Fresh Rodinal is a pale colour. A few days after opening the bottle, it begins to darken (even with the bottle tightly closed), and after two or three weeks it is quite dark. I have just discarded about half a bottle, three weeks after it was first opened, because of the colour change, as I was processing some important negatives. In fact, is the change normal? Agfa say that an opened bottle remains OK for six months - is this right?

-- David Hedley (djhedley@yahoo.com), March 06, 2000

Answers

The stuff actually lasts for years, no matter how nasty it looks.

-- John Hicks (jbh@magicnet.net), March 06, 2000.

David,

From my experience, the type of bottle makes a big difference.It will keep best in glass. It also keeps well in the bottle it is sold in. To avoid the discoloration, I fill several smaller bottles that remain closed untill needed.

Greg

-- Greg Rust (kgeicrust@aol.com), March 07, 2000.

I keep my Rodinal in the refrigerator and continue to use it until it turns quite dark.

-- (edbuffaloe@unblinkingeye.com), March 08, 2000.

You can use Rodinal long after the color begins to darken. However, after using Rodinal as my exclusive film developer for more than 20 years I have realized that the something in the formula has changed (and not for the better.) It used to be that as Rodinal aged it would darken, but if you looked closely in good light you coulad see little rod-like "crystals" floating in the developer. Now, those crystals are gone. Also, it used to be that old Rodinal worked as well as new Rodinal, but now I have seen a pronounced fogging (density increase) of the film base when using Rodinal that is more than six months old but less than a year old. Rodinal is a great developer but I am just not too sure that today's Rodinal is exactly the same as it used to be.

-- John Rountree (j.rountree@usa.net), March 27, 2000.

Hello David. If you want the ultimate in storage for the opened Rodinal (or any other liquid chemical), purchase a small tank of nitrogen and purge the air space above the liquid with this gas. Practice with a bottle of water to get the hang of it and wear safety equipement appropriate for the chemicals. As to the Rodinal, I've used opened bottle more than 3 years old with great results. Enjoy, Bill

-- Bill Bowes (solarham@hotmail.com), December 21, 2000.