Gear:
Ricoh GR1s
Recipe:
Kodak TriX 400
Adox APH 09
1+25
7 min
There are a few developers out there very similar to Rodinal sold under different names.
Some claim to be the exact recipe of the original Rodinal, some claim to be “updated” versions of it.
Agfa Rodinal R09, Agfa Rodinal Special, Adox Adonal, Adox APH 09… there are a lot of choices.
Anyway. I’ve never been a Rodinal user and I’m not too happy at all with my experiments using Adonal and Agfa Rodinal R09. However I got a little bottle of Adox APH 09, a couple of months ago, and I love it.
It’s very cheap, 8 euros for 500 ml and it delivers consistent results.
I like using it at 1+25 or 1+50 on 400 ISO film. The grain is very, very thin, very tight. TriX at 400 is a smooth film, not as much as TMax, but smooth and warm. The APH 09 gives it extra thin grain without losing detail, which I like.
Check out this amazing article about Rodinal written by Jan Caspary for Cooking Film.
Cooking Film 
I like the one on the stairs, looks great. Question, do you print out of darkroom enlarger ?
Thank you Derek.
Not at the moment but I will start in a couple of weeks. I’ve done it in college for 3 years (it was mandatory even for graphic design students like myself) and after that when still single for another 4 or 5 years but a marriage and a son became the priorities so I sold all my analog equipment.
At the moment I’m setting up, with a friend, a small dark room with 4 enlargers and he plan to use them, of course, but also to give simple and free workshops to kids.
I’m planning on posting something about the darkroom process once I start printing some negatives.
At the time I scan my negatives with a Canon 9000F. A cheap 35 and 120mm scanner.
Sometimes I scan the black and white negatives in RGB mode and I keep them that way. It kind of a “digital warm tone” 🙂
That’s why some of my images are a bit “brown”.
In Photoshop I clean my images the best I can, I’m obsessive about dust and hairs, and I make minus brightness and contrast adjustments.
Its glad to hear you are setting it up again. I have my own set up just don’t want to afford any papers lately. Well since you know what you are doing I have decided on a camera. Haha!
So it was a trick question 🙂
A very nice trick question!
Thank you Derek.
Haha it wasn’t a trick question. But your extensive answer did give me clues on your knowledge. That makes me feel confident anything I send you you will enjoy it.
I will have to say thank you again my friend.
If you also like printing check out master Diamantino, a Portuguese working in France for many years. You will not believe the size of the prints he can make. 🙂
It would be very cool having a picture printed on that scale!
https://cookingfilm.wordpress.com/2013/05/31/inspiration-diamantino-quintas/
As a GR1 owner, it’s great to see your results – and I’ll definitely be trying out your recommended developer. Thanks for the inspiration – it’s a great blog, I enjoy your posts very much.
Thank you very much Daniel.
Those are very kind words.
It’s such a brilliant camera isn’t it?
A couple on months ago I had the chance of getting a compact camera again, and again I went for the Hexar AF first but… thank the Gods I also have the Ricoh back. It’s very different from the Hexar. I think the lens is sharper and it has a unique way of rendering high contrast scenes.
I can’t explain it better.
Did you ever consider the digital sister?
great film feeling… one day I will return to film..
Thank you Vincent.
I can clearly see your images captured on film but they are great images despite the medium my friend.
As I wrote yesterday, they are classy, simple and excellent images. You are already doing a great job in black and white photography.