Rodinal Alternatives?

[Gregory Gomez]

"I rather doubt there are any secrets left to keep. What we need to know is known."

Thanks for the information about the shelf life.

But I am not so sure what you mean by your last comment. Like, wow, that went right over my head.

[John_4185]

Tim Atherton Neutol WA...?

Call me a skeptic (I've heard worse), but I find it hard to believe there is any special virtue to any developer other than, perhaps staining ones. Is Neutol WA one of them?

Truly, other than the stainers(sic), in all my young life of sixty years, D-76 and Rodinal work very well for all purposes... although I have two gallons of FG7 I'd like to try, but probably won't.

[Gregory Gomez]

The story gets sadder.

I called Keeble & Shuchat, a prominent local photo dealer, about the plight of Agfa. What I was told was this: unless someone buys Agfa, lock, stock, and barrel by December 31, 2005, Agfa plans to close their doors.

So far only a few companies, Kodak is one of them, has shown a interested in buying a portion of Agfa's business, but not all, and that was unacceptable to Agfa.

So unless there is an eleventh-hour solution, we can say good-by to Agfa by the end of the year.

[Gregory Gomez]

Well...

I just called Adolph Gasser, and was told the same story. It seems grim to me. Also Adolph Gasser went on to say that Agfa was unable or unwilling to meet their prior, agreed upon shipment of film and developer to this venerable photo dealer.

[John_4185]

So far only a few companies, Kodak is one of them, has shown a interested in buying a portion of Agfa's business,

Do not take my angst lightly. I don't believe Kodak would buy any film works for any reason except to bury them alive, to kill them, to see them gone from the world. Kodak is out of the analog world except in the 35mm motion picture business, and (quite surprisingly) in the 8mm (first) and 16mm film business, with the later in dire straits already. We are dead in the eyes of Kodak. Let's move on.

[Oren Grad]

I expext that the portion of AgfaPhoto that buyers like Photo-Me, Kodak and Fuji have been sniffing around is their minilab business, not the B&W products.

I'm not sure why AgfaPhoto is insisting on sale of its entire business as a unit if they're resigned to a total liquidation anyway - perhaps that will change as the clock ticks down - but so long as they do, it's hard to envision a plausible scenario under which the B&W film and paper business is rescued.

[Oren Grad]

expext=expect, at least at certain hours of the day... < sigh >

[John_4185]

I'm not sure why AgfaPhoto is insisting on sale of its entire business as a unit if they're resigned to a total liquidation anyway

Germany has some labor issues that might seem peculiar to Americans. Killing a whole division at once might relieve the company of having to deal with plants full of workers under pay with nothing to do. No kidding. Look at Volkswagen where they have production facilities way oversized for their current market so that certain plants are full of workers who have nothing to do but collect paychecks for just showing up and doing nothing. Labor and management have been tightly coupled since shortly after WWII and only complete elimination will empty the plants.

Dunno. Just a thought.

[Wayne]

Rod Inal

1891-2005

RIP

[Jay Lnch]

I tried Photographers Formulary’s version once and did not like it at all. Very flat.....