I'm a hugh fan of Rodinal 1 + 100 and Agfa APX 400 (I know grainey but _sharp and tonal and compensating_). I'm traveling and intended to process my negs so as to not avoid the airport X-rays blues. I have 20 rolls to do so today I went out to buy developer...No Rodinal to be found...Rodinal Special but none of my favorite old standby developer. Has anyone used the Special? How does it compare? I see problems as I shot my APX at 250 (standard Rodinal 1+100 ISO). The Special calls for 4.5 minutes @ 1+15 @ 20 degrees when shot @ 400...250 will probably mean what? 3.75? Seems like big problems to me...what should I do? Has anyone really diluted this stuff down to 1 + 50 or so? Or should I just fly in some ordinard Rodinal. Thanks

-- Jim (p645n@hotmail.com), March 11, 2001

Answers

Rodinal and rodinal special are completely different and if you are a rodinal fan, I would not use the rodinal special for these 20 rolls. I am also a rodinal fan but I did not like it with the APX400. A little grain is no problem but that comination was realy too grainy for me (APX400 in rodinal 1+75, 15 minutes).

-- Frederik Boone (frederik.boone@harol.be), March 12, 2001.

I use Rodinal Special regularly to develop Agfapan APX 25 dilution 1+60 20 degree Celsius, 15 minutes. I also use Rodinal Special to develop Technical Pan

Rodinal Special is a fine grain version of Rodinal

-- martin tai (martin.tai@capcanada.com), March 17, 2001.

Rodinal Special is usually hard to find, particularly in USA. It is a better developer than Rodinal. Rodinal even diluted to 1+100 is rather grainy, to reduce the grain, people usually must add small amount of sodium sulphite as grain dissolver. Rodinal Special is Agfa's modified Rodinal, it produced finer grain then Rodinal + sodium sulphite. I use Rodinal Special for development of my Minox 8x11mm BW film ( Agfapan APX 25, Kodak Technical Pan and Ilford Pan F+ ) for enlargement of 25x to 30x. In fact, right at this, I just finish development of a roll of Technical Pan film taken at the ski resort town Whistler in British Colombia last week, the film is still in the fixer. For Techpan, I use 1+80 dilution, 20 degree Celsius, 15 minutes. Grade 2 paper level contrast.

-- martin tai (martin.tai@capcanada.com), March 18, 2001.

Rodinal Special is NOT a Rodinal. When I first time used it, I hastened to check if my front element is not damaged :). If you like D76, you will like it better than Rodinal. I don't - too mushy. No snap. :)

-- Stanislaw B.A. Stawowy (watteau@box43.gnet.pl), May 25, 2001.