Rodinal Availability

J

jpa66

Jan as in "Jan and Dean"
Local time
10:00 PM
Joined
Mar 1, 2009
Messages
804
Location
Chicago
View My Gallery
Has Rodinal been discontinued? I recently went to the local ( long-established ) camera shop, and asked for some Rodinal. They said that it was discontinued around two years ago. I went onto Freestyle that same night, and it said that Rodinal was available, and in stock. I ordered some, and it should be arriving at the beginning of next week.

Question for those "in the know":

Is Rodinal no longer made? Or does/do the guy/s at the camera shop not know what they're talking about?

JP
 
You can buy it from Freestyle for sure as you know; so it is being made. In Canada, I buy it from Henry's. It lasts a good long time even after it is opened.
 
As I suspected. You know, I would have gladly paid more money for it by buying it locally than through Freestyle. I love brick and mortar stores ( especially locally-owned ones ) but do tend to get disappointed when you get unreliable or shoddy service.

I used to use Rodinal all of the time way back in my developing days, and am glad that it's still around. Can't wait to try it again now that I'm returning to develop my own stuff.
 
I think it was discontinued for a while in the USA. I just bought some in Italy a few months ago, and the camera shops there were excited to get AGFA films again after the brand was acquired by some other company. Anyway, it's available. Love it!
 
You might take a bottle back to the shop and suggest they stock a few bottles. However, the minimum purchase may be prohibitive for a small store. My local shop stocks a lot of Kodak & Ilford stuff but no Rodinal.

Thus concludes the UCR lesson for today.
 
You could say it was discontinued, but only in the sense that the original manufacturer, Agfa, went out of business. Popular product that it is, it wasn't long before someone else stepped in to supply it. I'm only guessing on this next part, but it may be that the name "Rodinal is still a registered trademark; that might explain the new name. I'll also guess that since it is a very old developer--one of the first--the patent has long since expired, making it legal for anyone to make and sell it, as long as they don't call it Rodinal without permission. JP, Your bottles of Rodinal were apparently labeled as such. I wonder when your bottles of it were made. Maybe some of it is made under license, while other suppliers, not licensed, have to call it something else, like RO9. (???)
 
I believe R09 may be an older formulation, I know Foma has sold it for at least the last 20 years under their name, and I believe I saw it on a website recently with other Foma chemistry and film. I have a few bottles squirreled away.

My understanding was that many of the proprietary formulas were published in the days of the Soviet domination of Eastern Europe. Some of the former Agfa plants produced various products under various names, someone told me ORWO was originally an Agfa plant.

Foma's recommended dilutions were a bit different for R09 from Rodinal, 1:40?

Also, I believe as Rodinal is fairly high in pH, that due to changing regulations, larger bottles had to be shipped using special shipping, so the larger sizes became less common.

Should not matter to a larger store, as they would order enough at one time to offset the shipping, or have it shipped by truck as part of a bigger order.

Did you check B&H's website for Rodinal and R09?

I have never seen R09 sold under Agfa's specific label.

If I have time, I will email my friend Jan in Berlin, he has extensive research on all kinds of developers. He knows the stuff, I am just repeating what I have heard from a variety of sources.

Regards, John
 
Foma also changed for filling up their bottles in the chemical (Agfa) plant in Vaihingen-Enz. So Fomadon R09 (NEW) = Rodinal.
International there is a problem for using the Agfa and Rodinal (brand) name. So the filling up ( by Compard) and distributed by Rollei-Maco they choose the new name R09 one shot "made in Germany" . So only the name changed, not the content. Unfortunately very confusing for most customers. Important to know is what you get in that bottle.
I tested the content of R09 one shot (125ml EU version) versus Rodinal (Agfa Photo, 125ml) on Rollei Retro 100 and I can assure you: Exactly the same results.
Rodinal is yellow-brown while old R09 is black like Coke. Ask for the original because then a high lifetime is guaranteed.

Best regards,

Robert

(Dutch Rollei-Maco & Foma distributor)
 
Last edited:
I think what happened is when Agfa went under most stores were getting their Rodinal and APX etc direct from Agfa distributors, so when Agfa folded they lost their distributor and in the interim until production as picked back up, they thought Agfa products were gone for good, a few months of inavailibility confirmed this for them, and they moved on.

One of the local film stores uptown that I go to when asked about Rodinal told me it was discontinued, and that I'd have to get a photographer's formulary mix or make my own if i wanted some. This is a place that has gotten me Tech Pan (just recently) despite it being discontinued for a long long time. I was told Rodinal was discontinued because as far as they know, it's done.

Also, the Rodinal name is still registered and the actual developer is being made by a&o imaging who then throw the name on the bottle as that's the only way for people to know for sure that it actually is Rodinal. People still won't definitively that Arista Premium is Tri-X, though all the evidence is there, same with R09 and Rodinal.

Edit:
Rodinal has for a long time been manufactured in a chemical plant in Vaihingen-Enz owned originally by Agfa. In November 2005 the plant was sold to a&o Imaging Solutions GmbH in Koblenz, Germany, who continued the production of Rodinal. In 2008 it was sold again to Connect Chemicals (Ratingen, Germany.)
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
Get some RO9, nice black stuff and work out a time for 1:40 1:100 1:200.

Put it into small 1 oz glass bottles when you get it. High dilutions will require maybe 16 oz of developer for 35 mm 36 exp so a larger tank is required.
 
Ronald M said:
High dilutions will require maybe 16 oz of developer for 35 mm 36 exp so a larger tank is required.
Click to expand...

Do you know this emprically or are you just going by Internet "legend"? I routinely process a single roll @ 1:100 in 250ml of solution, and it works well. I can't speak to higher dilutions, so if that is what you meant it could be true.
 
You can't get 'Rodinal' anymore because A&O stopped bottling it and they are the licensee for all the AgfaPhoto chemicals and related trademarks. They still produce it in bulk to sell to distributors who have to handle the bottling themselves. Thus R09 one-shot is the name you'll find it under in the US, in Canada it's Blazinal, etc.
 
mawz said:
You can't get 'Rodinal' anymore because A&O stopped bottling it and they are the licensee for all the AgfaPhoto chemicals and related trademarks. They still produce it in bulk to sell to distributors who have to handle the bottling themselves. Thus R09 one-shot is the name you'll find it under in the US, in Canada it's Blazinal, etc.
Click to expand...


Apparently A&O sold it, although Freestyle's Rodinal stock is from when A&O still owned it last year
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

ChrisPlatt
ISO 400 BW negative film recommendation?
2 3
Replies
47
Views
3K
Erik van Straten
Erik van Straten
O
processing and chemicals
Replies
15
Views
1K
Andrew Sowerby
Andrew Sowerby
I
Questions on using powder developers and replenishers
Replies
15
Views
1K
Freakscene
Freakscene
R
Canon 7 question
Replies
18
Views
1K
former member
F
S
Zorki-4 repair?
Replies
7
Views
673
WoodallP
WoodallP
Back
Top Bottom