Thin negs w/Rodinal 1:100

[remegius]

I haven't developed film in quite a while, and decided that I wanted to get back into it with the idea of printing from scanned negs. Anyway, I shot some TriX (35mm) at 400 and developed it in Rodinal 1:100 for 20 minutes. Whoo boy...thin negatives. I'm a little surprised by this, and am wondering if there is a finite shelf life to Rodinal. The Rodinal I'm using has been sitting for about 3 years or so, but I would have thought that in its concentrated form it would be pretty long lasting. I was pretty lax about agitation, only agitating every three minutes, and that might not be enough. Anyhow, I would appreciate any feedback that the group might offer.

 

[GeneW]

Rodinal has good shelf life so I doubt it's weakened. It may be that, given your developing methods, water quality, etc, that Tri-X is an ISO200 film for you. You'll probably need to experiment with a few rolls to get everything fine tuned.

Gene

 

[rich815]

I've used Rodinal much older than that with fine results. Assuming you're sure of your camera's exposure (or your meter's), and your shutter's performance, and you're sure of the proper measuring out of the Rodinal I'm not sure what to suggest. Was there a reason you only agitated every three minutes? Try a roll again but do 1-50 for the charted times and agitate every minute and see what you get (again assuming all is fine and checked with your camera, the meter and the shutter).

 

[feenej]

At 1 to 100 I leave my negs in for one to two hours. Works great. Two hours only if you underexposed to begin with.

 

[charjohncarter]

Did you agitate, sufficiently? Did you measure 1+100 correctly? I've done both wrong, and sat around all day wondering what I did to cause problems. Of course, this assumes that what Rich815 said about the camera and meter have been check out.

 

[drewbarb]

Gene is right- Rodinal lasts a really long time in it's concentrated form, so I doubt that's the problem.

Funnily enough, I just tested this same combo (35mm Tri-X @ 400, Rodinal 1:100, 20 min @ 68F) earlier today, and found it a bit thin, too- and I used much more agitation than you. I agitated for the first 45 seconds (as I always do) then gave three inversions per minute (tedious for a 20 minute bath!). My negs were acceptable, but only just. I'll have to tweak things a bit to improve my results. First, I'll increase the exposure; (try E.I. 250 or so). I might try using a warmer dev bath (70F or 72F) for more activity. Aside from being a bit thin, my negs look pretty flat, so I will probably increase my agitation too. I think I'll go to 5 inversions per minute.

Interestingly, if I wanted to get negs primarily for scanning, I might not change anything- I bet these would scan pretty well. But I prefer to wet print, and the changes I suggest to myself above are to get better negatives for the enlarger. If you are interested, I can scan these and show you what I got.

 

[rogue_designer]

20 minutes doesn't sound long enough for 1:100 rodinal or HC110... I'd start at 30 minutes to 45 minutes for TriX shot normally. Much longer for pushes.

 

[rich815]

At 1 to 100 I leave my negs in for one to two hours. Works great. Two hours only if you underexposed to begin with.

With little to no agitation though, right?

 

[rich815]

20 minutes doesn't sound long enough for 1:100 rodinal or HC110... I'd start at 30 minutes to 45 minutes for TriX shot normally. Much longer for pushes.

No, 20 minutes is a decent starting point for Rodinal 1-100 for Tri-X, assuming normal 1 minute or 30 sec between agitations. It's the starting point recommended at the Massive Development Chart....

 

[thetooth]

i had the same trouble with hc-110 dilution b . i found i had to add a extra 4 1/2 minutes to my development to get the proper negative . if possible make up a couple 12 exposure rolls to test development times .

 

[Zathras]

I haven't developed film in quite a while, and decided that I wanted to get back into it with the idea of printing from scanned negs. Anyway, I shot some TriX (35mm) at 400 and developed it in Rodinal 1:100 for 20 minutes. Whoo boy...thin negatives. I'm a little surprised by this, and am wondering if there is a finite shelf life to Rodinal. The Rodinal I'm using has been sitting for about 3 years or so, but I would have thought that in its concentrated form it would be pretty long lasting. I was pretty lax about agitation, only agitating every three minutes, and that might not be enough. Anyhow, I would appreciate any feedback that the group might offer.

