Rodinal Stock Solution

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How much stock Rodinal solution is required per 120 roll of film? I think...not sure...Agfa recommends 10ml per roll?

Thanks...Craig

-- Craig Sterling (craig@craigsterling.com), October 30, 2001

Answers

Yes, you are correct. Agfa recommends a minimum of 10 ml Rodinal stock solution per roll of film developed. So, at 1+50 dilution, you would use 10 ml Rodinal in 500 ml water. However, I have used as little as 5 ml of stock solution (1:100 dilution) and gotten useable results.

-- Ed Buffaloe (edb@unblinkingeye.com), October 30, 2001.

I have used 10ml of stock in a 1000ml working solution to develop 2 rolls of 120 film in a single tank at a 1:100 dilution. Works fine. Note that I use the entire 1000ml working solution (or almost all of it until the tank is completely full) and not just enough to cover the two 120 reels. Because of the extra space in the tank, I place one empty 35mm reel between the 120 reels that have film loaded. This prevents the reels from excessive movement in tank during agitation, which caused uneven development for me.

-- Michael Feldman (mfeldman@qwest.net), October 30, 2001.

from the weird and wonderful (but not recommended by me) I recently read somewhere about 1:400 and 1:800 dilutions with Rodinal.. so thought I'd try it! I used 0.75ml (as acurately as I could measure it in a 2 or 3ml suringe) in 300ml of water for a TEST roll of FP4+ which was exposed at 200asa (as indicated by my source) I developed for 100mins (was meant to be 90mins but I forgot about it!) with agitation at the 1,2,5,10,20,30,45 minute marks (no agitation in the last half of development, as recommended by the source) To have something to judge against, I also shot the same subjects on another roll of FP4+ (bulk loading is good for somethings) and processed at 1:100. I haven't had a chance to make some prints, but the 1:400 negs look ok, a bit thin (which indicates 200asa wasn't suitable, the 1:100 ones were thin too) Scans using a flatbed with transparency adaptor (1600dpi) didn't show much difference, and what differences I thought I could pick might have been my imagination. What has this proven.. probably not much! :) Going to try the 1:800 dilution one night (yes that's the recommended development time.. overnight!) just for the hell of it!

-- Nigel Smith (nlandgl@unite.com.au), October 30, 2001.

If you use less than 10 ml of Rodinal per 8x10 film unit you are gambling with your film development. Better to double the stock syrup than to cut back on it or live with the bare minimum recommended. One of these days you will have some important negs that aren't quite what they should be due to having not quite enough of the developer in the mix. Could happen as your local water company changes the mix of chlorine & additives or due to your film having more reduced silver than normal. But if it happens you get weak negs that would have been just fine if you had used good darkroom practice in the first place.

-- Dan Smith (shooter@brigham.net), October 30, 2001.

I always use distilled water for diluting film developer and the photo-flo final rinse. It's fairly cheap at about $.69 per gallon at discount stores.

The main reason for diluting Rodinal at 1:100 is not to save money, but to get the benefits of the higher dilution: more "compensating” effect (reduction in contrast), less grain due to reduction in developer alkalinity (Rodinal only), and higher acutance. Obviously, scenes (or films) which require more contrast would be more appropriately developed in Rodinal at lower dilutions such as 1:50 or 1:25.

-- Michael Feldman (mfeldman@qwest.net), October 30, 2001.



I don't for a minute think I'm risking important negatives by developing them at 1:75 or 1:100 with less than 10ml of stock Rodinal solution, because I have been doing so for 20 years with absolutely no problem. My developing times and agitation techniques seem to compensate for the reduced developer activity. I always mix film developers in distilled water, so there is no problem with variations in water quality.

I have been careful to state Agfa's recommendations, but I also do not hesitate to state the results of my own experience. I think what Agfa is really saying is that if you use their developing times, you must use a minimum of 10 ml stock solution--but I've never found their times or their recommended exposure indexes to be particularly useful.

I use a small tank that holds 2 35mm reels or one 120 reel. I mix 500ml of working solution, of which I use approximately 425 ml. I have an old 120 spool that I have clipped to about 1/2 inch in height which I wedge into the top of the tank so the 120 reel doesn't slide up and down during agitation. I agitate for 10 seconds (about 4 inversions) once every minute.

-- Ed Buffaloe (edb@unblinkingeye.com), October 31, 2001.


Similar threads can be found in this newsgroup. The latest one was: Rodinal dilutions. For what it's worth here is my personal experience: When my drum is full of films and I use 1/50 dilution, I get only about 7.5 ml per 35mm roll. When the drum is not full of films (still for 1/50 dilution) I can get the recommended 10ml per film. I never noticed a difference... I generally use 1/50 dilutions with 400 asa films. With slower films, unless the subject was flat, I use dilutions of 1/100. I try never to get under 7.5 ml per film. I so rarely manage to put 10ml per film that I cannot really tell whether there is a difference or not. For 120 roll film, I would be more cautious... Experiment!

-- Xavier Colmant (xcolmant@powerir.com), October 31, 2001.

My experience parallels Ed's; I've routinely used far less than Agfa's 10ml/roll recommendation without encountering any discernible differences compared to using more stock.

I think Agfa's just being very conservative; if you use 10ml/roll you definitely won't have any problem while you may or may not when using smaller amounts of stock.

-- John Hicks (jbh@magicnet.net), October 31, 2001.


Dear Craig, I can only speak in respect to "traditional" Rodinal sold as Calbe R09, which has been my standard developer for many years: For one 120 film I mostly add 5ml on 500ml water per film (1:100) and never ever had any problems or signs of exhaustion. The control shots of test charts I occasionally put on films to check how good my system works all give me the same density for midtone and highlight readings. Using this setup I have developed many hundred rolls of film over the years and am absolutely sure that it reliable. I also occasionally use 2,5ml of solution on 500ml (1:200) and it workes just fine. In their R09 data sheet ORWO and later Calbe stated that in 600ml R09 in 1:40 dilution at least six rolls of film can be developed when reused. If my calculation is correct this is about 2,5ml per roll. I would think that this is also a good starting point for R09 as one shot developer. This means: With the 250ml bottle for under $4.- you can develop 100 rolls of film in 1:200 dilution and 50 in 1:100 dilution, making it – according to my knowledge – the cheapest developer on the market with 4c/8c per roll. There is absolutely no need to use more developer in the case of R09. Agfa Rodinal has a different concentration in comparison with R09, but I do think that 10ml per film is "overkill". The "standard" dilution of R09 is stated as 1:40, that of Agfa Rodinal as 1:25. Taking these figures into account 5ml per roll should be ample for Agfa Rodinal. Off course the manufacturers always like to sell more developer.

-- Volker Schier (Volker.Schier@fen-net.de), November 01, 2001.

Hello Craig,

i put a datasheet from FOMA (czech) and ORWO (former east-germany) on my website ( http://www.bremsenbude.de/rodinal.pdf ). This developers named "Fomadon R 09" and "ORWO R 09", they are exactly Rodinal. In this sheets are times for solution over 1:50 for many b/w-films.I use solution 1:100 and 1:200 with Ilford Pan F and FP4, Agfapan 25 and 100, ORWO NP 15, 20 and 22. The results are great. Here is the URL: http://www.bremsenbude.de/entwicklungszeiten.xls

Greetings from Hamburg/Germany to all b/w-photographers.

Olav

-- Olav Kettner (olav.kettner@t-online.de), December 02, 2001.



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