Variations of Rodinal ?

[Peter_Jones]

Forgive me if this has been asked before, but...

Rodinal, Rodinal Special, R09, Adonal, Studional, Military-formula-Rodinal, etc etc...

Are there any real differences between these ?

Also has anyone noticed any real benefit by adding Borax or sodium ascorbate ?

How about mixing with XTOL or others ?

I use R09 a lot, and would be interested in how its characteristics can be tailored. Correct me if I'm wrong, but am I right in thinking Sodium Ascorbate can reduce grain ? And Borax can help reduce base fogging ? (I might try this with HP5 as I find it develops "rough", like it's been washed in muddy water)

There seems to be info on the web regarding times and amounts with these additives, but people seem a bit cagey about the results.

 

[john_s]

Rodinal Special is Studional and is a totally different developer., more like a general purpose one.

As for the others, I think they're very similar.... perhaps slightly different dilutions are recommended.

 

[M.Hilo]

Base fogging should not happen and I don't think the developer can be the reason. If the fix is exhausted, or too cold, that can easily lead to base fogging.

Here's my story of developing film, maybe you find something . . .

Perhaps your problem is the combination Rodinal and Ilford HP5. It is too long ago to remember exactly, but I stopped using HP5 and switched to Tri-X and then to Tmax 400. It must have been about the grain and probably also about too much contrast.

For 125 asa I always used FP4 and have never (in over 30 years) developped in anything else but Rodinal. Still do. Standard 1 plus 25 dilution at 20 degrees. The only thing I worked on was to get the agitation right: enough for the film to be evenly developed and with a nice contrast. I never experimented with higher temperatures, more dilution or adding stuff to the developper. This means I can print a negative from 1980, or one from today, and the prints looks pretty much the same.

I often print on 16X20 and 20X24, mostly from 135 film and this is where the grain can be beautiful, or not. The higher contrast you need to print (using filters 4 to 5) the larger the grain gets. Besides the contrast this is what I look most at, while testing and chosing the contrast filter.

The strength of Rodinal is in the fact it is always fresh and the same. Before experimenting with this developer, I would first look at which film, how to agitate at which time interval, maybe the developing times, maybe the kind of tanks.

 

[Steve M.]

Rodinal and TriX worked better for me than HP5 too. It's Rodonal, and grain is going to be there in 35mm. Not so visible in the larger formats. I have no experience on the other developer clones of Rodinal (I use the R09 variant), but from what I understand they are all close enough to each other to be seen as the same developer, except for Rodinal Special, as John mentioned. I like the look of Rodinal and Tri-X, and find that exposure makes a big difference in the grain. If I nail that, then it looks really good. Times and temps will make a big difference too. Unlike a lot of people, I use it at 1:25 and like the way that works. You might want to look over at APUG, as there are a lot of threads on Rodinal and tailoring it to your likes.