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need suggestions for Rodinal and faster films.


bill_zelinski

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I'm trying to settle on Rodinal at 1:50 as my 35mm film developer and so far I have had great results with slower films, APX 25 and Pan F. Not much luck with anything faster though. Delta 100 seems to work pretty good so far but Tri-x was a disaster, Delta 400 was just ok but terrible pushed. I really to need find one fast film that ideally could be pushed a bit in pinch. I will try some Delta 3200 this weekend which is probably the fastest, but does anyone have a favorite fast film for use with Rodinal at 1:50? Thanks.
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I agree with Bill--Rodinal has no solvent action whatsoever, so it

tends to preserve the grain structure of any film developed in it.

The grainier the film, the grainier the results with Rodinal. It is

best used with slow films. Try X-tol for the fast films--I think

you'll be much happier.

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I bought many bottles of Rodinal over the years, as the stuff seems

to be highly recommended by many people. I never found its magic

properties, and it's hard to mix the high dilutions with great

accuracy. Probably best reserved for large format work. I don't think

it's a great general purpose developer, especially for 35mm (consider

when it was first formulated!)

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Thanks, but I'm not ready to throw in the towel yet. I will cointinue

to experiment with Rodinal for the 35mm slower films until I get that

Deardorf 8x10 (although by then I should be using mixing my own Pyro

right? :) Xtol works fine work on my Tri-X and Delta 100. My main

reason for trying Rodinal was to see if I can get better acutance as

I'm printing with a diffusion head (dichro)at 8"x10" and thought this

would help to "sharpen" up my prints a bit and for right now grain is

not the main issue, it seems the consensus is that a condensor head

would also "sharpen" my small negs but I have not decided to switch

yet, although if this is what it takes...

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  • 3 weeks later...

Cobbstone-like grain can be achieved with Rodinal when you use T-Max

3200 or Neopan 1600, dilute 1+25, 5-6 min at ISO1600.

Better performance and good tonal range, I got with Agfa APX400 in

Rodinal 1+25, 5 min at 68F/20C, never longer. In summer I rated the

film at ISO200 and developed for 4 min. Less grain, fairly good

acutance and a tonal range that I never got with 1+50, which generally

delivers muddy contrasts, unless you 're shooting sunlit snowlands

with black charcoals mounts on it........

Other 400 films must react accordingly, but stick to 1+25 and control

all conditions well, too warm is lethal at this dilution!!

The product is outdated, but still good. Technical Pan likes it.....

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