I' m about to try FP4 in Rodinal. Is it really going to be sharper than say in D-76 1:1 and is it going to be grainer (I make 8 by 10 prints). I used it with Kodak (d76) developer and results were wonderful (sharp and not grainy) Could it be I will get even sharper snapier print with Rodinal? Just want to know your opinions.

Thank you knowledgeable photographers. Sergey.

-- Sergey (roksyserg@aol.com), May 15, 2001

Answers

Dear Sergey,

Rodinal gives sharp negatives due to the so called edge effect. Due to this effect you will see the grain much more sharper than with other developers. If Rodinal will give you better results than other developers I cannot say. It depends what you want and what you like. On our Website:www.agfaphoto.com/magazin/200003_2/index.html you will find an article from a German photo magazine which describes Rodinal and its quality in detail. I hope this information helps you. If you have further questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Kind regards Wolfgang Holz Product Manager Marketing Chemicals

Agfa-Gevaert AG

-- wolfgang holz (wolfgang.holz.wh@germany.agfa.com), May 16, 2001.

Additionally, the reason Rodinal is known as a high acutance developer is that it contains no sulfites and therefore produces no solvent action to reduce grain size. What you get is the inherent grain structure of the film. I have no doubt it will produce a higher acutance than D-76 with most films. Apparent grain will be reduced with D-76, but so will perceived sharpness. Which is not to suggest that D-76 is not a great developer for certain applications.

-- Ed Buffaloe (edb@unblinkingeye.com), May 16, 2001.

generally the grain size depends on the developer dilution. I used to develop FP4 with rodinal pure, to save time (6mins i think) and always get a really bigger grain than when I move to rodinal 1:50, wirh means 3 more minutes...

-- Celcio (non@non.non), May 18, 2001.

You can increase the sharpness and grain using D76 buy simply diluting it 1:3. This will increase the graininess somewhat, but improve sharpness. The reason is that that sodium sulfite in D76 is also diluted so it has less erroding effect on the grain particles; diluting it enhances the edge acutance. Rodinal, which has no sodium sulfite, gives a sharp, though prominent, grain pattern that yields an apparently sharp image. Close examination with a loupe, however, will not show that Rodinal increases resolution at all; in fact, the opposite may be true.

-- Ted Kaufman (writercrmp@aol.com), June 10, 2001.

FP4 in Rodinal is a great combination if you are not trying to create extreme enlargements. You don't say what your film size is, but I get great results with 6x7cm film enlarged to 11x14 inches. It will be sharper than D76, but you may or may not notice any difference.

For bright sunlit scenes, try Rodinal at 1:75 dilution. For less contrasty scenes, try 1:50 or 1:25 dilutions.

-- Michael Feldman (mfeldman@qwest.net), June 11, 2001.