D76 & Rodinal minimums per roll

[anitasanger]

Could someone please tell me the minimum amount of d76 and rodinal developer per roll for 120 and 35? For a brief time, i bought into the whole fill up the tank for 2 rolls, but only process one roll business...but now I'm not really diggin it. I'm not convinced that I'm seeing a significant difference, and it's taking FOREVER to develop anything more than 5 rolls. Plus I'm sick of wasting developer.

I have a 5 roll tank, but don't necessarily want to use 5 rolls as ive found that that may be a bit too much. Im thinking 3 rolls in the 5 and 2 rolls in my 2 roll tank.

I like to use d76 1:1 and Rodinal 1:50

I've been using 10ml rodinal to 500ml water

And 10oz d76 to 10oz water per roll

In the past, I just read the tank capacity per roll, halved the volume and did a 1:1 developer/water. Now i don't know if this was too diluted to properly develop an entire roll, or if this is perfectly fine. I know there are manufacturer suggested minimums, but can't seem to get a definitive answer. I'm just kind of sick of using way too much developer, when in the past i never had a problem using plain old 1:1.

Thanks for any input,

Luke

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

You aren't 'wasting' you're doing it right if you process with D-76 and follow the directions. Your results may look fine this tome, but another time, if you have rolls of high-density negs (like all snow scenes) you'll pay the price.

 

[Leigh Youdale]

I'm not sure who told you that you had to fill the tank. You have to be sure to completely cover the film in the tank, regardless of agitation or stand method or the number of rolls in the tank. Then you have to have enough chemical for the amount of film.
Rodinal needs 3 ml per roll of 35mm film minimum. Agfa recommend 5 ml. I've heard of people trying 2 ml but you're getting into risky territory there. The issue is not the dilution but the exhaustion of the chemicals. The more the dilution the longer the time the film need to be immersed in the solution but there comes a point where there's no "juice" left and development just stops.

 

[nikon_sam]

It would depend on which tank you are using...
I have Paterson tanks and they have the volumes listed on their bottoms...
290ml for 135
500ml for 120...that's per roll on both types...
With these numbers it's enough chemistry to cover over the top of the reel...
Drop a reel into the tank fill it until the reel is covered, measure the liquid then round off for easier math...
I normally mix 300ml for 135 film instead of 290ml recommended, it make the math easier when mixing 1+50 or 1+100...
I have never found it necessary to fill a two reel tank when only using one reel...

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

You do need to fill the tank with chemicals, not doing so increases the amount of agitation that you get (because the chemicals can move considerably more), so if you sometimes do this and sometimes don't, you'll get different results.

 

[anitasanger]

So does that mean that it would be impossible to develop a roll in a single roll tank with d76 1:1?

 

[Juan Valdenebro]

Hi Luke,

It is a good advice not to fill the tank completely: just above the film roll is enough. And normal agitation is not a problem in any way: it's a great thing... Chemicals should really move to bring new developer to film's surface. You can agitate a lot more than the normal 3 inversions per minute, and yet it won't be any problem: just do the same always... I see no reason to agitate every 30 seconds... But some others do... I invert the tank completely three times, and some others don't... The real problems come after poor agitation...

I use Rodinal only, and 8 ml per roll always (1+50), and I wonder, what for -in my case- using less? A bottle lasts for more than 60 rolls, or for years if not used, and it's very cheap...

Cheers,

Juan

 

[Rob-F]

Kodak says to use 16 ounces of D-76 at 1:1; or else if using only 8 ounces, increase developing time 10%. I recently switched from using 8 oz. to using 16oz. and I'm pleased with the improvement in images.

Here's the data sheet:
http://www.kodak.com/global/en/professional/support/techPubs/j78/j78.pdf

 

[Freakscene]

So does that mean that it would be impossible to develop a roll in a single roll tank with d76 1:1?

Nothing is impossible, but you can't do it and meet Kodak's recommendations about how much developer to use. Chris is right; if you have photos that are high key and so a lot of development is required you can get insufficient development. It usually manifests as streaking combined with inadequate density. This is why kodak's recommendations are how they are.

