What EXACTLY are the benefits of 1:100 Rodinal?

you stole the words from my mouth. exactly the same reason I do 1:100 stand. cheap, easy and relatively idiot-proof (that last is most important for me).
I like it because I'm lazy... if I'm shooting iso 400 for instance... I can meter at anything between 320-1600 depending on the situation and change it up mid roll... and I can develop a roll of 100 and 400 in the same tank... just plop pretty much anything in there, and stand for an hour with one inversion at the halfway mark... easy, simple and looks great.
 
I read this thread with interest and tried my hand at some rodinal 1:100 dilution with some Acros 100 (actually Freestyle Legacy pro 100). The negatives look great, but perhaps a little thin. I developed 500ml of dev + 5ml of rodinal. The water was around 18C. I shook the dev up for the first 10s, and then one inversion at 10 minutes. Total development time was 20 minutes. I haven't printed any of the shots yet, but I'm heading to the darkroom now to check them out.
 
Ok, I just printed the contact sheet and an image from the sheet. Wow, the image is super sharp, and the grain is very well controlled. Not grainy at all. I'll have to get out some XTOL developed negs and compare. The negatives are a bit thin, so either they need a little more development or the film needed more exposure.
 
Thanks guys.. but what about which film? I mean, I normally don't go Rodinal with anything else other than really high ISO Tri-X (6400 and above) or with APX type films (Silvertone, APX, maybe Efke?).

Are people using the high dilution Rodinal with ANY film?

Cheers,
Dave

Yes... I use Rodinal stand dev with almost anything... I love it with Legacy pro 100 and 400 rated all over the board. I love the versatility it gives me. With one body loaded with 100 and another with 400 I can basically shoot like I was using digital, metering from iso 50-3200+ and both rolls get developed in the same tank for the same time...

Some people will say that I'm not producing the best possible negatives with the best possible exposure for each frame by using this kind of compromise... but I really couldn't care, I'd rather get a sub-optimal negative of an image I wouldn't even be able to take if I followed the "rules" of iso and exposure. I do use a baseline iso... 320 for Legacy Pro 400 and box speed for Legacy Pro 100... but I have no problems straying from this if the situation calls for it.

Here's some Rodinal stand stuff at various ISO's:

Legacy Pro 400 @ ~1600



Legacy Pro 400 @ 320


Legacy Pro 100 @ ????


That's the beauty of this dev method... for night shooting I don't even bother metering... I just open wide up... shoot at as slow a shutter speed as I feel I can handhold and snap away.
 
Thanks guys.. but what about which film? I mean, I normally don't go Rodinal with anything else other than really high ISO Tri-X (6400 and above) or with APX type films (Silvertone, APX, maybe Efke?).

Are people using the high dilution Rodinal with ANY film?

Cheers,
Dave


I use Rodinal 1:100 with Trix-X, Plus-X, FP4, HP5, Acros, Agfa APX 400, Efke 100, Foma 100, Foma 200...

So pretty much everything. Acros and Foma 100 come out superb. Tri-X has a very distinct look and glow (exagerated accutance?). The only one that I was not satisfied with was Efke 100: no sharpness, rough fuzzy edges.

All of this is stand and semi-stand. My flickr will show you examples with different films.

I use 1:100 because 500ml lasts forever and as others have said, you can do something else in the meantime. Watch BBC Life for example... :)
 
Yes... I use Rodinal stand dev with almost anything... I love it with Legacy pro 100 and 400 rated all over the board. I love the versatility it gives me. With one body loaded with 100 and another with 400 I can basically shoot like I was using digital, metering from iso 50-3200+ and both rolls get developed in the same tank for the same time...

Some people will say that I'm not producing the best possible negatives with the best possible exposure for each frame by using this kind of compromise... but I really couldn't care, I'd rather get a sub-optimal negative of an image I wouldn't even be able to take if I followed the "rules" of iso and exposure. I do use a baseline iso... 320 for Legacy Pro 400 and box speed for Legacy Pro 100... but I have no problems straying from this if the situation calls for it.

Here's some Rodinal stand stuff at various ISO's:

Legacy Pro 400 @ ~1600



Legacy Pro 400 @ 320


Legacy Pro 100 @ ????


That's the beauty of this dev method... for night shooting I don't even bother metering... I just open wide up... shoot at as slow a shutter speed as I feel I can handhold and snap away.

Your results are great and I love the photo of the dog and the bar. When you use 1+100 do you have to have a certain amount of rodinal like at least 5ml or something? I've tried it in the past but never got great results or nothing near what you're getting. Also there is only one inversion made and thats at the 30 min mark? no inversions when the developer is first poured in? Lastly, does the temperature matter and if so how much do you compensate? I'm just trying to get the details so I can experiment and see if I can get similar results.

