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Thread: Sell me on Rodinal

  1. #1

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    Apr 2015
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    Sell me on Rodinal

    I have never even considered Rodinal due to the fact that I was told it accentuated the grain. This was back when I was shooting and enlarging smaller formats. I hate grain, which is why I moved up in size. When I did move into contactable sized negs I never even thought about it. Reading posts here about X-ray film there seem to be a bunch of folks using Rodinal. I was just about to pull the trigger on some Pyrocat-hd, when I decided maybe I should see what this Rodinal thing is all about.

    So here is what I will be doing:
    • 8x10 negs
    • tank and rack development
    • aiming to get negs suitable for carbon printing


    This X-ray film world is a new adventure for me as is the carbon printing.

    So, why are you using Rodinal?

  2. #2
    Tin Can's Avatar
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    Re: Sell me on Rodinal

    Because it's cheaper, easier to use than others, very concentrated, I'm now using it at 1/150, lasts forever even in an open bottle and I like grain.


    Plus some very wise people told me to use one developer until I get somewhere with all my other LF 'tissues.
    Tin Can

  3. #3
    Jac@stafford.net's Avatar
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    Re: Sell me on Rodinal

    Rodinal is grainy, but it is sharp grain. There's no mushiness of partially dissolved clusters.

  4. #4

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    Re: Sell me on Rodinal

    What Jac is trying to say is Rodinal is not a 'solvent' developer. Solvent developers are finer-grained because they cause developed silver crystals to dissolve/diffuse into the surrounding emulsion. But the trade-off is loss of acutance or microcontrast. IMHO, solvent developers are fine and probably desired for things like portraits but for images in which you want to retain lots of textural detail, non-solvent developers (like Rodinal) are preferred. The trade-off is sharply defined grain. However, in small enlargements and contact prints, this is not any concern at all.

  5. #5

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    Re: Sell me on Rodinal

    is the grain that obvious in contact prints?

  6. #6

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    Re: Sell me on Rodinal

    No...

  7. #7

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    Jun 2014
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    Re: Sell me on Rodinal

    Rodinal grain is absolutely completely invisible in contact prints. I contact print a lot (although no carbon from silver negatives yet) and I use rodinal for most of my film development. I have shot a lot of tmx lately and even when enlarging 35mm to 8x10, the grain remains invisible with rodinal.

    Did anyone mention yet that the concentrate keeps for years even in a partially filled bottle? Oh yeah, it's dirt cheap as well. It's by far the most economic and versatile developer I have used for films up to 100asa. It also does well with tmy.

  8. #8
    IanG's Avatar
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    Re: Sell me on Rodinal

    Rodinal gives very fine grain when used properly, and is at its best with T-grain (and similar) films. I used Rodinal for nearly 20 years 35m through to 10x8 and only stopped when I switched to Pyrocat HD, never had grain issues, grain was finer than ID-11/D76 and similar to Xtol.

    Ian

  9. #9

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    Re: Sell me on Rodinal

    You can "cut" Rodinal with XTOL - http://unblinkingeye.com/Articles/Rodinal/rodinal.html Mainly used it uncut for stand process - timing being making a cup of coffee and two episodes of NCIS - a square crop losing about 15-21mm off the short edge, blown up to 600mmx600mm gives some grain when viewed from about 6". . . (5x4 FP4)

  10. #10

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    Nov 2009
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    London, UK
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    Re: Sell me on Rodinal

    They say two things will outlast anything else on the planet - cockroaches and Rodinal.

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