Rodinal questions.

[steveandthedogs]

Dug out the rodinal a couple of days ago to find a big lump of something in the bottom so I poured off the remaining liquid into a clean bottle. Never had it do that before.

So: 1] what was the lump ?

2] Is the remaining liquid still likely to be usable?

3] Do I just buy a new bottle of the stuff?

The bottle had been kept refrigerated.  However, the same happened to another old bottle which had not been kept cool.

S

[gray1720]

Probably a crystal of some sort. The stuff is legendary for throwing all sorts of sediment and still working (I can vouch for that), just use it.

[John Farrell]

Try adding the lump back to the liquid and dissolve it - warming may help. My rodinal - the original Agfa stuff - is dark coloured but hasn't produced lumps.

[steveandthedogs]

Dec 5, 2023 22:15:58 GMT gray1720 said:

Probably a crystal of some sort. The stuff is legendary for throwing all sorts of sediment and still working (I can vouch for that), just use it.

Not so much a crystal and a big muddy lump.

I did wonder if the cat had crapped in it.

I'll try the liquid though.

S

[steveandthedogs]

Dec 5, 2023 22:47:44 GMT John Farrell said:

Try adding the lump back to the liquid and dissolve it - warming may help. My rodinal - the original Agfa stuff - is dark coloured but hasn't produced lumps.

Too late - it has gone the way of all yuck.

Strange, never had a problem with it before.

S

[John Farrell]

Wonderful stuff, rodinal. I've been using it for nearly 20 years. I use 1:50, for whatever time the Massive Dev Chart suggests for the film I'm using. Here's an example

[steveandthedogs]

I normally use 1:100 and semi-stand, though I recently watched a German youtube testing against caffenol, which I always thought gave better results, his best were Rodinal 1:200. The grain had nearly disappeared.

S

[zx9]

Dec 6, 2023 7:30:54 GMT steveandthedogs said:

I normally use 1:100 and semi-stand, though I recently watched a German youtube testing against caffenol, which I always thought gave better results, his best were Rodinal 1:200. The grain had nearly disappeared.

S

In the past I have used it 1:100 with a hours stand but not at 1:200, I expect for anything other than large format the quantity of Rodinal required would be very small and hard to measure accurately. What time was he using for 1:200?

[steveandthedogs]

Damn, forgot to check and I don't speak German. 60' - 110' stand or semi according to Massive Development Chart.

S

[neilt3]

I find it matures with age .
I've certainly never thrown any away , I just store it in a cupboard in the kitchen . ( not with food , obviously!)
I typically use it at either 1:25 or 1:50 , depending on the film I used and if the images were high contrast or not .