This is a repeat but my email has been down a lot. I have added 4g of sodium ascorbate to one litre of Rodinal working solution 1:50 and instead of decreasing grain it markedly increased it in Tri X. Could it bebecause I was unable to accurately measure such small quantitiies of ascorbic acid? Any help out there for this Aussie photographer?

Gary Haigh Adelaide South Australia

-- Gary John Haigh (rbarratt@ihug.com.au), March 28, 2002

Answers

Use a good scale accurate to 0.1g. Agitation first 30 sec. gently-- 5 sec every min therafter. Water bath or fix with Formulary Fixer (Same ph as dev.)

-- Al Shnayer (alshnayer@msn.com), April 21, 2002.

If you are using Rodinal 1:50 with 4g of ascorbic per litre, use the Rodinal 1:25 times, not the 1:50. I did the same and I really like this combination. From what I understand the measurment of the ascorbic is not that critical. I use kitchen measuring spoons.

-- Eric Williams (gldn@hotmail.com), April 21, 2002.

Looking through my documented negative file I found a mdel "shoot" on 1 September 1980. The specs are: Nikon F2, 105mm lense, Agfapan 200, Rodinal (3.75 cc) for 8 minutes. I believe the combination was made in heaven. The negative density is even and printed on Seagull No. 2 the creamy tones of the subject's face are utterly beautiful, the apparent sharpness is amazing regardless of the historical nature of Rodinal. It is superb in terms of its "non-clumping" of silver grains, and a joy to print. The granular structure under high magnification is razor-sharp.

-- J. Dean Fagerstrom (deananglion@rcn.com), June 28, 2002.