Previously on Feeling Negative we’ve covered black and white film developing equipment, how to load film on reels, and an overview of [black and white] film developing chemicals. It’s about time we started looking at individual chemicals. Considering Rodinal is the oldest photographic product still available (well, according to the unreferenced wikipedia article of the same name; the point is, the formula is quite old).
In terms of actual usage, Rodinal R09 (the name the formula is now produced under) is perhaps one of the most versatile developers. Virtually indestructible, in can survive for years in a half used bottle and still be used to develop films. While it can be used in a range of dilutions, the one I’m going to address here is the 1:100 or 1+100 dilution.
You may be asking what the difference is between 1:100 and 1+100. Literally 1:100 = 1 in 100, so 99 parts water with one part R09 while 1+100 = 100 parts water plus 1 part R09. A bit pedantic? Yeah. I just thought I’d get it out there early since some people refer to the method I’m going to describe using one or both of those terms interchangeably. Considering the minute amount of developer used I’ve found in practice that precise measurement of the water part isn’t crucial.
Why?
Using such a low quantity of dilution means that the developer needs a lot longer to act. I’ll address actual timing in a minute, but with the increase in time comes a compensation effect. Basically what happens is that the highlights develop first and then the shadows slowly develop detail over the remainder of the time the film stays in the solution. This means that in high contrast scenes this form of development is useful for capturing detail that might otherwise be lost using conventional development methods. Additionally, the grain tends to be lower since there is less agitation.
Perhaps one of the reasons I love this method the most is that if I find a random undeveloped roll (seems to happen quite a lot), or I don’t know the proper speed of a film, it doesn’t quite matter. Using this technique gives me a usable image regardless.
Mixing
In practice it’s best to use at least 500mL of solution. Most reports on the internet suggest that 5mL or R09/Rodinal is required in order for the developer to be active enough to develop any image. So this translates to 495mL water + 5mL R09 to make your one shot developing solution.
Before I knew enough about the proper way to complete this process I used 3mL in 295mL of water for a roll of 35mm film since that was all the liquid required for my Patterson tank. It still worked. Of course now that I know conventional wisdom states that no less than 5mL of R09 should be used. I haven’t been game to try anything less!
A good way to remember the ratio is 1% developer for any amount of liquid over 500mL.
Timing
Variations exist at this point, and if you don’t mind doing some research there are plenty of options. Rather than make this more complicated than it should be, I’ll stick with what I know works.
1. For any film shot at box speed, I use 1:100 dilution. I develop for a total of 60 minutes, inverting the tank quite vigorously for the first minute – it’s ok to be rough here. To little agitation and the developer doesn’t seem to spread evenly enough.
At 30 minutes I do 3 gentle inversions with a few taps on the base to dislodge any possible air bubbles.
At 60 minutes I pour out the developer and stop and fix as normal.
2. When I need to push past box speed (normally from 400 to 800 or even 1600) is still use 1:100 but I increase the time to 90 minutes. I still agitate for the first minute and every 30 minutes thereafter.
3. This one I haven’t tried just yet, but only because I keep forgetting. It looks like if you use a 1:100 dilution and develop for 120 minutes, even 3200 and beyond (from a starting point of 400) isn’t out of the question.
Summing up
When you first start, keep it simple. Pick a film, shoot it at box speed, mix the R09 one shot (single use) solution, agitate for the first minute, then a few inversions at 30 minutes. Stop, fix.
Prepare to be amazed!
June 28th, 2010 at 8:38 am
I’ve never gotten around to trying Rodinal, but only because I’m very satisfied with my Barry’s 2-bath formula.
Seen some amazing results from very long developing times with Rodinal.
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June 28th, 2010 at 10:48 am
I pretty much only use Rodinal now, because it’s so dependable, and lasts forever as you say. The fact that it’s dead cheap is also pretty good.
I once left a roll of Efke Infrared 820 stand developing, and forgot about it, so it was in for over two hours. It looked amazing, so now I always use that combination.
checkout filmdev.org for Rodinal recipes – http://filmdev.org/developer/show/1003
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June 28th, 2010 at 3:50 pm
I’m really enjoying this blog. I’ve been meaning to try Rodinal when my old bottle of HC-110 runs out. Curious if you’ve tried Caffenol? I want to try that too — DIY!
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Tomas Webb Reply:
June 28th, 2010 at 9:45 pm
Certainly have! I’m also working on a video for this process right now.
