Testing old Rodinal and Azol

[ped]

I have these two bottles of developer. Both are unopened. The Rodinal is from the 80s apparently, and the Azol a fair bit older than that. I believe it’s a Rodinal formulation and used by Herbert Ponting in the ill fated venture to the South Pole with Robert Scott (Herbert’s photographs are breathtaking).

I’m going to try them both out. The Azol is more sediment than fluid but I don’t think the sediment is a problem particularly. There’s plenty in the Rodinal too. I normally use 1:25 dilution in a Rondinax tank (200ml) so if they work then they’ll see me out I’m sure.

I’ll let you know how I get on. I’m shooting HP5+ at the moment (dark and grey here in England) which I’ve always enjoyed in Rodinal so I’ll have a baseline to compare to.

Cheers

 

[johnf04]

Until 2 years ago, I used Rodinal from a bottle I bought in 2005. It worked fine.

 

[santino]

2005 and the 80s are far apart 😉
No matter how your negatives turn out, the bottles look very nice. I‘d keep them.

 

[Dan]

I agree with santino: I'd keep them unopened as curiosities.

 

[Freakscene]

I recently finished a 1987 bottle of Rodinal. The activity changes over time (the precipitate is from the para-aminophenol developing agent Rollei Ortho film - what developer? Rodinal? so as precipitation occurs the developer loses strength) but the p-aminophenol is in such excess in the formula that you can always adjust concentration-time to get good results. No so with brown hydroquinone based developers or clumpy Xtol.

Marty

 

[Coldkennels]

The activity changes over time (the precipitate is from the para-aminophenol developing agent Rollei Ortho film - what developer? Rodinal? so as precipitation occurs the developer loses strength) but the p-aminophenol is in such excess in the formula that you can always adjust concentration-time to get good results.

Can you re-mix the precipitated para-aminophenol back into the solution? I'm pretty sure I've stirred some slightly "chunky" Rodinal once diluted to working strength and managed to dissolve at least some of the precipitate before.

 

[Freakscene]

Can you re-mix the precipitated para-aminophenol back into the solution? I'm pretty sure I've stirred some slightly "chunky" Rodinal once diluted to working strength and managed to dissolve at least some of the precipitate before.

Crush the crystals, then gently heat and stir. You can get it to redissolve. The problem, however, is that the p-aminophenol oxidises readily in the presence of a base and the hydroxide is a strong base. You are better off just working out a time and temperature.