Rodinal: Safety, Handling, Disposal — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:01hello alex here and today we're going to
2. 0:03talk about road null and what you need
3. 0:05to know in terms of safety handling and
4. 0:08disposal
5. 0:10before we go any further i want to thank
6. 0:12the photoshop.ie who have sponsored this
7. 0:14video and this video series
8. 0:17more about that later
9. 0:18but for now
10. 0:20let's get into it
11. 0:27first a mandatory legal disclaimer and a
12. 0:29brief overview of the format of this
13. 0:30video
14. 0:32this video is purely for educational
15. 0:33purposes and does not constitute legal
16. 0:35or official advice or recommendations
17. 0:37and cannot supersede or overrule your
18. 0:40local laws and regulations if you have
19. 0:42any questions or concerns consult your
20. 0:44local council city or other relevant
21. 0:47board
22. 0:48although they are my educated opinions
23. 0:50they are my opinions and do not
24. 0:52constitute official advice or
25. 0:54recommendations on behalf of the
26. 0:55photoshop
27. 0:57in terms of video format i am still
28. 0:59working things out but tentatively we're
29. 1:01gonna go over road in all its history
30. 1:03it's typical use cases and then talk
31. 1:06about its safety handling disposal and
32. 1:08importantly cost and in each category i
33. 1:11will give the developer a rating out of
34. 1:13three three being the best zero being
35. 1:16the worst
36. 1:17then at the end we'll tally up these
37. 1:19scores and give rodenal an overall score
38. 1:22out of 12.
39. 1:23over time we'll build up a sort of mini
40. 1:25database with different developers
41. 1:27fixers and other chemicals and my
42. 1:29personal rankings thereof and you can
43. 1:31see how they relate to and compared to
44. 1:33each other
45. 1:38rodenal is a concentrated black and
46. 1:40white film developer first introduced by
47. 1:42akfa back in 1892
48. 1:44not 1982 that's 1892
49. 1:47130 years ago rodenal is one of the
50. 1:51oldest film developer formulations in
51. 1:53existence
52. 1:54currently it exists under many many
53. 1:57names such as rhodanol
54. 1:59certainol blazenal adenal and r09 also
55. 2:04called r09 which is what i have here
56. 2:07everybody uses the word road now to
57. 2:08refer to all of these developers it's
58. 2:11basically just a trademark thing sort of
59. 2:13like the word velcro
60. 2:15section three of the sds will describe
61. 2:17the chemical composition of rhodanol
62. 2:19however it does actually leave out one
63. 2:21of the key ingredients which i find very
64. 2:23strange
65. 2:24the primary developer or reducing agent
66. 2:27in rotanol is four amino phenol also
67. 2:30called p aminophenol or para aminophenol
68. 2:33this is what reduces your silver halide
69. 2:36salts onto the growing silver crystal to
70. 2:38actually develop your silver during the
71. 2:40development process
72. 2:42the other main ingredient is potassium
73. 2:44hydroxide which is used to keep for
74. 2:46amino phenol which is slightly acidic in
75. 2:48its alkali salt form specifically a
76. 2:50potassium salt in this case
77. 2:52you can see that even in the
78. 2:54concentrated stock solution these are
79. 2:57both present in less than five percent
80. 3:00weight per volume in the final solution
81. 3:02which is kind of crazy to think that
82. 3:04it's so dilute when you dilute it down
83. 3:06to your usable 125 or 150 development
84. 3:10solution
85. 3:11it's it's crazy just how powerful this
86. 3:13is as a stock solution the third
87. 3:15ingredient which is not listed here
88. 3:16whatsoever is sodium sulfide or
89. 3:19metabisulfite which reacts with
90. 3:21potassium hydroxide to yield sodium
91. 3:23sulfide in solution
92. 3:25this effectively acts as a preservative
93. 3:27limiting oxidation of the four amino
94. 3:29phenol over time by atmospheric oxygen
95. 3:32either in the air in general or in the
96. 3:34headspace of your bottle after you've
97. 3:35cracked it open this is the main factor
98. 3:38in rodanol having such a ridiculously
99. 3:39long shelf life and it's weird that it's
100. 3:42not described here however we can see in
101. 3:44section 5 of the sds that sulfur dioxide
102. 3:47is one of the potential hazards that can
103. 3:50arise upon combustion of rhodonal which
104. 3:53okay is very unlikely because it's an
105. 3:55aqueous solution but that's not the
106. 3:56point this is the only mention of there
