First time developing -questions

[Proteus617]

I've gotten tired of my local lab damaging my negatives, so I let the rolls pile up in my freezer till I couldn't ignore them anymore. I have exposed rolls of everything (both 35 and 120) from PanF+ to Delta3200, a bottle of Rodinal and stainless steel tanks and reels. Research tells me that Rodinal should not be used at high temperatures. It's 80F (27C) in my house, with no AC and getting warmer as the day goes on. Do I mix my chems with 68F water and trust my SS tank to hold the temp close enough for the 10 or 15 min I need? I've also thought of filling my tank (reel in place) with 68F water and taking the temp again at the end of the development interval and averaging.

Thanks in advance,
Matthew

 

[Chris101]

In my experience, rodinal will make your delta 3200 look pretty chunky. I use hc110 for that (and most other) film. I consider rodinal a specialty developer for when I want to hold the highlights in a contrasty situation, and I have shot on slow (100 or less) film.

As far as temperature goes (it gets hot here in the summer too), I chill my developer and some water prior to developing. Once my film is in the tank, I prewash with cold water for a couple minutes. This chills the tank, reel and film to the proper temperature. Then I pour in the chilled developer. Most of my development takes under 10 minutes, so I don't worry about any temperature increase over that time (water has a large heat capacity - it resists changes in temperature well.) If I need to develop for longer, I put the tank in a bowl of cold water during development.

After development, I rinse with chilled water, but from then on, I do not worry about the temperature. As I wash in running tap water, there is nothing I can do about it anyway, except putting a chiller inline with my cold water line. If I am especially worried about it, I turn down my AC while I am developing. I don't need to worry about the cost of that until the next month, and by then I've forgotten about it.

 

[Juan Valdenebro]

Yes, you shouldn't use Rodinal on ultrafast film. I love huge grain, but that film doesn't look great in Rodinal... Get a bottle of Ilford Ilfotec DD-X for your rolls of Delta 3200.

About temperature: No matter the season or home temperature, what I do is controlling my developer temperature by controlling the temperature of the water surrounding my tank: I place my tank in a half full big container with water... Water enough to cover as much tank as the height of the film inside it... When I have my mixed developer and my water both at 18ºC, I pour the developer into the tank, do some inversions and place the tank into the water, and from then on I'll control water's temperature only, by adding every couple of minutes or when necessary a bit of hot water or a bit of ice depending on the season... This is a lot better than trusting temperature won't change too much... I tend to use long development times...

Cheers,

Juan