Rodinal - is anyone happy with their results?

[Randy]

So our first assumption is that the Agfa Rodinal is fresh. We cannot presume that is true. There could be degradation caused by storage.

I opened the plastic bottle a year or so ago. No special storage, just in a bedroom with all my other darkroom supplies.

How did you evaluate the grain? By a loupe, by printing in the wet darkroom or by scanning. The point - has anything changed in your process from the last time you recall?

A lot has changed since the last time I used Rodinal, since it has been a good 12+ years. My evaluation was by loupe, though I have not pulled out any negs from years ago to compare - but they would be from a different film anyway.

Has your water changed? Moved? Ph levels make a difference.

Yes, but Just to many variables to narrow down, different water, film, developer could be old, etc, etc.

Have you tried HC-110 with your current methodology?

I have not processed Ultra EDU in HC-110.

[Kevin Crisp]

Neither here nor there, but once when I had time to test things out of curiosity I developed identically exposed Tri-X 4X5 negatives in D76, HC110 and Rodinal 1:50. I then cranked the enlarger up to what would have been a 20x24 print more or less, and exposed each negative to give me a test strip of the grain out of a middle grey area. The Rodinal grain actually wasn't meaningfully worse than the others. Not what I was expecting at all. I was expecting noticeably worse grain. I was using a relatively fast film, after all. The result surprised me.

[Leigh]

Where do you fit the rest of your darkroom equipment?

In the space that would otherwise be taken up by 20 redundant bottles.


- Leigh

[Greg]

Lot of talk about grain without consideration of the light source in the enlarger. Way back when I was printing professionally we had 3 light sources for the Durst: Pinpoint, Condenser, and Diffuse.

Pinpoint for glass plates taken with an Electron Microscope where maximum detail needed to be had.
Condenser for printing Kodalith negatives
Diffusion for everything else, and was my favorite.

Long, long time ago took a darkroom workshop given by George Tice. He was a master of a darkroom printer and remember him talking about how much the light source in the enlarger influences the appearance of grain on the print.

[Sal Santamaura]

...Where do you fit the rest of your darkroom equipment?...

In the space that would otherwise be taken up by 20 redundant bottles...

Whatever make and model it is, your enlarger must be the very definition of 'compact.'

[Leigh]

Whatever make and model it is, your enlarger must be the very definition of 'compact.'

A Beseler 45MX does not fit my definition of "compact".

- Leigh

[angusparker]

I've always heard that Rodinal was really a LF developer because of the grain - that's how I use it. So I'd use it for 4x5 and up but not 120 or 135.

[Leigh]

I've always heard that Rodinal was really a LF developer because of the grain - that's how I use it. So I'd use it for 4x5 and up but not 120 or 135.

As I stated earlier, I've used it for all formats for over 5 decades.

It's meant to be used with slow films (<=100).
If you use it with fast (400+) films you'll probably be disappointed.

- Leigh

[Nukatpiat]

I have those chemicals so I popped out in my driveway and took a shot on Arista Edu Ultra 100 4x5 just at sunset tonight. I developed it in Rodinal 1:50, agitation for first 45 seconds and then every first ten seconds thereafter, 68 degrees F working temp.
Film and R09 are both fresh.
I attached a reduced version of the whole picture and an extract of a scan at 3200 spi. I sharpened heavily in lightroom to help bring out the grain. How does this compare to the grain you are seeing?

[Ron789]

Grain... I love it! To me it's an essential characteristic of analog photography.
Kodak Tri-X 35mm in Rodinal 1+25 or 1+50, normal agitation (= NO stand development) = the best analog B&W photography can bring!