Starting developing, is Rodinal a good choice?

Some interesting viewpoints, I actually did not consider DD-X, is shelf life good? Anything it's not suitable for?

No kids around, so I'm not worried about the safety aspect really, just looking for a good all rounder with good shelf life.
 
Yes. Buy Rollei R09 (same stuff) in the softpack for ultimate keeping qualities.

I find Neopan Acros is best at 1:50 and no more grainy than at 1:25. Neopan 400 is not great, even at 1:25; I'd pick a "fine grain" developer for that one like D76 or Rollei D74 (Paterson Aculux is the best for ISO 400 films but only comes in big bottles nowadays).

Generally Rodinal is for ISO 100 or below.
 
thegman said:
Some interesting viewpoints, I actually did not consider DD-X, is shelf life good? Anything it's not suitable for?

No kids around, so I'm not worried about the safety aspect really, just looking for a good all rounder with good shelf life.
Click to expand...

Many months, even in a part-used bottle: 6 at least in my experience, probably 12 or more.

Cheers,

R.
 
Roger Hicks said:
Many months, even in a part-used bottle: 6 at least in my experience, probably 12 or more.

Cheers,

R.
Click to expand...

OK, thanks Roger. I'll have to look for small bottles, I don't see myself using that much, especially as it's winter now, and photo opportunities are dwindling.

Perhaps I'll look at DD-X for fast filmes, Rodinal for the slower stuff.

Cheers

Garry
 
Another good "lazy" and economical developer is Diafine. Though it gives you less freedom (film speeds are kind of fixed), it is very easy to use, rather insensitive to temperature and times, and once you dilute the powders, it's good for years.
Also good for complementing rodinal: Increases film speed in most cases and has lower contrast. (Not for delta 3200 @ 3200 though, but yes for tri-x @ 1600)
 
Rodinal is usually thought of as a developer for slower films. I find it very convenient and reliable. It stores extremely well. HC-110 also stores extremely well if you mix it straight from the concentrate. It's more viscous that Rodinal, so a bit harder to mix, but not that tough. HC-110 _might_ be a better (read, "more conventional") choice for the faster films.

Don't search too hard for a perfect film developer. Most of the stuff on the market is pretty good. You're going to get more dramatic differences in your photos from your choices of where to point the camera, and when to push the button. The differences between film developers are really more of a fine tuning.

Pick something that's reasonably available and convenient for you. It's a good thing if you can use up a package of the stuff before it goes bad. Shoot a lot and be very consistent in how you process your film. Keep good notes and look at how your prints come out with respect to how you expose and develop them. Once you have a good understanding of that, its time to see how another developer compares.
 
Mike is right, any developer in high dilution (which is just needed to increase development time) will work. With stand development (which should be called 'high dilution developers for high contrast scenes'-Sexton) you are increasing development time only so you can exhaust the development in only the highlight or dense areas. This effect is created not by high dilution but low agitation.

It is true that you lose film speed with high dilution with some developers more than others. John Sexton wrote once that with TmaX developer (high dilution) he losses one or a little less stops. While HC-110 (high dilutions) he losses up to two stop in film speed.

The long and the short is: if you developed with high dilution and used normal agitation you would not suppress the highlights.
 
Thanx for this thread. A friend has given me his old developing/printing equipment and I have yet to get started. I wasn't sure what developer I wanted to get started with since it has been so long. Mostly shoot tri-x, delta 400, and hp 400.
 
jamesj said:
Thanx for this thread. A friend has given me his old developing/printing equipment and I have yet to get started. I wasn't sure what developer I wanted to get started with since it has been so long. Mostly shoot tri-x, delta 400, and hp 400.
Click to expand...

Isn't Rodinal aimed at lower speed films?

I used to try different devs just because and kept going back to D76.
 
After years of experimentation looking for the Holy Grail of developers, I have standardized on HC110 for most films and Rodinal for the rest. The results are good and the convenience even better. I always found myself ready to develop a few rolls after a weekend of shooting, only to find that my develper was dead. I tried two bath developers, I went through my mix-it-yourself phase and my D-76 for everything phase, but kept coming back to the two liquid concentrates. Try them, you'll like them!
 
I've been playing with it a lot the past couple of months (primarily because it's a) cheap and b) convenient) and have tried all sorts of stuff through it. And yes, it's technically "best" for slow films and medium format, but I've had some reasonable enough results with push processing Ilford Surveillance, which is a pretty dirty and gritty film generally.



This one was shot at 800 and pushed one stop using my normal Rodinal agitation methods (two verrrrry slow inversions every minute).

But one strange use for it that I really quite like is as a developer for XP2. I shoot it at box speed and stand develop it in 1:100 for an hour, and it comes out thus:







As far as I'm concerned, it's a great way of getting more punch out of otherwise flat lighting; I've started keeping a short roll of home-spooled XP2 in my bag for grey days.

So my recommendation is to grab some. If you're just starting out, it's much easier to work with than powder devs, and it's so cheap that you can afford to play around and experiment. They won't all work, but you might stumble upon something that really suits you.
 
OK, this is a 35mm TriX exposure done with semi-high dilution HC-110h AND with minimal agitation. But the exposure was carefully done with a hand meter and I used a IIIf camera (handheld). No stand or whatever you want to call it. If you want to do high contrast scenes and get an increased tonal range; maybe you ought to go to APUG. It is easy but you have to fully understand what is going to happen with what you call stand. Basically it lowers contrast in high contrast scenes, (but much worse in low contrast scenes):


But here is an example of why you use controlled agitation development:

5919238696_2ea95338fe.jpg
 
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i break all the rules....

I use Rodinal for ISO 100 film and I usually stand develop it at room temperature here in Asia (around 28-30C) for 30mins with mid-point agitation.

here is a good pix: http://retro2.ms11.net/Best-small.jpg

First 2 images are Ilford FP4 souped in Rodinal. Leica M4p with 35 Cron (I think)
Last pix is Kodak Plus-X souped in HC110. Leica CL with Canon 50
 
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This is the same as my experience.

Store Xtol stock in dark brown glass bottles and full bottles last a year no problem. Partially used ones will do 6 months.

Roger Hicks said:
Many months, even in a part-used bottle: 6 at least in my experience, probably 12 or more.

Cheers,

R.
Click to expand...
 
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