The morning of the first full day of my London stay, I took a walk along the South Bank of the Thames. Camera in hand making exposures of things that caught my eye. I used mostly Ilford Delta 400 on this trip. I have just developed the last roll. So now I’m in scanning mode! I have now decided for myself that Rodinal is a good developer, but is not to my taste for faster films, like 400 asa. I’ve also processed a roll of FP4, and will report my finding about that in another post.
The grain is more pronounced with this combination compared to say ID11 or even Ilfosol. It’s not that I’m against grain per say, in fact in some “gritty images” it can add to the atmosphere, but I don’t do much of that type of photography. I prefer smoother images, one of the reasons I try to stay with 100 (ish) asa film.
I walked from Waterloo, east along the South Bank – stopped off for a cake and coffee at Southwark Cathedral. I shot a roll of XP-2 super there, that will be a separate post. Crossed over Tower Bridge, and then back along the North Bank. Give or take a walk of 5 miles, plus a bit of wandering!
Chatter: Canon EOS 30 with 40mm STM. Ilford Delta 400, developed in Rodinal 1+50.
S.H.O.U.T. 
beautiful series, despite the grain
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Hello – and many thanks! I hope that you are staying safe over there and that you, and all those you love are well. My very best wishes – Andy
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Hi Andy ! thank you very much.
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I have used a lot of Rodinal . It has an amazing shelf life, so is always available when you need it – which for an ‘intermittent photographer’ like me is an essential quality, but to be honest I’ve never found it that amazing. It is supposed to be a compensating, high acutance developer, but I never found it to show much compensation or to affect acutance very much. I think years ago it may have worked well with slower, old style emulsions. I found, as you have, it doesn’t seem to do any favours with some of the modern films, especially fast ones… my go to developer at the moment is home mixed PC-TEA, which is said to also have a very long storage life.
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Hello, I’m hoping to dial in on one or two films to know well and the same for developer. My main reason for trying Rodinal, which I’ve never used before, is that long claimed shelf life, and it’s ease of use. I will finish off the bottle, but I’m not sure it will be my final choice! we’ll see! All best wishes Andy
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