Agfa Rodinal Age ?

<p>I've only been developing about a year and a friend of mine gave me a bottle of Agfa Rodinal that had never been open (It was about 5 years old) the results are got were excellent and I heard that Rodinal can last for ages even decades.<br>

The bottle was an opaque plastic so you could make out the liquid, today I had a quick look on ebay and darkroom gear and up pops a unopened bottle of Agfa Rodinal even better 500ml's of it, I snapped it up straight away. The bottle is pure white plastic and you cant seen the liquid but has all the same labelling.<br>

Is this a different bottle as its 500ml's or does it show its older or possible newer than the stuff i used before In the opaque bottle ?</p>

<p> </p>

I worked for the us distributor of Agfa many years ago, and recall it was distributed in both type of bottles. Im pretty sure

the white bottle is pretty old though.

<p>I'm currently using a bottle of genuine Agfa Rodinal which I bought in 2005 and opened in 2011. It still works perfectly well.</p>

<p>The change from White Silar to Opaque was done around 2003 by Agfa, Agfa Photo 2004. So the White bottle is at least 10 years old but it doesn't matter for original Agfa Rodinal. I will work.</p>

<p><a href="http://darkroomuser.wordpress.com/2012/02/20/agfa-rodinal/">http://darkroomuser.wordpress.com/2012/02/20/agfa-rodinal/ </a><br>

4th paragraph down, talks briefly about a bottle that was used that was about 30 years old. <br>

@ Chris Waller, I understand that the company that still makes Rodinal is the same one that used to be Agfa, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodinal">the same plant</a> and now they sell it under the name Adonal by Adox. </p>

<p>A lot of companies are selling Rodinal under their <em>own brand name</em> now:<br>

Adox Adonal (Germany)<br>

Blazinal (Canada)<br>

R09 one shot (mostly in Europe)</p>

<p>All the same Rodinal, just another packing or label.</p>

<p>I'm down to 2 films & two developers. I shoot only Tmax 100 & develop in Tmax developer & Arista EDU 100 (AKA Fomapan 100) & develop in Caffenol. I used to used D76. Then there was a time during which D76 was only available in 1 gallon envelops. The mixed developer does not store well & I develop so little that most of a mixed gallon of D76 would go to waste. I thought Rodinal would be a good fix. I did not like the graininess,but could live with it (always bearing on mind that any cropping need be done in camera). I loved the economy (so little is used) & what I read about it's shelf life. Then I developed a couple rolls from a bottle of rodinal (the last little bit in the mostly used up bottle just a couple of years old) and the negs came out extremely thin. I decided then & there I could not trust it & began looking for something different. I've gotten better results from homemade caffenol (with Arista EDU ultra/AKA Fomapan 100) than I ever got with the commercial developers I tried (D76,Tmax). I would suggest you give it a try.</p>