[JFN]

I am about to do my first film development this coming weekend, and the only one thing I cant find is how the actual mix of developer and water is done.

I will use Rodinal 1:100 for doing stand development, and just want to know how to handle the mixing. Stirring rod? Agitation of the mix in a bottle? Pouring water in a container with the developer already in it?


Same question goes for the fixer and the wetting agent..


How do you guys normally do?



Thanks!

[blackcloudbrew]

I'm very sure there are a number of opinions on how to do this but...(and I have not used Rodinal). What I do is at the end of the developer time, I put stopper in the film tank for 30 seconds and agitate during that period. Then I remove the stopper and put fixer in for 5.5 minutes. I then rinse the film for 2 minutes in water. At that point I use permawash for two minutes. Then I'll do a final wash for 6 minutes to clear everything. All of those times I usually doing a 5 second agitation every 30 seconds.

Lastly I do a wetting agent bath for 1 minute, I use a product LFM. Then hang the negatives and dry them.

[westmill]

Its been a few years since I used a darkroom lol
Put your correct amount of chemical into a measuring jug and top to the correct level with water and fix with a stirring rod !
I used to use three jugs so they are there ready. Developer,fix and then the stop bath.
I used to use a hose connected to the shower and let it wash for about 5-10 min before adding a wetting agent to finnish off.
Wipe with a simple squeegy an hang upto dry.

[fs999]

At that dilution it is secondary, but to not loose some Rodinal, I pour the developer in the water and mix it with the thermometer...

[redrockcoulee]

With Rodinal I would add the water to the developer and then stir with something appropiate even a stirring rod not used for other chemicals or washes clean. I do not think it matters at all unless you are filling the container to the top in which case you would not want to run the mixed chemcials over and spill it out.

When I mix HC110 I use a very small gradualted cylinder and rinse it out first so that the bottom and sides are wet so the developer pours out easier. If mixing 1:100 you too might want a small one, perhaps 50 ml size for more accurate measurement of Rodinal and add that to the water in the larger cylinder and then top up by filling the smaller one with water and pouring into the larger one until you have the exact right amount. But the order is not important, just do it the same each time so you always remember if you have done it or not

[stevebrot]

The trick with the liquid concentrates is to make the working solution up fresh just before use. For FG-7 or Rodinal a graduated cylinder works well for measuring. I pour directly into the daylight tank. For HC-110, the viscosity is a problem. I find that a syringe normally used for measuring liquid children's medications works well. Ditto for a regular hypodermic syringe without needle...if you can get one


Steve

[Wheatfield]

I haven't done B&W for years, but I used a pipette with HC110 because the amounts needed were so small. I expect the same could be done with Rodinol. I remember it as needing a lot of dilution as well.

[JFN]

Thanks all!!

Looks like all I need to do here is to stir my mix with a plastic stick or a utensil or something.

Perfect!!

[JFN]

Here's the complete process I am going to use tomorrow (stand development, 2 reels at a time):

Pre-soak
1x (600cc water) 20° C

Developer
1x (6cc Rodinal, 600cc water) 20° C

Stop Bath
2x (60cc vinegar, 540cc water) 20° C
1x 600cc water 20° C

Fixer
1x (120cc Fixer, 480cc water) 20° C

Wash
2x 600cc water 20° C
1x 600cc destilled water 20° C

Wetting Agent
1x (1,5cc Wetting Agent, 600cc destilled water) 20° C

Preparations
Load the film in total darkness.
Mix developer and other chemicals


1) Pre-soak (1 minute)
Fill the tank with water and let it sit for a minute, then pour it out.

2) Developer (60 minutes) (Pushed films, increase time)
Pour the diluted developer into the tank, don’t do it slowly, but don’t do it so fast that you cause the tank to overflow. Once you’ve finished pouring, start your timer and put the push-cap on the tank.

Agitate very gently (making sure to completely invert the tank) for one minute, slow inversions, maybe 20 in 60 secs, bang it sharply three times to dislodge bubbles - very important!

