Need advice: Tri-X and Rodinal development

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

OK, the results are in and they are defenitely too contrasty. Heres what i did:

1:50 Rodinal developer
15ml Ilfostop stopper with 285ml water
60ml Adofix fixer with 240ml water
1 little sprinkle of Adoflo wetting agent

Development: 12 minutes with 2x agitate (gently) every two minutes
Stopper: 1 min, 1 agitation
Fixer: 3 mins, 1 agitation per minute
Washer: several rounds of fresh water at the same temperature (does temp even matter when washing?) until the bubbly from the washer was gone

I would be willing to switch developers but i dont like powder stuff so what developer would you recommend? I liked DDX with HP5 plus btw so i wonder if thats a good combo. Thanks.

You'll probably like DDX. I have not tried it with Tri-X but it gives results in other films similar to Kodak's Tmax Developer, which i have used a lot for Tri-X. It has finer grain than Rodinal.

Do you like the grittier texture that Rodinal gives, but were getting too much contrast? If so, try reducing the developing time. Try 10 minutes. Any developer can give normal contrast IF you don't overdevelop. If you're getting too much contrast, a shorter dev. time will fix it.

If you don't like the grain of Rodinal, try DDX or Tmax Developer, they'll give finer grain.

 

[gdeprest]

400TX and HC110 B

400TX and HC110 B

the published development times for new tri-x and HC-110 B are wrong.
See http://www.covingtoninnovations.com/hc110/, quoted below:

Kodak's published time for the new 400TX film in dilution B is 3 3/4 minutes at 68 F. That is too short to be practical, and I think they have made a serious mistake; it looks to me like the time for dilution A. I think
they used the wrong dilution in their testing for both 400TX and 125PX.
Numerous photographers tell me that the correct time for 400TX is only a few percent shorter than for the old TX. Even Kodak told me the same thing – though they insist that they didn't mix up the dilutions. However, it's generally agreed that Kodak's published time of 7.5 minutes for TX in
dilution B was a bit long. Most photographers recommend about 6 to 7 minutes.

 

[anerjee]

I use Adox Rodinal + tri-x almost exclusively. I arrived at this combination after trying stuff like DD-X, X-tol. I really like the sharpness and tight grain. I never seek minimise grain, else why would you shoot film?

I would say start from the suggestions on the massive dev chart. Then look at Chris Crawford's site - he has suggestions for Rodinal (1+50) and tri-x.

Finally, a couple of points. Firstly, tri-x is at best ISO 250 in Rodinal, which is what I shoot it at. So it is a daylight film, and night stuff is murky and unwholesome.

Secondly, it helps to develop at 18c to improve the grain structure. Suggest you experiment with slightly increased time to compensate.

I have developed film in the past and compared to the lab, they all look terrible.

Grain size and amount was crazy, images lack sharpness and contrast so i wonder, what could i possibly do to improve my developing? How do you develop this combo in order to get good results? I shot the Trix at 400 ISO (135 film).

My Setup:

Patterson tank (2 rolls)
Rodinal developer
Adofix fixer
Adoflo wetting agent
Ilfostop stopper

I hope this is not too vague of a description. Thanks!

 

[Sid836]

Rodinal for Tri-X is not the best option. You will get nice results, but with grain that you might not like. Here are a couple of samples of what one can expect:

Rodinal 1+50

A wrecked point of view.

Notice that although grainy it has a high level of acutance.

Rodinal 1+25 (a bit less acutance, but still very sharp)

 

[andrewnelles]

I'm a fan of Rodinal and Tri-X at 1:50 for 400ISO and 1:100 for pushing all the way out to 3200iso with stand development. Sharp negs with nice tonality. The grain is certainly larger than other developers, so if that's in issue, it's not the developer for you.

I keep other developers around if I want less pronounced grain, D76 is always good to have handy.

But as others have said, I don't might the look of Rodinal grain, it's quite nice. If I want grainless images, I'll shoot medium format or digital.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

Rodinal for Tri-X is not the best option. You will get nice results, but with grain that you might not like. Here are a couple of samples of what one can expect:

Rodinal 1+50

A wrecked point of view.

Notice that although grainy it has a high level of acutance.

Rodinal 1+25 (a bit less acutance, but still very sharp)

I actually like the look that Rodinal gave those photos, especially the one of the round window. The gritty texture and tonality are gorgeous.

 

[papo]

By the way, heres some results

http://imgur.com/a/bPJww

http://imgur.com/faTDWzq

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

By the way, heres some results

http://imgur.com/a/bPJww

http://imgur.com/faTDWzq

Those look great to me. Were they the ones you didn't like that you developed in Rodinal for 12 minutes, or are they from another developer?

 

[papo]

Those look great to me. Were they the ones you didn't like that you developed in Rodinal for 12 minutes, or are they from another developer?

yes these are the ones. the images have too much grittyness and contrast for my taste, i will defo try a different developer.

as for the fixer and stopper, is there something of a general rule of thumb on how to proceed (dilution,agitation etc)?

 

[rolfe]

As a previous poster has mentioned, the published times for Tri-X and HC-110B are wrong. The correct time is almost the same as for the "old" Tri-X, namely 6-7 minutes. Used with these times at box speed, the Tri-X / HC-110 dilution B combo is hard to beat.

 

[MrFujicaman]

The late Patrick Gainer published an article in the Jan/Feb 2002 Photo Techniques on using Rodinal with salt, sodium sulfite and sodium ascorbate (vitamin C).

His tests showed that the Rodinal + Vitamin C gave the best combo of sharpness and grain.

I'm scanning these pages and if you want to see them, PM with your email.

 

[x-ray]

The late Patrick Gainer published an article in the Jan/Feb 2002 Photo Techniques on using Rodinal with salt, sodium sulfite and sodium ascorbate (vitamin C).

His tests showed that the Rodinal + Vitamin C gave the best combo of sharpness and grain.

I'm scanning these pages and if you want to see them, PM with your email.

That was using the old version TX. Around 2006 Kodak dramatically changed TX and it no longer works well with Sulfite. I e tried several times. Rodinal and sodium Sulfite was my standard combination for many years prior to 2006. TX today is only TX in name and is a very different film than what was available pre 2006.

 

[Hari]

Hi,
I use Rodinal and Tri-x lots. I mix Rodinal from scratch,
there's only two or three chemicals. I mixed a liter 4
years ago and still have almost half. I like the grain.
My largest print size is 8x12 inches from 35mm.
Hari