Hi All, I am having some difficulties in finding Agfa (Rodinal) Developer in my country and also it is not being shiped from USA, as the chemical is hazardous, but i can get all Kodak developers in my country, could any one tell me which is equivlent to Agfa's Rodinal Developer in Kodak.

Regards to All

-- Sajjad (afaq_2001@yahoo.com), June 29, 2001

Answers

There ain't one. Rodinal is unique.
The formulation is basically a Paraminophenol developing agent coupled with a Potassium Hydroxide activator. It's the Potassium Hydroxide that's hazardous, and Rodinal concentrate is extremely caustic. Try getting it shipped direct from Agfa in Europe.

-- Pete Andrews (p.l.andrews@bham.ac.uk), June 29, 2001.

Greetings,

As Pete stated, Rodinal is a unique developer and you might have better luck acquiring it through European sources. Calumet has offices in the UK and perhaps they can ship it (calumetphoto.com.) If you're looking for an alternative to Rodinal in a Kodak formulation, try HC-100. It is in no way like Rodinal, but the results on film "could" be similar. There will be no similarity in dilutions. The Darkroom Cookbook, by Anchell & Troop list a formula for a Rodinal "type" developer, but the actual formulation is proprietary.

Regards,

-- Pete Caluori (pcaluori@hotmail.com), June 29, 2001.

You could ty mixing up traditional Rodinal. Solution A: take 750 ml water at about 52C, add 100gms of p-aminophenol hydrochloride, 300 gms of potassium metabisulfite and add water to make 1 litre. Solution B: Take 300 ml of COLD water, add 200 gms of Potassium hydroxide and cold water to make 400ml. Potassium hydroxide gives off a lot of heat when going into solution - the water could start boiling and splattering. Always add the hydroxide to water (and never water to hydroxide). Use extreme caution.

When solution A cools, it will form a precipitate. Place Solution A in an iced water bath and with continuous mixing, add 280 ml of solution B until a sudden darkening in colour takes place. Continue adding B drop by drop till most of the precipitate has dissolved.

Good luck, DJ.

-- N Dhananjay (ndhanu@umich.edu), June 29, 2001.

Rodinal is not particularly hazardous, but it appears that some retailers like B&H Photo are not shipping any liquid chemicals, even within the USA. This is because the shipping companies are now enforcing laws that were not enforced previously. Often times, the laws deal only with labeling and reporting requirements, but their current computer systems can’t handle it.

-- Michael Feldman (mfeldman@qwest.net), June 29, 2001.

Is it true that Rodinal is the secret recipe Agfa 9? If I remember it correctly, Agfa 10 is of the same type.

-- Patric (jenspatric@mail.bip.net), June 29, 2001.

Hello Patric,

I do not think current Rodinal is the original Nr.9. The original 9 is still sold as Calbe R09 or Foma R09, dilutions are different and times. I have a bottle of Foma R09 for my collection, as I still have enough Agfa Rodinal.

Regards,

-- Wolfram Kollig (kollig@ipfdd.de), July 02, 2001.