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June 28th, 2010 at 5:11 pm
I’ll have to try it soon, though it’s fairly difficult to find here. The place I’ve found that sells it online seems to have two kindws, though: Rodinal (renamed to R09) and “Rodinal Special”. Any idea what he second one is?
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Tomas Webb Reply:
June 28th, 2010 at 9:43 pm
I haven’t tried Rodinal Special yet – seems it’s a different type and has different times and so on. Now you’ve reminded me, I may just have to track some down…
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Ade Reply:
July 22nd, 2010 at 1:13 pm
Rodinal Special is what used to be called Studional (or something like that)… It’s designed for rapid development and is unsuited for stand development as it doesn’t remain active for long enough.
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June 28th, 2010 at 11:45 pm
I haven’t been able to find Rodinal near my home either so I”ve stuck with Ilford products which seem readily available (although each time I go to buy them they have a different developer…)
You do read a lot about Rodinal, and the fact that it lasts and is cheap are certainly selling points for me.
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June 29th, 2010 at 1:35 am
good tips! I just went back into the darkroom and ended up with r09 instead of some kodak developer that I used before. pretty pleased with how it handles and with these tips I’ll be sure to try pushing~
but I hear that film is really more like 1600(?) or was that some other film….?
just ordered some delta 3200. might try it at a show and push it just a bit
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jojonas Reply:
June 29th, 2010 at 1:36 am
nuuu~! wanted notification on follow ups but forgot. reply here please if you do
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Tomas Webb Reply:
June 29th, 2010 at 11:30 pm
I’ve used R09 to push HP5+ 400 to 3200 using 1+50 dilution for 18 minutes. I don’t have any results handy, but the grain was extremely tight and (I think) minimised due to my extremely slow inversions. I’d do it again no problem. Some of the shots were portraits too, and the grain didn’t even pose an issue.
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jojonas Reply:
July 5th, 2010 at 9:22 am
glad to hear it. I’ll be sure to handle the film more gently during development when I push.
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June 29th, 2010 at 6:52 am
Hi Tomas, thanks for the write up. I’ve used Rodinal before but only with the MDC times and I wasn’t much impressed (compared with what I get using Kodaks Microdol-X which is a wonderful developer), although i knew it behaves very well as a stand developer I never tried it. But having read your post here I’m going to give it a shot. Would it be safe to asume that we’re talking about developing at 20 degrees Celsius?
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Tomas Webb Reply:
June 29th, 2010 at 11:28 pm
I try to start it off between 18-24C, but it tend to drop a few degrees in this cold weather. It doesn’t seem to affect it.
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Thomas Reply:
June 30th, 2010 at 1:32 am
I tried the process yesterday with a roll of ilford fp5+ pushed one stop to 800. I used chilled water at about 21C for an hour and a half with the every 30min gental inversions.
The negative looked close to 2 stops over exposed with heavy grain. As in Holland at the moment it’s close to 30C and my apartment around 27C I suspect that the mixture just got way to hot over time.
So it seems like the process is more sensitive to higher temperature then to lower, which makes sense as the developer gets very active when it gets that hot.
fyi, thanks!
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Tomas Webb Reply:
June 30th, 2010 at 6:38 am
Yeah the heat probably wouldn’t do it much good! Maybe develop at night when it’s a bit cooler? That’s what I do when it’s hot over here. Or I start at 17C.
June 29th, 2010 at 10:17 pm
You mention extending to 90 minutes if pushing from 400 speed to 800 or even 600. Do you use 90 minutes for either of them, or is 90 minutes for push to 800, and you use a longer time again for 1600?
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Tomas Webb Reply:
June 29th, 2010 at 11:25 pm
90 minutes seems to be enough time for even 1600.
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June 29th, 2010 at 10:42 pm
I have no tolerance for gritty things floating in my chemistry. That’s why I use liquid developers like Rodinal. A couple of things I wanted to mention. Agfa’s brand is still Rodinal, but Agfa is discontinuing the product. The good news is Adox is picking it up in the form of “Adonal”. Nearly identical packaging. There are immitation R09′s and Rodinals, but Rodinal changed the formula some time back, and many of the replicas are the old formula.