107. 3:59being a sulfurous compound in this
108. 4:01mixture and that would be the sulfite or
109. 4:03metabisulfite
110. 4:05and yet it's not listed in the actual
111. 4:07chemical composition
112. 4:09strange maybe not unprecedented but uh i
113. 4:13would say highly inappropriate because
114. 4:15the sodium sulfide is typically in
115. 4:17solution in a 30 to 40
116. 4:20concentration which is
117. 4:22eight to 20 times as much as the four
118. 4:24amino phenol and potassium hydroxide
119. 4:26themselves which is a bit insane
120. 4:30although this obviously won't be the
121. 4:31case for everybody the first time a lot
122. 4:33of people will hear about rodenol is
123. 4:35when they first hear about stand
124. 4:36development which is an alternative
125. 4:38method of developing your film where you
126. 4:40use a very dilute solution of developer
127. 4:42for a very long time with little to no
128. 4:45agitation beyond the first minute this
129. 4:48is particularly useful for raining in
130. 4:49contrast in very high contrast scenes if
131. 4:52that's what you want to do
132. 4:54and for that reason it's very common
133. 4:55when pushing film because it can even
134. 4:57out your contrast and it won't give you
135. 4:59more shadow detail but it will give you
136. 5:01a bit of a
137. 5:02more usable final image especially if
138. 5:04you're pushing two or more stops
139. 5:07rodanol is a non-solvent developer which
140. 5:10means it does not dissolve or soften the
141. 5:12edges of your silver grains as they form
142. 5:15this yields silver grains in your final
143. 5:16negative which can be very rough or
144. 5:18coarse to look at
145. 5:20which gives you high accutanes or
146. 5:22perceived sharpness at the cost of
147. 5:24visibly rougher more pronounced grain
148. 5:30[Music]
149. 5:33some people like that some people don't
150. 5:35i like it for some films but not others
151. 5:37it's a tool to be used as is appropriate
152. 5:40rodanol is known to have a very high
153. 5:42speed yield when used in conjunction
154. 5:44with most film emulsions which means
155. 5:46that you will get a good appropriately
156. 5:48dense negative when using your film and
157. 5:50rodent altogether when rating the film
158. 5:53at its box speed
159. 5:54some combinations of developer and film
160. 5:57will give you very thin negatives under
161. 5:59normal development conditions because
162. 6:01the film is not able to interact with
163. 6:04the chemistry of that specific emulsion
164. 6:06quite well enough to give you the
165. 6:08required density as in you need to over
166. 6:11expose the film and generate more latent
167. 6:14silver crystals that you can later
168. 6:16develop to give you a properly dense
169. 6:18negative
170. 6:19in reality what that means for a
171. 6:21developer with a lower speed yield
172. 6:24is if your film is say iso 200 you might
173. 6:27actually have to rate it at 125 in that
174. 6:30developer to get the same density of
175. 6:33final negative
176. 6:34as using that same film rated at 200
177. 6:37with another developer such as rhodanol
178. 6:40in terms of shelf life
179. 6:42this is one of the things roadnoll is
180. 6:43known for the stock solution lasts
181. 6:46basically forever literally decades
182. 6:49opened
183. 6:50or unopened though it will obviously
184. 6:52last longer unopened because there's
185. 6:54less exposure to oxygen
186. 6:56on the other hand the diluted working
187. 6:58solution has a very short shelf life i
188. 7:00don't know how long exactly but
189. 7:02apparently not very long on the order of
190. 7:04hours so you should realistically make
191. 7:06it fresh before you plan to use it
192. 7:09the more dilute your rodenal is the more
193. 7:11pronounced this effect is i wouldn't be
194. 7:13storing bottles of 150 or one to one
195. 7:15hundred rodenal stock just waiting to be
196. 7:17used
197. 7:22let's get started with safety
198. 7:24firstly section two of the sds describes
199. 7:27the hazards associated with this
200. 7:28material i'm going to skim over this
201. 7:30because you should be able to read an
202. 7:31sds after watching my previous video
203. 7:34under the ghs system there are three
204. 7:36main hazards associated with rhodinol
205. 7:38first it has the potential to cause
206. 7:41mutagenic effects that's the four amino
207. 7:43phenol here
208. 7:45secondly the potassium hydroxide and the
209. 7:47four amino phenol are both corrosive and
