Wanting to graduate from D76 to Rodinol (adox adinol)

[anitasanger]

After many years of using d76 with trixie, I think I want to give rodinol a whirl. I think I would appreciate the added sharpness and defined grain. I've been browsing the forums for various techniques and times with rodinol, but don't know how i would like to proceed.

What specifically is the benefit of doing high dilution, long development times with rodinol when one could do a much shorter amount of time? Is it to save product for economy, or does the extended time product a different effect? And why is this called stand development? Because the tank just stands on the counter?

Any advice with rodinol would be appreciated.

Thanks,

 

[Mablo]

I'm a huge fan of Rodinal and use it whenever I can. Unfortunately, Tri-X is not the most suitable material for Rodinal. You can of course try it but your results will be grainy. My best recipe for Tri-X/Rodinal combo is to expose Tri-X at EI 250. I develop it in Rodinal 1+50 (10ml Rodinal for a 500ml tank) for 13:30 minutes. Initial agitation for 30 seconds and then 3 inserts each 3 minutes. I use this recipe for medium format but 135 is a bit too grainy for me.

What comes to stand development you dilute Rodinal to 1+100 (5ml Rodinal in a 500 ml tank), agitate slowly for one minute and let the tank stand untouched for the rest of the hour. It's not my favourite recipe and I only use it as a last resort. I usually get uneven skies and 'muddy' negs.

If you really want to enjoy Rodinal you might want to use it with some classic 100 or 50 speed film like for example Arista Edu 100 (Foma 100) or Ilford PanF+ 50.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

I've used Rodinal since I was 15 years old, it was the first developer I ever used because my high school photography teacher thought it was the greatest developer ever formulated. I won't go that far, but i do love Rodinal still after all these years. I use it most often with slow films like Tmax 100, Fuji Acros 100, Ilford Pan-F 50 and Ilford FP-4 125. Gorgeous for all of them. Not just the sharpness but the tonality with those films is magnificent.

Tmax 100 in Rodinal 1+50

Tmax 100 in Rodinal 1+50

Fuji Acros in Rodinal 1+50

Fuji Acros in Rodinal 1+50


You ask about Tri-X. Its beautiful in Rodinal 1+50 also. The grain is pronounced but sharp and not intrusive at all. Gives a grittier look than D-76.

Tri-X in Rodinal 1+50

Tri-X in Rodinal 1+50

Ok, here's my tips. the 1+50 dilution works the best. Higher dilutions are a hassle that is not worth the bother, despite all the people online who claim mythical properties for the 1+100 and sometimes even higher dilutions.

To begin with, you'll have problems with capacity. The 1+50 dilution lets you fill a film tank with film, no need to leave blank reels in there. You will DEFINATELY have problems with this in the higher dilutions, i know from experience. Second, with the few films I have tried a 1+100 dilution with, the film when developed to an overall normal contrast had flatter looking white tones. That may not be a problem if you shoot in very harsh sunlight/high contrast scenes though. I still prefer the look of the 1+50 dilution, and I just reduce the dev. time for high contrast light. Third, I had trouble with sometimes getting uneven development with the highly diluted Rodinal. I think the 1+50 gives the best balance of good tonality, even developing, capacity, and developing times that are not horridly long (typically 10-13 minutes for the 1+50, depending on the film).

Check out my tech info page for dev. times and exposure indexes for films I like in Rodinal.

 

[ZorkiKat]

1+50 is the standard dilution- works almost for all. Higher dilutions are very possible and worth doing.

1+100 does REAL wonders. Neither mythical nor assumed. I know because I do 1+50 and 1+100 dilutions, and seen the significant, highly appreciable differences. The high dilution, long development times have some advantages. There is a REAL advantage when it comes to COMPENSATION- taming the highlights and keeping details in the generously lit areas while keeping up with the shadows.

There is also the increase in apparent sharpness. The edge effect is heightened- this is partly where "unsharp mask" in photoshop is patterned after. The high dilutions create local contrasts in adjacent dark and light areas- causing an increase in apparent sharpness. The effect is more dramatic with 1+100 than 1+50. The edge effects are due to local exhaustion of developing agents. Obviously the exhaustion and depletion of developing agent DOES NOT happen as quickly if there is a stronger concentration of developer as in 1+50 than it is at 1+100.

Observation of proper agitation technique largely takes care of uneven development with highly diluted Rodinal.

Here are some photos from negatives developed at 1+100 dilution:

and a detail from the above photo, showing the localised detail:

And the ability to hold details in highlight and shadow (compensation) at 1+100:

This photo was shot at noon, when the exterior was in strong sunlight. Details can still be seen through the windows, owing to the lower maximum densities possible with 1+100 dilution.

 

[anitasanger]

Okay, thank you all for the great advice, tips and stellar examples! You have all yielded some exquisite results with Rodinal. I may try some tri-x pulled down to 200 or so. I've never experimented with a different developer and am looking forward to it.

 

[LeicaM3]

TriX @3200 in Rodinal 1:100 @120minutes

1:50 Acros/APX100/Neopan400 - sweetness

Agree with ZorkiKat that 1:100 allows you to do somethings that I have found hard to replicate with 1:50 as he described.
Above an example of TriX @ 3200.

 

[Bob Michaels]

My belief is that iso 400 films lose about 2/3 stop when developed in Rodinal. So I use an e.i. of 250 and cut back the developing time around 20%.

Film shot at 400 and developed appropriately in Rodinal seems to have a pushed look to me.

The only iso 100 film I shoot is Acros. It seems to work best at 100 when developed in Rodinal to me. I cannot explain why the difference in 400 / 100 speed loss.

As always, YMMV. Everyone has their own quirks.

 

[oftheherd]

Those are some great photos, at both dilutions. I have yet to do 1:50. Obviously I need to do that with 9x12 soon.

 

[tokengirl]

I use Rodinal as follows:

Ilford HP5+ 1:25 for 7 minutes @ 20º C, agitate for first minute, 10 seconds per minute thereafter.

Rollei Retro 80S 1:100 for 60 minutes @ 24º C, agitate for first minute, stand, three inversions at the 30 minute mark.

Fuji Acros 1:50 for 13 minutes @ 20º C, agitate first minute, 10 seconds per minute thereafter.

I am extremely happy with the results with all of these films.

However, my results with Tri-X and any combination of Rodinal have been somewhat disappointing compared to other films. Then again, I have never loved Tri-X as much as HP5+ anyways.

 

[RayPA]

What specifically is the benefit of doing high dilution, long development times with rodinol when one could do a much shorter amount of time? Is it to save product for economy, or does the extended time product a different effect? And why is this called stand development? Because the tank just stands on the counter?

Any advice with rodinol would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Rodinal is a high definition developer, as opposed to a fine grain developer like D76 and other high-sulfite developers, so if you want better acutance, you're headed in the right direction. I'm pretty sure there's a loss of speed with Rodinal (as compared to D-76). You don't necessarily have to give up on D-76. It's pretty flexible stuff. I've not worked with it in a while, but from what I understand diluting it 1:3 and higher (and adjusting volume and time) increases acutance and causes it to act more like a high definition developer (and less like D76 1:1). Not sure what that does to the speed though. 🙂



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[Rhodes]

I use rodinal with agfa films and to develop xp2+.

 

[Rogrund]

Tri-X, Rodinal 1+50, 13 min:

 

[Rogrund]

1981, HP5, Rodinal 1+25, 5 min.