What is so great about rodinal?

[Lee Shively]

Hi, Jim.

As for EI's, I would just start with 400 for HP5 and 50 for PanF and go from there. You'll probably have to adjust it to suit your personal preferences. I try to use 68 degrees F for the developer solution. That's sometimes hard to do in the summer around here so I adjust based on the Ilford charts on their website. At 68 degrees F, give 11 1/2 minutes with 5 seconds agitation every 30 seconds. Again, this is a starting point and you will probably have to adjust from there. I use about 2/3 tablespoon of sulfite for every 8 US fluid ounces of solution. My understanding is that the sodium sulfite will increase the developer activity and decrease the processing time required.

I like a relatively thin, low contrast negative because I print on a condenser enlarger. If you're using a diffusion enlarger, you'll probably have to adjust every step to fit.

If you want to give it a try, you might like it or you might hate it. To me, it's convenient, cheap and I get good results. Good luck.

 

[Lee Shively]

Gerald.

It was a Bill Pierce article but it was a later one, from Camera 35 sometime in the mid-70's. I sure miss that magazine. Pierce still writes a column on the http://www.digitaljournalist.org/ that's sometimes entertaining.

 

[jim appleyard]

Thanks Lee!

 

[Jim Chinn]

Here is the link to the Rodinal article on Unblinkingeye.com
http://unblinkingeye.com/Articles/Rodinal/rodinal.html

Lot of great info there. Enjoy!

 

[Andy K]

I used semi-stand development when I made some long exposure night shots. Using a dilution of 1+50 the developing time required was sixteen minutes. Basically I dunked the film as normal and agitated 10 seconds every minute for the first eight minutes, then left the tank to stand for the next eight minutes. The 'stand' part of the process allows the developer to exhaust in the highlight areas of the negative and brings out shadow detail.

I think.

 

[avandesande]

do an advanced search 'titles' for using term 'rodinal' and 'stand'

 

[gainer]

Semi-stand means agitating only once or twice during development. Ii's a misuse of semi, but what the hey?

 

[Andy K]

Semi stand is where you develop the film as normal, but only agitate for part of the process. Say you have a roll of HP5+ night shots and you want to develop them in Rodinal 1+50. The developing time would be about 16 minutes, so you get film and magic potion in the tank and for the first eight minutes you agitate as normal, five seconds every thirty seconds is my method, then for the next eight minutes you just let the tank stand with no agitation.
The purpose of this is to bring out shadow detail and to allow the developer on the highlights to exhaust so they don't 'blow out'.
The attached photograph was enlarged from a semi stand developed negative. (Dust specks are from my scanner glass, I really should clean it!)

 

[Mongo]

Care to share a time for that? I have a box of out of date QuickLoads ready for experimentation.

My notes indicate Acros shot at 64, developed in Rodinal 1:50 for 8 minutes at 20C. This is continuous agitation (in a Unicolor drum); I'd probably start at 11 minutes or thereabouts with standard agitation.

Best of luck.
Dave

 

[pentaxuser]

What does semi-stand mean?
Please help me!

No-one's answered this one yet. As I also shoot 120(Agfa Isolette 1) occasionally and still have some Rodinal left, I may give this a go but like Mono would need to know what constitutes semi-stand?

Any helpers?

Pentaxuser

 

[bjorke]

Mostly, semi-stand means a long development time with very little agitation (usually most of it just at the beginning of the process)

Oldie now:

Acros 645 ISO 200 semi-stand (mostly stand) for almost 2 hrs