Fuji Acros100 in Rodinal 1+50
Results are stunning. Proofs look really great.
Best, Peter

I tried this combination a few weeks back and liked the results but lost my notes. What times did you use Peter?

Regards,
Peter

modafoto · Sep 13, 2005

thefizz said:
I tried this combination a few weeks back and liked the results but lost my notes. What times did you use Peter?

This is something I am interested in, too. I would love to go with Acros as my new standard film in the ISO 100 range....The Delta is nice, but the grain can be a bit weird...I thought I got a great combo but it may have flaws...

Peter Schrager · Sep 13, 2005

Acros

I used 7:45 @ 68 degrees. This was 120 film and on a motorized base that is continuous. For normal developing try around 10 minutes.
Best, Peter

Peter Schrager · Sep 13, 2005

dittoI

I forgot to add that it was done at ASA 64
Peter

Undiluted Rodinal - What colour should it be?

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