Thanks
 
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What I did last night was use 5ml of Rodinal in 500 ml of water at a little less than 20C. I poured the dev in the tank, shook for 5s, and then let it sit for 10. At 10 minutes I gave a single inversion, and then developed for 10 minutes more. The negatives show excellent grain, and are super sharp. They are, however, I think a little underdeveloped. Perhaps another 10 minutes would have done them good!
 
Your results are great and I love the photo of the dog and the bar. When you use 1+100 do you have to have a certain amount of rodinal like at least 5ml or something? I've tried it in the past but never got great results or nothing near what you're getting. Also there is only one inversion made and thats at the 30 min mark? no inversions when the developer is first poured in? Lastly, does the temperature matter and if so how much do you compensate? I'm just trying to get the details so I can experiment and see if I can get similar results.

Thanks


I usually do two rolls at once in a Patterson 2 rolls tank... 700ml water to 7ml Rodinal at about 18C... I do ten SLOW inversions to start (takes about 30sec) and then 3 slow inversions at the half way point. Temperature makes almost no difference to neg density as long as it's between ~17-30C but I use colder water to keep grain down.
 
A big part of getting good results from stand development is proper scanning technique... do NOT try to get good looking shots with the scanners software... I use Epson scan, adjust the levels so that the black and white points are at either extreme of the levels graph to capture the most information and set the black and white points to 0 and 250 respectively... this should give you a fairly flat negative, but you get the full tonal range. I use photoshop to bring back some contrast.
 
I usually do two rolls at once in a Patterson 2 rolls tank... 700ml water to 7ml Rodinal at about 18C... I do ten SLOW inversions to start (takes about 30sec) and then 3 slow inversions at the half way point. Temperature makes almost no difference to neg density as long as it's between ~17-30C but I use colder water to keep grain down.


Thanks, I'm excited to try this out later today on a test roll.
 
I liked it so much I just put 4 more different 100 ISO films in for development. 1500ml water, 15ml of Rodinal. I'm going to do 25 minutes this time, the last negs were a bit thin, although I must say it printed quite well. I'll post a scan of the print later tonight.
 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mnewhook/4515731859/

Scan of an 8x10 grade 3 print. Shot with a CV 21/4 on Neopan Acros 100 developed in Rodinal 1+100 for 20 minutes. This image is slightly more contrasty than the print when I compare side by side on my monitor. The print is unbelievably sharp, and is completely grainless, which interesting for Rodinal which in the past (using 1:25 dilutions) I've found very grainy. The dogs nose especially needs some more burning :)

4515731859_7bcbda7bc0.jpg
 
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Interesting - I obviously have to give the 1:100 dilution a shot - I'm a lot like Dfoo :) I've only ever gone 1:25 only recently trying 1:50 with good results. 1:100 means more time for laundry ;)

Cheers,
Dave
 
I just scanned the same frame with my CS5000. Its actually pretty amazing. There is no visible grain. I then compared it with some TMAX 400 developed in XTOL 1+2. That definitely has visible grain, although it is quite smooth.
 
JB, I'd like to see those full size (the bar shots) - I like what you're talking about - the ability to move into and out of ISO like that within the same roll of film. It's intriguing.

I've never heard of Legacy.

Cheers,
Dave
 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mnewhook/4515731859/

Scan of an 8x10 grade 3 print. Shot with a CV 21/4 on Neopan Acros 100 developed in Rodinal 1+100 for 20 minutes. This image is slightly more contrasty than the print when I compare side by side on my monitor. The print is unbelievably sharp, and is completely grainless, which interesting for Rodinal which in the past (using 1:25 dilutions) I've found very grainy. The dogs nose especially needs some more burning :)

4515731859_7bcbda7bc0.jpg

Beautiful print!

Cheers,

Juan
 
Thanks Juan!

I just sleeved the film I developed earlier today. This time I developed 1 roll of Plus-X, two rolls of ERA 100, and one roll of APX100. I developed this bunch same as last time, except I used 25 minutes instead of 20. 1.5L of water, 15ml of Rodinal. The negatives look great, Nice and contrasty. The Acros, as I said before, was a little thing at 20 minutes. 25 minutes seems just about right!

I don't know about the grain yet, I'll check with a loupe tomorrow and do some contact sheets.
 
...
I've never heard of Legacy.
...

Thats the stuff Freestyle sells. Actually, what I called Acros is really Legacy Pro 100 bulk loaded. What I called Plus-X is actually freestyle premium 100. I really like the Acros, very smooth with beautiful tones. I much prefer it to Plus-X which I find quite harsh.
 
The Acros, as I said before, was a little thin at 20 minutes. 25 minutes seems just about right!

So, clearly you are not doing stand development, even though you are using the 1:100 dilution. I would love to know what your agitation strategy is for these 20/25 minutes times.

Cheers...

Rem
 
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