Two Tri-x myths laid to rest.

[John Bragg]

I have always had faith in Rodinal as a good all round developer but it has been (especially with Tri-X) never renowned as a fine grain developer. The other thing that is touted about Tri-X in Rodinal is that it is difficult to scan. For the last six years or so I have developed films in Rodinal with reduced agitation and when I bought a Plustek scanner i applied the same technique and the negs stank. Mealy grain in the skin tones is not attractive. I decided to go against the recieved wisdom on this matter and develop longer. 20 minutes instead of 15. Bingo !! It all fell into place..... smooth mid tones and fine grain from Tri-X in Rodinal from a scanner.

 

[Lauffray]

20min @400 EI ?

 

[stratcat]

Interesting. I have just bought a couple bottles of Rodinal. Could you share more details about the temperature and the Rodinal dilution you used?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Speedfreak]

And that you consider nice? I am just asking. Looks like a grainy picture to me. Nothing special.

 

[John Bragg]

Ei 200 at 1:50 dilution and develop for 20 mins at 20c with 15 seconds initial agitation and 2 more inversions at each 5 minute interval.

 

[John Bragg]

Hi Speedfreak.
It looks good to me on my monitor. As a wise man once said, "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so get it out with optrex" (Spike Milligan) . Seriously though, I like some grain and I think this is what I personally aim for. Smooth regular grain and Tri-X tonality.

 

[Lauffray]

And that you consider nice? I am just asking. Looks like a grainy picture to me. Nothing special.

To each his own, I quite like that look and have been trying to achieve it for a while too

 

[charjohncarter]

I don't know about scanning, to me it is a black art. It requires practice, practice, and practice. But you can improve your technique which is still a little elusive to me. As John says though, it you don't blender agitate and are reasonably careful at the scanner you can get some Rodinal and TriX negatives.

 

[Fred R.]

At what dilution?

 

[John Bragg]

Thanks John. I am getting a grip on the scanning gradually. This is a negative from my Mju-II .

 

[John Bragg]

Hi Fred. 1:50 dilution.

 

[Bingley]

Ei 200 and develop for 20 mins at 20c with 15 seconds initial agitation and 2 more inversions at each 5 minute interval.

Nice results. I'm going to try this. Thanks.

 

[Moriturii]

12 posts in, I can sum up this thread now, and for every post after:

"MY TASTE IS BETTER THAN YOURS HURRRR"

My own opinion, I think that picture is fantastic. Tonality, grain, sharpness etc, I love it.

/thread

 

[starless]

I personally wouldn't worry about developing Tri-x in most developers, as long as exposure and dev. time are OK.

 

[Vincent.G]

Not bad! Where can I get some Rodinal?

 

[John Bragg]

Hi Moriturii
I had hoped that this thread wasn't one of those but thanks for the kind words and humour.

 

[John Bragg]

Hi Vincent.
In the uk it is easily available but now called Rollei R09. I got mine from Silverprint.

 

[muser53]

This looks good on my monitor---thanks for sharing. I'll have to run a few test rolls myself.