Old bottle of Rodinal compared to recent Rodinal and Gainer's P-aminophenol (Rodinal-type) developer...(long)

[nicholas_t.]

Hello everyone, I thought I should make good on my promise to develop

some photos with the old bottle of Rodinal I aquired some time ago...</p>

The procedure:</p>

I photographed the same tree thirty-something-times (APX 400) with the

same aperture and shutter speed. I then clipped a strip (to develop in

either of the three developers) and endeavoured to process each strip

to a similar density. The lighting was constant the whole time I was

photographing.</p>

Strangely enough the <a

href="http://www.photo.net/bboard/uploaded-file?bboard_upload_id=11389684">ancient

bottle</a> of Rodinal developed out at exactly the same time as the

plastic bottle - 21C at 1:50 12mins, initial inversions for 1 min and

then 7 secs every minute. The same processing procedure was done for

the Gainer version but the development was a different time (to get a

similar density on the negative). The prints for the two Agfa versions

of Rodinal were tested to be exactly the same times - 23 secs. The

Gainer version was considerably less - 13 secs. There was also

considerably less fog with this developer and could account for the

reduced printing time. The old Rodinal has scum and all-sorts on the

inside of the bottle, but when they were both in the measuring flask

they visually were the same colour and the same opacity (ie not

clear).</p>

I couldn't think of a way to present these so I put them in a folder

in my user id (not too computer saavy). But here are the photos (the

detail is on the right side of the tree, just where it touches the

horizon): </p>

<a href="http://www.photo.net/photo/1402347">overall

pic</a>, <a

href="http://www.photo.net/photo/1402346">old (glass

bottled) Rodinal</a>, <a

href="http://www.photo.net/photo/1402341">new

(plastic bottled) Rodinal</a>, and finally <a

href="http://www.photo.net/photo/1402332">Gainer's

Vit C/P-aminophenol (Rodinal-type)</a> developer.</p>

Visually (the prints are easier to see than on the scans), I could not

see any difference between the Agfa Rodinals. The Gainer developer,

however, is *a lot* less grainy, but still has the *bite*.

[chris_waller]

This is a useful comparison and confirms Rodinal's legendary keeping qualities. I am a Rodinal user of some twenty years' standing but have never used the Gainer derivative. Many thanks for this.

[wieslaw1]

I have a bottle of concentrated Rodinal by ORWO (East German) from the sixties, back in my apartment in Europe. It is as usable to-day as it was then.

[feli]

Amazing.

 

feli

[jimvanson]

nicholas...I'm a great believer in what you have confirmed.I've used Rodinal for several years now. All the evidence I've gathered points to what you stated; stock Rodinal has very stable keeping properties. I've used Rodinal that seems to be full of chunks and I've still gotten great negs. I usually use Rodinal more dilute then you do. I believe people sometimes get into trouble using Rodinal at 1+50 or 1+100. This trouble, blamed on the age of the Rodinal, is really due to the following; I believe some people use lousy water...it's too alkaline...and 3mls of Rodinal can not correct this. The second reason is that they do not use a syringe or pipette (sp?) to measure out the Rodinal. If you are shooting for 1+100 and you require 300mls of solution then you need 3mls of Rodinal..not 2mls and not 4mls...without the right tool it is tough to get right. Thanks for taking the time to share your findings...jim

[robert_d.1]

This totally blows me away. I had asked the same question after I bought a bottle of the stuff from a photo store over a month ago, it looked like dark tea. I was skeptical but the films developed fine. I even asked agfa about it and the guy said it was ok to be this color, dark tea-like

 

How can a high alkaline developer keep so long? Usually it would be the reverse, fast oxidation and unstable, etc. Amazing. This is like defying the laws of gravity.

 

RJ

[nicholas_t.]

Thanks for the feedback, I really should be studying but here is the <a href="http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo.tcl?photo_id=1422111">latest test<a/>.<p/>

As you can probably tell, I haven't quite got the contrast the same as the other three details. But it is very obvious the grain is at least as good as the Gainer Vitamin C P-aminophenol developer. Even if you count in - more grain from an increase in the developing time.<p/> There was a higher level of FB+Fog in this developer than the others. However, there is a work-around for this - Ascorbic acid + Carbonate instead of the Ascorbate.<p/>

Funny... the photo-detail in Gainer's developer has been rated!

[patrick_gainer]

Nicholas,

when you get excessive fog with Rodinal + ascorbate it is probably because the high pH of Rodinal activates the ascorbate. I have found the easy way to cure it is to add a little borax to the working solution. This reduces the pH somewhat, extends the developing time about 20% and makes a borax-hydroxide buffer. 1 teaspoon of borax to the liter should be enough and it dissolves easily enough at room temperature the you can stir it in just before developing.

 

Pat Gainer

[nicholas_t.]

Thanks Pat, your input is always appreciated.<p/>

Nicholas

[alan_rockwood]

I see a problem with the pictures you posted. Two of them (old Rodinal and new Rodinal) are the same. I don't mean similar. I mean they are the exact same photograph. You can tell this by examining the fine structure of the grain. It is identical in the two photographs, right down to the last little grain feature. This can only happen if the pictures are the exact same pictures.

 

Maybe you mixed up the pictures and posted the same one twice.

 

Alan