Rodinal: Water REALLY matters!

kdemas

kdemas

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OK, I'm a bit of a Rodinal junkie. I use it very frequently as I love not only the results but the ease of use and storage.

Last week I hit a hiccup and tonight I identified the problem.

My last batch about a week ago was my first set of failures. 3 rolls wildly under-exposed, really unusable, two done in Rodinal 1:50 and one a stand in 1:100. I did everything just as I usually do it from a relatively newly opened bottle of Rodinal, clearly there must have been a problem with the developer and I'd have to chuck it.

Yesterday I enjoyed visiting a local museum and shooting with some of the local RFF crew and, during lunch, Darren (ItsReallyDarren) asked if maybe it was the water? I said nah, I always use distilled I buy at the grocery store.

Hmmmm... there was one thing about the water. The ruined rolls were the first from a "house brand" distilled water I bought instead of my usual water. Heck, water is water, right???

Wrong.

I had a roll that I didn't mind ruining for a test so I loaded up the tank tonight, using my former brand of water that I still had. About half an hour later I unspooled the film from the crappy little plastic reel and...

Negs were perfect.

I went ahead and developed two more rolls and they were spot on, I can't really believe it. The "new" water somehow must contain something that Rodinal really doesn't like, humorous as they use the same distillation process!

Anyway, always test if you are switching ANYTHING in your workflow process, you just never ever know. I am still shocked by this frankly, I've never seen this before personally.

Has anyone else ever had this happen? Thanks to Darren for planting the idea in my head!!!

Just to give a heads up to those who shop and develop in California..

This water works with Rodinal (for me):
5892893992_529945e388_b_d.jpg


This was the water that caused me the problem:
5892324647_2ab3ca3637_b_d.jpg
 
Wow I can't believe it was the water.

I spy a little 100% money back guarantee on that rodinal killing water. I wonder what their reaction will be when explaining why you were not satisfied with their product.
 
Clearly Georgia beats CA in distilling water :)
It reminds me to thank my lucky stars for the Great Lakes.
 
I have 5 gallons of the bummer stuff left, I might have to try to take it back! Their eyes will glaze over with my explanation.

If they don't take it I've got plenty of water for the iron :)

ItsReallyDarren said:
Wow I can't believe it was the water.

I spy a little 100% money back guarantee on that rodinal killing water. I wonder what their reaction will be when explaining why you were not satisfied with their product.
Click to expand...
 
Fresh Kishwaukee River water from my tap, and never had an issue with it or with my chemicals... Thanks for the report, Kent! Much appreciated! :)
 
My pleasure Francisco. I too have used tap successfully in the past though I'm nutty about water spots and, with our water, distilled works a little bit better.
 
I completely understand that not all water is the same...in some locations water can change due to many things and even change throughout the day...
But even as I say this I use tap water with Rodinal and so far all has been good...and I do live in So. Cal...
 
Before you start buying Darren a How to Tie Knots book, you need to run the full test mister Kent. Test roll in the 'bad' water please.
 
I'd love to Mike but being as all my work is such "museum grade quality" I cannot afford to lose another roll ;-)

I will try the opened crap water again once I get a chance to shoot a quick roll, probably tomorrow. It truly was the only changed variable, same tanks, reels, times, film...you name it. I even had the same thing for dinner before developing.

MikeL said:
Before you start buying Darren a How to Tie Knots book, you need to run the full test mister Kent. Test roll in the 'bad' water please.
Click to expand...
 
I use tap water with a charcoal filtered attachment, no problems with Rodinal, but night mares with XTOL... I will no longer use XTOL, Rodinal rocks...
But, is good to know, that buying a 1st Party brand is the way to go.
I noticed the crap water was made for "Safeway". You can't know from batch to batch who bottled it for them.
 
DNG said:
I use tap water with a charcoal filtered attachment, no problems with Rodinal, but night mares with XTOL... I will no longer use XTOL, Rodinal rocks...
But, is good to know, that buying a 1st Party brand is the way to go.
I noticed the crap water was made for "Safeway". You can't know from batch to batch who bottled it for them.
Click to expand...

Yeah, who knows...maybe it was a bummer batch. I'm not risking it moving forward however, sticking with a proven winner.

The real crappy aspect of this snafu was I lost some terrific pit shots from the Long Beach Grand Prix. Some Roger Penske tight "on-the-job" portraits from on the track, really bummed me out. Bad timing for a processing hiccup (isn't that always when it happens??!!).
 
I'm sure if Marty (freakescene) reads this post he will be able to tell us what may have been present in the water that caused this!
 
I'd be very interested to know. It was such a dramatic under-development....6 or more stops I'd guess.

Keith said:
I'm sure if Marty (freakescene) reads this post he will be able to tell us what may have been present in the water that caused this!
Click to expand...
 
Something in that water has killed some active constituent in the developer for sure ... I'll also be fascinated to hear Marty's analysis.

OH MARTY!
 
Yeah, I tried using Rodinal when living in a place with limestone aquifers. Tap water = no good for Rodinal in that place and time. I now used distilled water for all of my developers, even those more tolerant of local water variations, like D-76 and XTol.

Ben

[Edit: never had a problem in NYC, though. Love the tap water there.]
 
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