>>3859954[Cont.]
Long story short, Rodinal is a very old developing agent, and both film and developer tech/science involved a lot since its introduction.
For developers, there have been 2 "major" generations after Rodinal, with concrete advantages.
The first one is the Phenidone-Hydroquinone family, i.e. most general purpose developers (D-76, ID-11, etc.).
The other major generation much later was the ascorbate developers (Xtol, and some niche ones).
In every "generational" step, the new generation can do everything the old one did -pictorially- better or at least as good, in every aspect, at the same time.
I.e. speed will be better (and also better at pushing), grain will be smaller, and with dilution, also as sharp, at the same time.
So in the end there's no pictorial reason really to choose an older gen developer, unless there's something very particular you like about it. Rodinal for instance has the near infinite shelf life.
>These are both a pain in the ass to mix from powder Mate if you can mix a cup of instant coffee and sugar, you sure can mix any powder developer. It's the same exact principle: heat up some water, pour one sachet in, stir for a bit, pour the other sachet, stir for a bit, done.
>Also, also, if you do use xtol, for the love of rngesus almighty always clip-test your stock solution. Xtol goes off suddenly and doesn't change colour when it does!This used to be an issue with the packaging of some 1L bags, were the bags weren't sealed properly and the powder oxidised before it was even mixed. It was a limited - but real - issue, but Kodak both updated its bags and packaging (including the 5L ones which weren't involved in the complaints), and discontinued the 1L ones.
This happened quite a few years ago and never heard of any complaints, since.
HC-110 is great for convenience and shelf life, and it does that without sacrificing performance like Rodinal. It's the closest thing to a liquid D-76 with Rodinal's shelf life.
