Rodinal Replacement Test, ADOX APH09

[canonetc]

Hi All,

I recently purchased some ADOX APH09, which is a replacement for AGFA Rodinal.
I ordered the ADOX from J and C Photo’s website (where it is listed as R09).

I tested the ADOX on ILFORD FP4+ (125ASA), ILFORD HP5+ (400ASA) and FUJI ACROS (100ASA). Due to some warmth here in California, my water temperature was 76 to 78 degrees Fahrenheit. On average, this cut the normal development time by about four (4) minutes.

For example: With one (1) ounce of ADOX plus forty (40) ounces of water (at a temperature of 68 degrees F [20 Celcius]), the normal development time for Ilford FP4+ should be 13 to 14 minutes. With the water temp at 76 F, however, I cut this time to 9 minutes (but 10 minutes might have been better).

Ilford HP5+ was great. To save developer, I processed it with a mixture of three-quarters (¾) ounce of ADOX plus thirty (30) ounces of water at 78 degrees (26 deg. Celcius). A good development time was 6 minutes and 30 seconds, and it gave good results.

For FUJI ACROS 100ASA, I used three-quarters (¾) of an ounce ADOX plus thirty (30) ounces of Water at 78 degrees Fahrenheit, and developed for seven (7) minutes.

Attached are scans of the negs.

The bottle says to start a mixture of one (1) ounce of developer plus forty (40) ounces of water. For a single tank that can hold two reels of 35mm film, I find this is wasteful, because the bottle also says that the mixture is one-use only. So, to save developer and water, below is my breakdown for using less developer and less water, for the same development results:

R09 (in ounces) plus Water (in ounces)
1 + 40
¾ + 30
½ + 20
¼ + 10


All in all, the ADOX APH09 (called R09 on the J&C website) is a FINE replacement for AGFA’s Rodinol. I recommend it to all fellow Rodinal fanatics.

Chris
canonetc

 

[canonetc]

Rodinal Replacement Test, ADOX APH09

And for those curious, attached are the inverts of the negs...Cheers!

Chris
canonetc

 

[Trius]

Why does Rodinal need replacing? It's available. If you want some change in look, times or cost, I suppose... but Rodinal is available.

 

[canonetc]

Daniel, nice shots on your blog. Love the tonality of the images!

Trius, where do you get yours? Since AGFA's demise, been hard to find Rodinal here in Cali....

Cheers,

C.

 

[Trius]

Chris: Freestyle (right next door! ... sorta) lists it at $6.99/4oz, $10.99/17oz.

Before Agfa went under I stocked up with the 4oz bottles as the larger size wasn't in stock at the time. I was pretty sure it wouldn't disappear, but I decided to play it safe.

Earl

 

[Trius]

Yeah, they're all "rodinal", but in my parlance, Rodinal is rodinal as packaged by Agfa or by its successor using the same formula. There are differences in concentration, etc., which can be compensated, and the look is the same once you get your workflow down.

Today I went to the local public market to buy some batards, baguettes, coffee beans, cheese, etc. While having a croissant and Nicaraugan cofee at Java Joe's, I made some interior shots with strong backlighting, with APX 100 loaded in the Oly 35SP. Can't wait to give it a Rodinal 1:100 spa treatment!

Earl

 

[ZorkiKat]

The "09" is after ORWO RO9. Original Rodinal from Wolfen 🙂 ORWO stands for "ORiginal WOlfen" where had been Agfa before, and shortly after WWII. Agfa DDR existed until Agfa West said that they couldn't use the name anymore, as Daniel stated. ORWO got dismembered after the "wall" fell, becoming Calbe among other things. There is still an ORWO which exists in its original factory, still making BW motion picture film.

Then shortly, Agfa too got dismembered....

 

[Trius]

You got that right; plentitude and choice are good! 😀

 

[canonetc]

Rodinal/AGFA

Rodinal/AGFA

Chris: Freestyle (right next door! ... sorta) lists it at $6.99/4oz, $10.99/17oz.

Before Agfa went under I stocked up with the 4oz bottles as the larger size wasn't in stock at the time. I was pretty sure it wouldn't disappear, but I decided to play it safe.

Earl

Yeah, the Freestyle people actually told me they had bought all (or as much as they could) of AGFA's remaining stock once the closure was announced. THis, they said, was 2 truck containers full, being shipped overseas from Germany. But, I probably won't fret over AGFA Rodinal....it;s the paper I will really miss.

For example, in printing the same image on Ilford Variable Contrast, whether RC or Fiber, I have to bump up my contrast filters in the enlarger by 1/2 a stop, say from 3 to 3.5. AGFA was really snappy, with greater contrast (when using AGFA Neutol Plus developer) than Ilford. On the other hand, Ilford paper was much "whiter"; AGFA paper tended to be slightly off-whiite, which made hell when using pure white mattes. Weird but true. Ah well.

I thought your "You win" comment was funny.

Chris
canonetc

 

[rich815]

Yeah, the Freestyle people actually told me they had bought all (or as much as they could) of AGFA's remaining stock once the closure was announced. THis, they said, was 2 truck containers full, being shipped overseas from Germany.

Funny, a couple months ago someone at Freestyle told me it was still made and they are still getting it, nothing about it being remaining stock or anything. It was right after they had listed some available that had sold out in about a week. He told me they had more coming in a few days. Few days later it was again shown as in stock on their site. Right now it shows the 4 oz bottles in stock and the 17 oz bottles sold out but due in on July 10.