Wayne Suggests Rodinal - I agree.

[The Philos]

Originally Posted by zachary

How so? Diafine lasts for ages. The stuff never goes bad.

Neither does HC-110, hence the reason I have 2 unopened bottles but this thread is about Rodinal and Wayne .

[ronocnikral]

i've had my rodinol just as long as i had my diafine. diafine did not last forever. maybe it was my fault. see my thread about it.

[wclavey]

When we lived in CT, I mixed up a batch of Diafine, 1 gal of each solution. Ever 6-8 months, I would mix up a quart of each solution fresh, put it into the container, and pour enough of the old solution back in (filtering the crap out of it...) to bring me back to a gallon. Solution A goes down anyway because of absorption into the film... but I usually ended up trowing out a bit of Solution B. I did that for 4 years... same solution... and moved it back to Houston. We got here in February... in May or so, I went to "replenish" it and found that it was full of green mold growing in the bottoms of the containers... I think that the higher ambient room temperature just made the mold go crazy... otherwise I would have to agree that Diafine would probably last for ever.

[venchka]

Not unlike sourdough starter.

[zachary]

Originally Posted by wclavey

When we lived in CT, I mixed up a batch of Diafine, 1 gal of each solution. Ever 6-8 months, I would mix up a quart of each solution fresh, put it into the container, and pour enough of the old solution back in (filtering the crap out of it...) to bring me back to a gallon. Solution A goes down anyway because of absorption into the film... but I usually ended up trowing out a bit of Solution B. I did that for 4 years... same solution... and moved it back to Houston. We got here in February... in May or so, I went to "replenish" it and found that it was full of green mold growing in the bottoms of the containers... I think that the higher ambient room temperature just made the mold go crazy... otherwise I would have to agree that Diafine would probably last for ever.

One thing I notice is I get this white crusty stuff around the cap on solution B. Other than that it seems fine. Ive read about some using the same diafine batch for 2 years before it starts to slow.

[venchka]

They make 1 qt. size cans of the powder for "replenishment" duty.
White crusty stuff: Fixer does the same thing.

[zachary]

Originally Posted by venchka

They make 1 qt. size cans of the powder for "replenishment" duty.
White crusty stuff: Fixer does the same thing.

Yes, yes it does. I keep my Fix in mason jars.

[venchka]

Back to Rodinal:
Rodinal was invented over 100 years ago. At the time, negatives were huge. They were slow. They were developed in trays. They agitated gently. They were contact printed. Grain was not an issue.
Fast forward. Negatives are small to tiny. They are fast. They can be agitated continuously. Rodinal doesn't behave well with any of these conditions. Grain can be a problem.
Solution. Slow, fine grain film. Minimal, gentle agitation bordering on no agitation. Grain is good even when you can see it. Rodinal is good.