Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1997/01/12
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]This thread has been developing into an 'either/or' sort of thing. Rodinal has many, many virtues, and HC-110 has a few, but they really aren't directly comparable. HC-110 was originally developed as a machine-process replacement for D-76 and many came to love it because it does offer similar developing characteristics with a relatively long shelf-life. Rodinal, on the other hand, is quite unlike either HC-110 or D-76 in the image it produces -- 'grain like golfballs' and absolutely sharp lines dominate a Rodinal image. I use all three and like all three. I will concede that Rodinal tends to oxidize once opened, but it can be had in small bottles, so this isn't that much of a problem. (The old glass bottles, by the way, now long gone, offered much better shelf life.) Rodinal dates from 1893, D-76 from 1926 or so, and HC-110 from the early Postwar years. LEICA PHOTOGRAPHY did an article in 1964 on D-76 and spoke of the 'miraculous' way it had stayed in use for 40 years. Now it's 70 years old! Marc msmall@roanoke.infi.net FAX: +540/343-7315 Cha robh bas fir gun ghras fir!