Even Rodinal can die.

Bloxygen is your friend. Since using it (I'm on my second can) I've saved lots of money on developers going bad. A can of compressed Argon gas, a quick shot of this stuff saves even opened bottles of R09 Spezial from going bad.
 
sepiareverb said:
Bloxygen is your friend. Since using it (I'm on my second can) I've saved lots of money on developers going bad. A can of compressed Argon gas, a quick shot of this stuff saves even opened bottles of R09 Spezial from going bad.
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The air in the bottle is less than 20% O2, nothing will help if the cap breathes, well, I suppose it will help a bit if it is much denser than air and lays on the surface?

Regards, John


ps-
Looks like a reasonably priced product, however I have found paint cans to seal better than bottle caps-- still use Saran wrap with it.
 
helenhill said:
...I recently stopped using Rodinal ...blotchy negs...rodinal seemed To have clumps & particles in the chemical mix
though i think it was the 'new' version of Rodinal

I am Quite Pleased with HC 110
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I'd be interested to hear how you get on with it Helen. I've just decided to move away from Rodinal and try a few other developers. HC110 is top of my list.


Bob.
 
So it happened to me as well. The bottle of AGFA Rodinal was about 5 years old. My TMax 100 souped for 13min came out completely transparent, not even the edge markings. I'm wondering what is the current equivalent to original Rodinal (and yet easily obtainable in Europe)?
 
My bottle is over 3 years old & still going strong. I can shake the bottle & hear something rattling inside. The color is a burnt reddish. I don't know if it helps but all my developers are kept away from sunlight as well as artificial light of any kind.
 
I have looked into my archives and found that the previous roll I developed in the same Rodinal, Fomapan 200 in 120, came out just fine in February this year! I'm wondering what might have gone wrong.
 
Ronald M said:
I have a bottle for test purposes dated 1998. The activity started to fail in 2011.

Stock was decanted from the furnished plastic bottle into a glass one saved from Agfa Viradon toner which is very air tight bottle. The level in the bottle never went below half.

The best bottle was the glass one from 1960 with the rubber stopper top. I used to put a hypo needle thru it and draw up 5 CC much like the doc draws up medicine from his stock. The product was off market for a while because of that type of packaging. I don`t understand why !
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I know this is an old thread and this may be obsolete knowledge. The Agfa rodinal was supposed to contain crystal/solids. Decanting it will cause it to degrade both because of the oxidation you cause by the process and the loss of the crystals.
 
The version made by A&O is what I'm using, and it is 4 years old, half used, with no issues. Its what I developed my HP5 Christmas day photos in.

I'm convinced that instances of totally blank negs with no edge marks are caused by pouring in the fixer first. Even exhausted developers usually give you some faint image.
 
This seems to be a more common problem than I'd thought. I wrote about it here when it happened to me a while back. I managed to get some decent images from these under-developed negs in Silver Efex Pro but I haven't had the courage to try for darkroom prints yet.

No such problem with Diafine. I used five-year old stuff that was still fine!
 
I honestly did not know that my R09 is different from the original Rodinal. All this while I have been under the impression that I was using Rodinal. My current bottle, open for about 5-7 months, have crystallized, producing some sugar like substance. Feels like sugar that has not melted in a cup of Expresso.

Still works fine though.
 
Here is some info. I found:

http://www.adox.de/english/ADOLUX/ADOLUX/ADONAL/ADONAL.html

Hope this helps.

Have used the Foma version and worked fine. Took me about 2 years to use the 250 ml bottle up. But I do have D-76 that I made in July 2012 and it still works well. For powder stuff I mix into either 1 or 2 liter empty soda containers. Plastic doesn't seem to mind and the caps seal real well again and again.
 
I too have switched to HC 110 (H) ... 1:60 actually... easy 600ml mix with a medicine cap measure in 5ml to 20ml (10ml to 590ml for 1 roll 35mm)

I have Rodinal from Freestyle... have a fresh bottle never opened, just over 1 year old, my almost empty other bottle may be bad now.

But, HC 110 (H) gives nice results with a natural grain look
 
The oldest Rodinal I've used is way over 10 years old, it showed little difference from the new stuff when read with a densitometer.
It is black like coke:

134019055.jpg


Couldn't see any difference between either bottle pictured above (from 2006/7), I too wonder if people have no edge markings they might have some sort of contamination.
Test developer by snipping of a small piece of film and dipping it in working strength solution for 15mins if it goes black the developer is OK.

Just for a laugh if you want to see how long it can last: (story in German)
http://kwerfeldein.de/2012/11/15/so-jung-kommen-wir-nie-wieder-zusammen/

So not forever, but less than 10 year old bottles should give you something...
:)
 
Yup! Disaster..
I developed a roll Arista/Tri-X this morning.
Chemicals filtered, temp. adjusted.
Developed a few minutes longer as wanted denser negs.
Transparent, no numbers.
I guess because it really isn't Agfa but Blazinol,
there is a difference.
I have some HC-110. Shall try that..
 
When did it last work? Did you try mixing some more and stick a film leader in it just to see if it'd go dark?

Before I started to use my Calbe R09/Rodinal from 2006 again I sacrificed half a roll of expired Tri-X just to make sure I'd get something (testing both the developer and fix - both that old). I would prefer not to feel the need to do that for every roll, henceforth.. :-/.

The German article on testing 1920s Rodinal was a nice read, btw.
 
http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=117473

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=117473

The usual: the ones having problems are the error.*
The developer used a few weeks ago. It was fine.
Am i experienced with developing?
Well doing my own films since 1960.
Used Rodinal since 1967.
Pro usage, doing many, many of rolls a month!
The more i think about it..
film with pinholes and other problems.Film ain't what it was.
Maybe using Digital has shown us a quicker and far higher quality.
i like the look of film.
i will not up the ante to get less for more.
I get to think it's time to quit.

* same as when i used a Digital M and had a huge failure,
in focus accuracy, with esp. 90mm lens. i was in error!
used Leica since 1954..
Then we hear about "focus drift", individual lens calibration.

The Blazinol less than 2 years old.
 
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AndersG said:
Before I started to use my Calbe R09/Rodinal from 2006 again I sacrificed (...)
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You R09OneShot/FomadonR09/Blazinol/Adonal/CalbeR09 guys being after the man who saw the man who saw the bear who knew the original Rodinal formula just kill me ! :p

On the serious side : at the price of those chemicals, and for developing my precious, I wouldn't hesitate to get and use some new and fresh developer - come on !

Being in 2014 and wanting to use some developer having been opened-up in 2006... :eek:

I sometimes start some wet printing sessions with some so-so Dektol looking rather like some old orange pekoe tea than like some fresh developer, but, worse case, I will waste a sheet of paper if the developer is indeed DOA, and not a roll of negative which, by definition, will be lost forever if developed in some dead stuff... :rolleyes:
 
As long as it still works it seems like a waste not to use it and at the rate I use it it'd last a very long time - if it doesn't go inactive first. Mixing some extra working solution for testing the film leader will be added to my work flow, though.
 
I'm keeping a 2006 bottle and every so often I do a test, process half in new and half in the old. I read the patches on the densitometer.

No difference as yet. Although for anything of worth I use newer bottles, and at my current films per year I use a bottle in that yearly timeframe.
 
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