Rodinal and R09... difference?

[VoidoidRamone]

Now that JandC carries my favorite film, APX100, I figured that I finally had a place to buy everything I needed at once. I see a lot of people saying that R09 is 'similar' and 'comparable' to Agfa's Rodinal... but what really is the difference? I know that the R09 is an older formula, but what does that mean? If both of these are truly the same then why do they recommend different dillutions? I'm just wondering all of this, and trying to save some money on shipping if possible. Any help or info would be appreciated. Thanks everyone. -Grant

[garryl]

Warning- this is what happened when this question was asked last on Photo.net.

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-...?msg_id=006fc5

[VoidoidRamone]

Geez! I'm going to hope that APUGers can restrain from something like that. I'm not sure who would have won that fist fight though...? -Grant

[Flotsam]

Looks like Grant is trying to stir up trouble with his inflamatory question.

[WarEaglemtn]

Many of us seldom visit Photo.net any longer. Too many "What is the best" questions... and way too many people who have developed fewer than 3 sheets/rolls of film (or maybe talked to fewer than three people who claim to have done so in a past life) who are experts.

[TPPhotog]

I left there after the threads got too much like photo.soap .... where's that saucer of milk? It's a shame as there are many really helpful people there and Lex is one of the best.

[modafoto]

From another thread:

There are two versions of Rodinal:
- Calbe R09,a.k.a FOMA R09, seems to be the very original formula, my Foma bottle is actually black and I have not opened it.
- Agfa Rodinal, a version from the 1950, slighly different dilutions between 1:25 and 1:100, comes almost colourless, will turn reddish brown and after some years darker brown. I guess the bottle in my kitchen was opened 5 years ago...

In an old issue of Leica Photographie 1950-1960 they compared Rodinal zu MQ and other developers and Rodinal was the only system which enabled the user change contrast with dilution without decrease in film speed or excessive developing times.
Actually 1:100 gives a small increase in film speed, like 60 mins for HP5+ at 800.
If I'm in a hurry I use 1:50.

Rodinal used on 35 mm gives good "sharpness" by the grain structure on a 18*24, grain size will be reasonable on film like FP4+ and fine on TMX and very fine on Efke 25/50 films. If enlarged larger, eg. 12 times one will find actually resolution is not very good as grain size has an influence on resolution of fine details.
(When I did experiments with Brenzcatechine similar results: I had high sharpness at 6 times but at 12 times resolution was rather poor)

[Tobik]

I can confirm difference in colors. I used Orwo R09, but not side-by-side with Rodinal.
One another big difference - RO9 lost its power suddenly without any warning almost over the night (experience with several bottles, but 20-15 yaers ago). Rodinal have changed colour, big amount of hard particles appeared inside of the bottle, but it works still like new.