DO NOT TOUCH for 59 minutes, a couple minutes extra will not harm anything (the DO NOT TOUCH is very, very important)

3) Stop bath (1-3 minutes)
Fill the tank up and agitate it 5-6 times and dump it out. Repeat twice (3 times in total).

4) Fixer (5-10 minutes)
Pour it in the same way as the developer, agitate it for ten seconds, then again for ten seconds every minute.

5) Wash (5-15 minutes)
After it’s been fixed, the film can be safely exposed to light. Unscrew the top of the tank and set it aside, pull the reels out and take a look at the film to make sure everything went okay, if your film has a slightly purple tint; this is normal. If it looks excessively purple you might need to fix it a bit longer. Otherwise, put the reels back in the tank and you’re ready to wash.

Fill the spiral tank with water and invert it 5 times and drain the water away.
Refill again, invert the tank 10 times and drain the water away.
Refill one last time, now with destilled water, and invert the tank twenty times and drain the water away.

6) Wetting agent (1 minute)
Dump any remaining water out of the tank. Pour the wetting agent into the bottom and then fill with destilled water slowly until the reels are submerged. It may foam a little; if it does, tap the sides of the tank to shake any bubbles off the surface of your film. Leave it for 30 seconds, then pour everything out and take out the reels.

Don’t rinse!

7) Dry (2-8 hours)
Once you are finished rinsing, take the film out, hang it up, and let it dry thoroughly.

Twist the reel apart and lift one half of it off. Carefully pinch one end of the roll (where there’s no exposures) and lift the film off the reel, letting it unfurl.

Don’t let it touch the ground or anything else. Anywhere dry and relatively dust-free will work fine, but I recommended hanging it up in your shower since it’s out of the way.

Once it’s up, leave it for 2 to 8 hours so it has time to dry and harden completely.



For the stiring when mixing the chems, I've found a hard-plastic spatula kind of thing that will work just fine.


Any comments?

[HGMonaro]

Here's my 'method'

- Pour required amount of developer into jug. I generally use XTOL 1:1 so for 1 roll of 120 it's 250ml, then top up to 500ml with tempered water. I have the thermometer (simple glass style) in this mix and will add warm or cold to get the temp close to 20C. If I was using Rodinal I'd measure the required 5ml (for 1:100) using a childrens medicine 'eye dropper'. I give it a bit of a stir with the thermometer but not to much as I had one separate the mercury after stirring too fast once.
- Set my timer to required time.
- Press go.
- Pour in developer and swish around. Wack lid on tank and invert a couple of times. Bang side of tank with hand a few times.
- Invert tank twice every minute
- With 2 minutes to go, invert tank normally then remove lid.
- Stick thermometer in tank and see if it's still 20C. If it's low, decide if I'm going to give it a bit longer. If it's higher, decide real fast if I'm going to reduce the development time. This is a seats of the pants decision based on the temp reading.
- Pour developer out (discard)
- Rinse tank twice with tempered (20C) water
- Pour in fixer. (I make up 1lt and reuse about 20 times)
- Mark my whyteboard to keep track of the number of times the fixer has been used
- Agitate the tank every minute or so
- After 4-5 mins pour fixed back into it's bottle
- Rinse with tempered water
- Open tank and examine negs, looking for any sign the fixer was worn out (look milky). Only do this out of habit.
- Refill tank with tempered water and plug hose in running at a trickle.
- After 10-15mins (I usually go do something else!) empty tank and fill with distilled water
- Add 1-2 drops of wetting agent.
- Stir
- Remove reel and shake excess water off. I do this by flicking of my hand at the sink.
- Unsnap (plastic Paterson style) reel and hang up to dry with a weighted clip on the bottom.

[BigDave]

I've used Rodinal quite a bit and the best method I have found for dilution is to first measure the appropriate amount of developer into a smallish graduated cylinder and then pour this into a measured amount of water, at temperature, then pour some of this mixture back and forth a few times into the small gr. Cylinder and back to both mix and make certain all of the dev concentrate has been obtained. No stirring required!

Rodinal is great stuff and has a great shelf life. Gives great tones too!

regards,