Finally, Rodinal Special is a totally different beast. It used to be called Studional, and it develops film at light speed. When I worked for a photojournalist for a wire service in the early 80s, we used HC-110 and Studional for rapid development of films when we needed to get an image on the wire quick. Times were something like 4 minutes, where Rodinal is going to typically be in the 9-14 minute range. Agfa Special produces much finer train than Rodinal, but not quite as sharp.
Jojonas, Rodinal is not a great developer for high speed Delta or Neopan. It will give you grain the size of walnuts.
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jojonas Reply:
July 5th, 2010 at 9:25 am
yikes! well that’s what I’ve got right now but now I’ll be prepared for it atleast. you think using less r09 in the dilution with a longer time for developing might go easier on the film?
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Axel Reply:
July 5th, 2010 at 10:36 am
Modern films can handle a lot of “wet”. Older film emulsions can get damaged by lengthy exposure to liquid. Longer development times will give you longer tonal ranges, but it isn’t really any “easier” on the film.
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jojonas Reply:
July 5th, 2010 at 11:14 am
ah, thank you. it seems I have a lot to learn. I appreciate everyone knowledge here, but I will have to learn by doing too and see what works.
Tomas Webb Reply:
July 5th, 2010 at 5:09 pm
Yes I tend to use a hardener in my fixer when using stand development on older emulsions like Efke KB100.
July 7th, 2010 at 6:24 am
Thanks for the article! My goodness, an hour? 90 minutes? Even I don’t have that amount of patience
I’m new to home developing and so far have only used DDX (like) and Xtol (also like). I’ve stuck with Xtol for several months now, mostly because I’m satisfied, and also I probably don’t know any better. When this batch runs out I’m planning on trying something new. I shoot mostly T-Max400 – is Rodinal a reasonable choice for this film?
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Tomas Webb Reply:
July 7th, 2010 at 3:16 pm
I don’t like pushing Tmax in Rodinal – the contrast tends to be quite high – but it does work ok if you like Tmax to begin with (I don’t
)
I do have some Xtol stashed away somewhere that I need to mix up. Thanks for reminding me!
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July 7th, 2010 at 11:26 pm
I’ve tried D-76 and it was ok, then I bought a bottle of R09 and now I’m not ever gonna go back. It is so simple to use that you can learn a kid to do it. Since I don’t develop much I think it’s a little bit tricky to use D-76.
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Tomas Webb Reply:
July 9th, 2010 at 1:51 am
I find the same thing. There was a time when I shot bulk loads of film and I used stock solutions such as ID-11 back then, but now that I have less time, time sensitive chemicals such as mixed powdered solutions make much less sense in the short term since I never seem to get through them before they die.
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July 14th, 2010 at 3:15 am
I had a go with this process as well. Tried it out in a Vivitar Ultra thin and slim with some Tri-x 400 shot most of the roll in bright daylight. Developed it over the hour. I took the below photo inside, normally this camera wouldn’t get much detail down the lens in such a dark room, but it really brought out the detail.
http://photos.sambern.co.uk/2010/07/14/through-a-glass-darkly/
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July 15th, 2010 at 11:00 am
I’m curious; is it 500 ml (5 + 495) per roll of film or can I develop two rolls at the same time in the same about of liquid? It probably won’t work; not enough developer, but man, that’s a long time to wait for one roll when I have 12 rolls of film exposed from our trip to the Great Smoky Mountains.
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Tomas Webb Reply:
July 15th, 2010 at 3:33 pm
Since each roll of film takes approximately 300mL, I use 600mL of water + 6ml of Rodinal for two rolls of film all the time.
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Brian Auer Reply:
July 16th, 2010 at 12:32 am
Some tanks are a bit smaller in volume… I can usually get away with 250ml per roll of 35mm and 500ml for a roll of 120. But yes, you can develop more than one roll at a time — they make bigger tanks that hold 4 rolls or more (my Jobo tank with 2 extensions can handle 8 rolls of 35mm at once).
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July 23rd, 2010 at 12:39 pm
I agree that stand or semi-stand (some agitation partway through) development with dilute Rodinal produces nice results. One favorite combination of mine is Ilford FP4+ shot at ASA 125 or even 160 and developed in Rodinal 1:100 for an hour, which works fine even without agitation, although I bet the film develops more evenly if you do agitate vigorously at the beginning and briefly halfway through. By agitating more often it is also possible to push Tri-X to ASA 3200 or 6400 with good results, and I have read that some people go higher, though I’ve never tried it myself.
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