Rodinal

[dbaecht]

Is there a way to tell if Rodinal has gone bad, other than trying to develop some film. There aren't any storage instructions. I closed up my darkroom four years ago to give digital a fair try, when I closed it I didn't realize that I had two cases of 500ml Rodinal in the cabinet, plus about 1000 sheets of Agfa 16x20 paper. The freezer and refer went out during a lighting storm and I didn't realize it, so I lost all my paper and a 8 cu ft freezer full of old film( panatomic X, tech pan, plus X, and 5 100 sht boxes of APX 100, all in 4x5. Needless to say I will have to find myself a new film to work with(subject for another post). I've sold all my digital crap and going back to what I know.
Dennis

[Jan Pedersen]

Dennis, If your Rodinal is in unopened bottles it will last almost forever. Even in half full bottles it last for years. It will get dark in color but will still work just fine.
I would not discard the film either. Make some test shots before you give it up.
Good luck and welcome back to the dark world.

[Toyon]

Rodinal is good forever, and it is still being made. You may be heartened to know that Agfa Paper is reborn. The Adox website notes that their MCC 111 paper will be ready at the end of the year. They claim the paper is identical to Agfa except that it will be on a whiter base.

[dbaecht]

The biggest mistake I ever made was going over to the other side. Things ahve sure changed in four years. That will make things a little easier, I went through lots of film dev before I found what I felt was a suitable replacement for Microdol, film dev will be one less thing I'll have to relearn for awhile. The freezer and refer have been out for about three years, it just kills me I found two 50 sht boxes of old Oriental Seagull. I opened a box of the Panatomic X in the dark and it felt strange, when I turned the light on it was molded. I'll have to find a film and a paper to use while I test some of this film. I like a whiter base paper so I might give the Adox paper a try.

[Ash]

Youch!

Always check your electrics I guess? I've started to seal all my freezer/cold-store based stuff in plastic bags in case of any form of flooding.

I hope you manage to retrieve some of your ruined stock.

[Richard Wall]

You could always test the Rodinal on a small scrap of film. I used to use the leaders off of 35mm film for this. Mix up a small batch of developer at your preferred dilution. Get your developing time for the developer - film combination from digitaltruth.com then drop the scrap into the developer. The film scrap should develop properly over the prescribed time. This can be done in the daylight as you are only determining the effectiveness of the developer. If the film doesn't darken, the developer is expired. If it does develop, I would expect that the developer is good, but you might want to do more tests on properly exposed film to make sure the developer is at full working strength.

Richard

[Kevin Crisp]

I suggest you do a test on the Rodinal. My experience has been that it does NOT last forever, even in a fridge, even in an unopened bottle. If the stock has gone from the usual dark purple to a coffee brown I'd be particularly concerned about it.

[Jiri Vasina]

Original Agfa Rodinal should last very long, but this does not translate for the derivatives, like Fomadon R09 and the like. These go bad rather quickly, as I have discovered the hard way myself.

The recommendation on testing the developer with some spare piece of film is a very sound one to follow.

[John Kasaian]

I don't believe I'd be inclined to throw away any B&W film or paper thats been stored unrefrigerated for 4 years without testing it first unless the packaging has been damaged. My 2-cents

[Paul Kierstead]

Well, it will cost you very close to nothing to pop a few of those sheets into a back and develop it. Even if it doesn't come out great, I'd retry with new developer. I'd doubt the film has gone south.