210. 7:49can cause skin damage or eye damage
211. 7:52unfortunately i can attest to the skin
212. 7:55damage i won't be showing one here
213. 7:57because i'm not sure about youtube's
214. 7:58policies on this kind of thing however
215. 8:01a road and all burn is effectively like
216. 8:04really bad psoriasis or eczema both of
217. 8:06which i have experience with
218. 8:09it's very painful dry and scaly you get
219. 8:12this sort of red patchy burn uh it's not
220. 8:15like an acid burn where your skin will
221. 8:19char or a base burn where your skin goes
222. 8:21soapy it's just dry and painful and
223. 8:24horrible
224. 8:25you don't want that
225. 8:27for this reason i personally always use
226. 8:29gloves when dealing with rodinol and i
227. 8:31would recommend you do the same however
228. 8:33do note that gloves are only usable for
229. 8:34splash protection and do not allow you
230. 8:37to just dunk your hands in a bucket of
231. 8:38road rodent ad nauseam without worry
232. 8:41in terms of eye damage i always wear
233. 8:43over glasses over my own glasses and i'd
234. 8:46rather look like an idiot with probably
235. 8:48ridiculous reflections in my eyes here
236. 8:51than lose my eyes to film what good is
237. 8:54having film if you can't see it
238. 8:56the third hazard associated with rotanol
239. 8:58is that it is very toxic to aquatic life
240. 9:00with long lasting effects and should not
241. 9:02be released into the environment
242. 9:04personally
243. 9:06i think stan developed rodenal maybe one
244. 9:09to fifty which i nearly never do it's
245. 9:11usually either one to twenty five or one
246. 9:12plus a hundred
247. 9:14one plus a hundred may be able to go
248. 9:16down the sink one plus twenty five
249. 9:19i would be very strongly looking at
250. 9:21local regulations regarding waste
251. 9:22disposal in that case 1-100 i personally
252. 9:25haven't checked if anything special is
253. 9:27required around here
254. 9:29and in such dilute amounts i
255. 9:32don't think it's a problem
256. 9:34based on all of this in terms of safety
257. 9:36i'm going to rate rodenol one out of
258. 9:38three there is a somewhat moderate risk
259. 9:41of skin damage but you are very likely
260. 9:43to come into contact with it while using
261. 9:45it as a developer the oneplus 25 working
262. 9:47solution has caused me some fairly nasty
263. 9:49rodent all burns in the past so the
264. 9:51actual stock solution itself would be
265. 9:53significantly worse
266. 9:55however the risks associated with this
267. 9:57are generally pretty easy to deal with
268. 9:59just by using basic ppe procedures and
269. 10:02ventilating your workspace
270. 10:08in terms of handling there isn't really
271. 10:09a huge amount to say
272. 10:11keep it away from light
273. 10:13keep it away from heat acid alkali
274. 10:16bases and oxidizers and it's probably
275. 10:19going to be okay handling and storage is
276. 10:22really not a big deal with road and all
277. 10:24it doesn't require anything specific the
278. 10:27main thing is actually just to keep it
279. 10:28in the dark
280. 10:30as you see here it's chemical stability
281. 10:32is fine there's nothing really going to
282. 10:34happen it has a very long shelf life for
283. 10:36a reason that is because it doesn't
284. 10:38break down easily it's not going to be a
285. 10:40problem in this regard
286. 10:42so this is the bottle of rodanol
287. 10:44provided by the photoshop for the
288. 10:45purposes of making this video and this
289. 10:47one is a bottle that i already had lying
290. 10:49around you can tell because it's old
291. 10:51it's a bit crusty but it's still good
292. 10:53both of these bottles have child proof
293. 10:55safety caps where you have to push down
294. 10:58and then unscrew the lid rather than
295. 11:00just
296. 11:01plainly unscrew it
297. 11:03however this does not mean for one
298. 11:05second that these bottles are identical
299. 11:07in terms of practical safety
300. 11:08considerations this bottle of ro9 has a
301. 11:11very wide spout on the top which means
302. 11:13it's going to be very simple to pour
303. 11:15this one from addox has quite a narrow
304. 11:17hole
305. 11:18probably meant for syringes however none
306. 11:20of the syringes i have fit it so you
307. 11:22have to actually put a needle in not
308. 11:24just a syringe
309. 11:26the main practical difference then is
310. 11:28that this smaller opening means that if
