Rodinal Sediment ?

G

George Bonanno

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Today my x-girlfriend gave me an old unopened brown glass bottle of Rodinal in the original box and a roll of Ilford HP5 with an expiration date of 1990. Her father might have bought the Rodinal during the late 70's - early 80's. We're both good at math so we figured the Rodinal is about 25 + years old. Anyway, this morning I also received a FED 50/3.5 lens from fedka.com for my Leica IIIf with a pinhole laden shutter. The lens looks and feels great so I screwed it on the camera, loaded the expired HP5 and took nude pictures of her. Now that I'm all set up to develop the film the Rodinal has about 1/2 inch of sediment. I've been shaking the bottle for a minute or so every half hour and the sediment doesn't seem to be dissolving. From what I've just read on Rodinal it seems to last forever but nothing about sediment and how to deal with it. Do I filter it, ignore it, or try to desolve it ??? The pictures are not important but I would like to try to get the most out of this just for fun.

TIA,
George

rodinal_sediment.jpg
 
Let me put it to you this way: The images below are from today's shooting, Here we go:

APX100, green filter (2 stop), ancient Rodinal at 1:25 for 8 minutes


 
The sediment is or could be normal. When you home brew your own rodinal sufficient preservative is added so that some insoluble amount remains. This is the reason why the rodinal should still be ok even in a pertly used bottle after 25 years. Mine is 25 + years old, partly full bottle, still good.

Let the residue settle pour off the clear liquid only, the liquid should look like tea without milk. I dont know what you should do when you only have sediment left - another few months of liquid left in my bottle.

Noel
 
Thanks guys for the replies. I'm going to use the Rodinal as you all suggested. Since my tank holds two reels I'll shoot another roll this weekend with my newly acquired FED 50/3.5 and develop them this coming week. I'll post the results here.

Noel... I tried shining a very bright white LED light in the darkroom into the bottom of the IIIf and I could not see the pinholes on either shutter curtain. It seems like I'm forced to have the camera repaired professionally at great cost. Anyway, now I have to find a reputable repair facility here in the states.

...George

Any suggestions out there in SM Leica land ?

 
OT Shutter pin-holes

OT Shutter pin-holes

George Bonanno said:
Noel... I tried shining a very bright white LED light in the darkroom into the bottom of the IIIf and I could not see the pinholes on either shutter curtain. It seems like I'm forced to have the camera repaired professionally at great cost. Anyway, now I have to find a reputable repair facility here in the states.

...George
Click to expand...



You won't be able to see, or assess the condition of you shutter that way.
You'd have to take the shutter crate/camera body from the shell, and hold it against the light. You should be able to see the state of the blinds clearly this way.
 
I know that I had a FED3 shipped to me that looked light-tight at first test. I used a flashlight, popped the back off, pulled the lens, and shone the light in. Took it out for a spin, dev'd the roll, and I'll be damned if it wasn't fogged.

I pulled the lens again, removed the back, stuck a mini-mag in the nose of the body and THEN I wound the camera on, slowly watching the ribbons move across their route - AHA! There it was! Got out my Tulip fabric paint and did my repair. Fixed it fine.

Try lighting the shutter while winding on and see if you find your problem. Worked on the FED. Not sure if you can do the same with your camera. Ask around.

C.
 
hither said:
I know that I had a FED3 shipped to me that looked light-tight at first test. I used a flashlight, popped the back off, pulled the lens, and shone the light in. Took it out for a spin, dev'd the roll, and I'll be damned if it wasn't fogged.

I pulled the lens again, removed the back, stuck a mini-mag in the nose of the body and THEN I wound the camera on, slowly watching the ribbons move across their route - AHA! There it was! Got out my Tulip fabric paint and did my repair. Fixed it fine.

Try lighting the shutter while winding on and see if you find your problem. Worked on the FED. Not sure if you can do the same with your camera. Ask around.

C.
Click to expand...

Won't be as easy with the George's Leica IIIf. Its a bottom loader and its shutter cannot be seen from the back. It has no back door, unlike the FED-3 whose back slides off.

Patching with paint will only work if the pinholes are small. George's sample pics showed that his camera's shutter not only has pinholes, but cracks as well. According to him the cracks can be seen from the front. Cracking and flaking of the vulcanised shutter coating mean serious deterioration. Replacement is the only viable solution, since patching a cracking shutter is at best a temporary solution.

Too much patching won't do good either. The paint patches can make the blinds heavier (a serious issue with some IIIf and later Leicas). The extra weight can affect the shutter's performance. :)

Jay
 
Last edited:
Jay

I hope I told George that the paint patches were bodges and temporary. A new shutter is expensive this side of pond.

Noel
 
I'm sure the members would be happy to help you once they had a chance to review the shots of your girlfriend.......just so they had a clear idea of what the problem might be, of course.
 
Here's two pics of Lin the X taken with the IIIf and FED 50/3.5 wide open @ 1/15 sec. The expired 1990 HP5 was developed in the old Rodinal 1:31 for 7min @ 70º. The negs are very thin and kind of fogged... scanned on an old Epson flatbed. Funny thing... the pinholes don't show up on indoor shots. I hung the negs to dry in the garage. I might have a dust issue... maybe.

lin_10b.jpg


lin_3a.jpg


Since Sherry Krauter and Don Goldberg don't answer or return numerous calls it seems Essex Camera is going to get the IIIf for repair. If it's done properly I'm gonna be taking some kickass pics. I got some hoods too... look out Les Krims !
 
George

Sorry I should have warned you to give 1 stop more exposure, film speed is really when the sensitivity curve climbs over the base fog level and 17 year old film will have detectable fog even in rodinal.

The shutter holes are microscopic (like f/256 pin hole camera), you can see them because they have the time between your shots as the exposure time, unless you capped the lens immediately.

That is why the rubberised paint works, it only needs the holes spotted like a bromide white spot, you could try painiting all the big cracks, on the trailing blind, letting it sit for 24 hours to cure and then always winding on immediately after exposing.

Photos look good

Noel
 
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