If I know I have normal negatives, I do develop 4 rolls in a 4 roll tank of D76 1+1. It's worked fine for me, but if it goes wrong I know I'll only have myself to blame. Kodak are just trying to protect us from ourselves . . .

Marty

 

[anitasanger]

Thanks for the replies guys. Let me just clarify:

Minimum per roll

Kodak d76 = 16oz
Rodinal = 8ml

Is this right?

 

[Rob-F]

For D-76 1:1: 16 oz of working solution is correct. That's 8 oz. of stock D-76 to 8 oz. of water. That's the safe, reliable, recommended way.

 

[anitasanger]

For D-76 1:1: 16 oz of working solution is correct. That's 8 oz. of stock D-76 to 8 oz. of water. That's the safe, reliable, recommended way.

Okay so the minimums of raw chemical to properly develop 1 roll of 35mm is:

D76 = 8oz
Rodinal = 8ml

 

[rover]

I think you have it right. Rob's last comment is saying the same thing you did just in another way. Prepare 16 oz of D76 at a 1:1 mix.

Time to go and process some film and report back to us. Chris and the gang convinced me this amount of D76 was appropriate during the last round of discussions. I have a bunch of TriX which I will be shooting and I do intend in exposing some to be souped in D76.

Good luck

 

[titrisol]

Rodinal will do a good job with 4-5ml/35mm roll.
Just have to use very long development times

 

[ChrisN]

I souped a roll of 135 tonite with 5ml of Rodinal in 500ml of water, 1 hour, with inversions every ten minutes or so. It came out very dense. I need to cut back on something - exposure, time, inversions or developer quantity. 🙂

 

[dfoo]

30 minutes is good for ISO 100 film. I think for 400 it would be decent too...

 

[LeicaM3]

I souped a roll of 135 tonite with 5ml of Rodinal in 500ml of water, 1 hour, with inversions every ten minutes or so. It came out very dense. I need to cut back on something - exposure, time, inversions or developer quantity. 🙂

Yep, you do.

What you describe is what I do to develop triX pushed to 3200. Results are very similar to 1:100 for 2 hours with 1 inversion every 30 minutes.

 

[venchka]

I souped a roll of 135 tonite with 5ml of Rodinal in 500ml of water, 1 hour, with inversions every ten minutes or so. It came out very dense. I need to cut back on something - exposure, time, inversions or developer quantity. 🙂

Chris,

What film? I seem to recall that Earl (Trius) used 1:100 for 15-20 minutes with APX100. Those numbers are consistent with Agfa's data sheet.

http://unblinkingeye.com/Articles/Developers/Times_Rodinal/Rodinal.pdf

To the OP: I had the same concerns about D-76 when I started processing B&W film after a mult-decade absence. I soon switched to Xtol 1:3 so that I could process more film per batch. I also got way better negatives. Kodak says 100ml of Xtol/8x10. That is 1 roll of 135-36. Or 1 roll of 120. Or half a roll of 220. 😉

 

[MartinP]

Are the "ounces" referred to above by weight (probably not) or volume, and are they the British or American ones ? Are American volume ounces the same thing as British fluid ounces ? I know american pints and gallons are smaller (one pint = 20 ounces in UK and 16 in US) but am unsure about the ounces. And no, I'm not Dutch, I'm British.

 

[ChrisN]

Chris,

What film? I seem to recall that Earl (Trius) used 1:100 for 15-20 minutes with APX100. ...

It's old Ilford 617 - 35mm motion picture film which is supposed to be very similar to HP5 (not HP5 Plus), of dubious age and storage history. 🙂 I rated it at 200, but was shooting it in an old Olympus OM10 that also has a doubtful meter! All in all I was simply rolling the dice to see what would happen! 😀

I have to rescan the roll because something in the scans is crashing my Lightroom catalog, but I actually like the results. Lots of grain!