In Praise of Rodinal (Part 1)

History 
Rodinal in one form or another has been available to photographers for over a century. Originally produced by Agfa it can now be found in many different guises Adox/Calbe/Foma RO9 all basically now the same developer.
In fact Rodinal has become a bit of a cult developer, some even make their own using Paracetamol


 Rodinal is one of my favourite developers, it is compensating when mixed in larger dilutions like 1:50 or 1:100 this also makes it very economical and to cap that it seems to last forever without going off in its undiluted state.

(although this is only true with undiluted solutions, once diluted I'd personally use the mix within the hour).


While most other developers are useless when they go a dark straw colour, Rodinal remains useable regardless of colour – I have used the stuff when it was black, just take a look at the picture at the top of this article.
I can find no difference in developer activity between new bottles and ones where the solution is the same colour as Cola!

I first used Rodinal in the early 1980's when I worked with a photographer who demonstrated its qualities on a roll of APX developed at 1:50 shot on his 1950's Rolleicord.

At the time I thought he was quite mad as he decanted the tiny amount of black liquid from what looked to be an old brown glass medicine bottle with rubber stopper.
His results were wonderful, with a long range of tones and very sharp, it wasn't long before I had purchased my own bottle (though it came in a plastic bottle)

Rodinal apart from lasting longer than most photographers life spans, also has the advantage of being very economical as it can be used highly diluted 1:50 (1 part concentrate to 50 water) being my favourite; but anywhere between 1:25-1:200 can be used as long as you don't use less than 10ml of concentrate according to Agfa guidelines.
In reality those are pretty conservitive and I use 5ml as my minimum, and this seems to work well as my developer tank needs 500ml for a 120 film so the maths isn't too hard.

Above is the classic combination of APX developed in Rodinal 1:50

Recently the producers of Rodinal have lost the right to the name as a trademark, I have it on good authority that it is produced in the same factory in Germany but is now known as R09 'one shot' the new label seems to state it quite clearly:

Produced as Rodinal for Connect Chemicals (ringed in red) for any that harbour doubts. In  part 2 I'll give some more examples of Rodinal in practical use as well as possibly showing some tests of how it differs from other developers, results from pushing film, and why I feel it makes a good choice for stand development.

© Photo Utopia 2010

Agfapan 100

Athough Agfafilm are no longer trading (Chemical and minilab are) there is still a fair few rolls of this and their other films still available.
The batch I have is dated use by 2011 and is probably the last batch made before the Leverkusen factory shut down.
Agfa APX is a 'conventional' grain structure film with a very long tonal range and fine grain and is I believe one of the best (if you can find it) for portraits or any long tonal range subject.

Unfortuanately this film is becoming harder to find especially in 120, so if you want to try it now is probably your last chance.
It has been one of my standard films for many years and once it has gone it will be sadly missed.
The best thing about this film is its ablity to hold on to highlights and the same time retain good shadow detail, combined with Rodinal at higher dilutions it gives tonal values that are beautiful.


I love this film for its ability to keep shadows and highlights and maintain what seems to be a huge range of tones inbetween.
This helps to give an illusion of an almost three dimensional image, and in my opinion APX is one of the most 'underrated' emulsions of all time.

All images and text ©Mark Antony Smith 2007