Response to Diagnosing thin negatives

I would use the "hard way" to solve your problem: First determine your actual film speed with your developer. A very workable way to do this is in the Kodak book on advanced B&W photography (but there are also many other sources). In short: You use controlled underexposure to determine film speed. Rodinal generally gives very consistend results. I use Calbe R09, the "classic" Rodinal formula and I never had problems getting repeatable results. Also APX is a very reliable film which works fine with Rodinal. It might be that your speed is still too high. After finding out the "true" film speed for your system (which will also calibrate it according to your shutter, exposure meter etc.) you can determine the developing time by calibrating zone VII according to the paper contrast you want to use. Information again in the afore mentioned Kodak book. It may take some time and a little material, but it is worth the effort. Only with these tests you can be reasonably sure that the system is calibrated.

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