311. 11:30you're not using a syringe or needle
312. 11:31which has its own risks you're going to
313. 11:33be suffering from gurgling with air
314. 11:35bubbles coming back in through that
315. 11:37small opening and that can cause
316. 11:38splashes which are obviously not a good
317. 11:40thing
318. 11:42the last thing i want to know is that
319. 11:44four amino phenol does oxidize in air to
320. 11:46give a very nasty brown color and this
321. 11:49is what you will see in solution when
322. 11:50your bottle is open and old that's fine
323. 11:53in the bottle but that stain is
324. 11:54extremely hard to get rid of uh i don't
325. 11:57think the material is particularly toxic
326. 11:59it should just be the oxidized form of
327. 12:01four amino phenol however it's very
328. 12:04stubborn and difficult to remove
329. 12:06and that's the main reason that in terms
330. 12:08of handling rodinol it's a two out of
331. 12:11three stains are easy to come by and
332. 12:13hard to remove
333. 12:18in terms of disposal rhodinol is bad for
334. 12:20the aquatic environment the four amino
335. 12:23phenol itself is toxic to fish and the
336. 12:25potassium hydroxide could potentially
337. 12:27cause ph issues in your local water
338. 12:29table
339. 12:30and then in terms of disposal
340. 12:31considerations it says exactly what i've
341. 12:33been saying follow your local
342. 12:35regulations on this basis i rate rotanol
343. 12:38two out of three for disposal i'm
344. 12:40knocking point off because you can't
345. 12:41just pour any old solution of rotanol
346. 12:43down the sink and you may have to pay
347. 12:45for disposal in your local area
348. 12:51lastly i want to talk about cost
349. 12:55rodanol is one of the cheapest most
350. 12:57economical developers in existence
351. 12:59not only is a bottle of rodenal cheaper
352. 13:01than most other developers it's
353. 13:03generally very easy to work with and
354. 13:06it's used in very high dilutions the
355. 13:08most concentrated solution you usually
356. 13:10use of rotanol is 1 to 25 which is to
357. 13:13say that this 500 milliliter bottle will
358. 13:16yield 12 and a half ish liters of active
359. 13:19developer at that concentration
360. 13:22that's enough for nearly 50 rolls of
361. 13:25film
362. 13:26if you dilute it down to 150 or 1 to 100
363. 13:29the cost per roll gets even lower
364. 13:32on that basis rodnol gets three out of
365. 13:34three for cost
366. 13:40before we get on with the actual
367. 13:41conclusion i do need to thank the folks
368. 13:43at the photoshop.ie they've provided me
369. 13:46with a number of film developers and
370. 13:47other associated chemicals with which to
371. 13:49make videos and i'm really looking
372. 13:50forward to working with them going
373. 13:51forward i highly recommend you check out
374. 13:53their range of products at their website
375. 13:55the photoshop.ie which is linked to down
376. 13:58below not only do they have a good range
377. 14:00of products but they also have extremely
378. 14:02competitive pricing for example i was
379. 14:05recently able to order a box of rolex
380. 14:074x5 infrared sheet film for nearly 10
381. 14:10euros less than i would have paid at the
382. 14:13next cheapest european competitor
383. 14:16you might find your next excellent deal
384. 14:18there and i highly recommend you check
385. 14:20them out
386. 14:21so to tally up our scores
387. 14:23in terms of safety i'm going to rate
388. 14:25rodenal one out of three
389. 14:27in terms of handling it got a two
390. 14:30in terms of disposal it got two
391. 14:33and cost
392. 14:35three out of three
393. 14:37rodenal performs very well and i'm
394. 14:39curious to see how
395. 14:40other developers and film development
396. 14:43chemicals perform using the same
397. 14:45criteria as time goes on
398. 14:47so that's gonna be it for this video and
399. 14:49i hope you enjoyed it i'll be back with
400. 14:50another one of these videos in a few
401. 14:52weeks but i do have something i want to
402. 14:54do
403. 14:54first
404. 14:56something a bit more fresh and new
405. 14:58but yeah that's it so stay safe and bye
406. 15:01bye for now
407. 15:03if you don't already follow me on
408. 15:05instagram at chaka1277
409. 15:07for new pictures every single day
410. 15:11if you like this channel and enjoy what
411. 15:12i do please consider subscribing or
412. 15:15donating to my patreon where the tiers
413. 15:16start at just one euro per month