I have found that Rodinal 1:100 works best when you use 500ml of the diluted developer for each roll of film. This means that you need to use a two reel tank to develop one roll of film, or, a four reel tank to develop two rolls of film. In either case, you need to fill the tank completely with chemicals and use empty reels as spacers to keep the reels from sloshing around in the tank. You probably exceeded the the capacity of the the developer at this dilution.

 

[remegius]

No, 20 minutes is a decent starting point for Rodinal 1-100 for Tri-X, assuming normal 1 minute or 30 sec between agitations. It's the starting point recommended at the Massive Development Chart....

Well...I think from what I've read so far that I really did not agitate enough. I believe that the on board light meter on the OM10 is OK (I'm waiting for my IIIC to come back from Youxin, and so am using my wive's camera). I'm also awaiting a Solinette from Jurgen Kreckel. It would be easier to conduct tests with a twelve exposure roll rather than 36 🙂.

What about 1:50? Are there really marked differences between the two dilutions?

Cheers...

 

[cosmonot]

I just developed a roll of old Tmax 100 in rodinal 1:100 tonight. 14 minutes @ ~20 deg C (started at 20.5, and it's cooler than that in my kitchen right now). Agitated for 45 seconds, then 2 inversions every other minute until the timer clicked off. Everything worked fine, and the negatives look to have good density for scanning.

This is with a bottle of rodinal that I purchased in 2002, and has been about half full for the bulk of the time it's been in storage. There's about 20mL left, and some gunk in the bottom of it right now. It still works fine, and I'm going to use every bit of it before I open my new 500mL bottle.

I've read that you need a minimum of 5mL rodinal per roll of 35mm/120, regardless of the dilution you use. So for this I used a 1L tank.

 

[charjohncarter]

1+50 and 1+100; are they different, yes. One, they are not double the time, two, some people say contrast changes.

See this, paragraph 2:

http://www.digitaltruth.com/store/cart/Agfa-Rodinal-500ml-p-929.html

 

[remegius]

See this, paragraph 2:

http://www.digitaltruth.com/store/cart/Agfa-Rodinal-500ml-p-929.html

Yes, and they also put to rest any concerns about the integrity of a three year old bottle of Rodinal.

 

[Mike Richards]

I've read that you need a minimum of 5mL rodinal per roll of 35mm/120, regardless of the dilution you use. So for this I used a 1L tank.

This may well be your problem. If you used 1:100, you need 500 mL or more of solution to ensure the Rodinal is not dissipated on a single 35mm roll. In my case, I've used 1:100, but always 500 mL of solution in a double tank with one roll inside along with an empty reel.

 

[Sisyphus]

I use Rodinal all the time with Tri-x. I process my film, 1:25, for 10 minutes, at 68 degrees. I agitate moderately for the first minute, then 10 seconds at the 30 second marks.

If I were to process the film at 1:100, I would probably process the film for at least 50 minutes with the same agitation as mentioned as above. When you process at 1:100 you need to increase your time for reciprocity effects.

I hope that helps.

 

[remegius]

Rodinal is a speed reducing developer. I've always rated Tri-X at ISO 200 when processing in Rodinal.

Well...piddle...I'm just going to have to start testing. I recall in the old days (and I mean thirty years ago, or so) I use to shoot at 400, but I never developed at 1:100. For some reason I just thought that I'd give that a try. I believe that the highest dilution I've used is 1:50. And I really don't have a problem with grain, so maybe I'll go back and start with a more concentrated dilution. Ultimately I'm going to be developing 6x6 negs.

Cheers...

 

[remegius]

I use Rodinal all the time with Tri-x. I process my film, 1:25, for 10 minutes, at 68 degrees. I agitate moderately for the first minute, then 10 seconds at the 30 second marks.

Sisyphus...do you have any problems with contrast at that 1:25 dilution?

 

[drewbarb]

I'm not fond of the results with 1:25- it's too grainy, and the contrast can be pretty harsh. You really have to be careful with your agitation. I have really liked the results at 1:50- it's a nice balance of Rodinal's characteristics. I've been reading here about others good results from 1:100, which is why I tried it earlier. It does indeed control the grain even more, and I think I can tweak it to find results that will make me happy, but I will also keep using 1:50. I give 14 minutes @ 68F with Tri-X @ 320. Lovely.