Parodinal, a homemade b&w film developer in mono-doses

[@chickenitsa]

Thank you for your *really* excellent work. I hope more people see this video, AND your great website!

[@mateoarrechedera5067]

Thank you for sharing knowledge like this, great idea

[@jacoadendorff3058]

Nice video and good tips. Here is a suggestion, though: Using potassium hydroxide instead of sodium hydroxide saves you the trouble of having to deal with crystals forming. Everything dissolves properly. Rodinal contains exactly 0.5 mol/liter of p-Aminophenol (your formula contains 0.4 mol/liter). So to make 250 ml of developer, the correct parodinal formula uses 18.9 g paracetamol, 49.8 g sodium sulphite and 22.4 g potassium hydroxide. The difference will be small in use, but it is a lot easier if you do not have to filter anything, and you can use the published Rodinal development times and dilutions more accurately.

[@wagnerlungov1825]

Thanks Jaco, I will try your recommendation in my next batch.

[@cagdasogut4506]

Deepest thanks to both of you. Your combined expertise will be the first I will try. Cheers

[@kinkysense]

Just tried it. Worked very well. Film is drying now. Soon to scan. Thanks again.

[@luistavares6670]

Very Good indeed, my congratulations.

[@luizlaercio]

Achei muito interessante a ideia de fracionamento em frascos de 5ml. Parabéns pelo vídeo.

[@zabtej1645]

Rinse the paper in distilled water before filtering, it contains a lot of stuff. (I know it from coffee making)

[@paulschmolke188]

Great demo, thanks👍🏽

[@GreyGhost-r4z]

Where do you get the Paracetamol Powder. I’m having a difficult time finding it in the USA. Any suppliers ?

[@wagnerlungov1825]

Hello, I bought 500g over here in Brazil, a couple of years ago. But now sales are forbidden unless you are a chemist or someone in the pharmaceutical business. I still have some, but I know that sooner or later I will have to resort to the pain killer.

[@vladnickul]

I'm looking into paracetamol pills and it looks like they have different kind of starches and stearic acid in them. Any advices on time and procedure?

[@wagnerlungov1825]

Many Paracetamol pills come with some add-ons, like vitamin C or caffeine, aimed to improve an influenza condition. For a developer it is better to stay far from those and look for the ones having only paracetamol and the inevitable starchers. Normally it is all written on the package.

[@vladnickul]

@@wagnerlungov1825 I appreciate you wanting to help...

[@streetjesus7000]

this is fantastic!

[@muharremaltintas]

I prepared the mixed solution. At first, it was a miky solution. But after waiting for a while it turned into a dark amber color completly. So i'm not sure it's ok. But i didn't have a chance to tex-st it with film yet.

[@apenasimagens]

Dark amber color means oxidation. It was probably due to high exposure to air. Did you keep the bottle with the milky solution completely filled and closed? Maybe the water had already a high amount of dissolve air (oxygen) or other impurities. Did you use distilled water? Did you raise its temperature to help expelling the air inside? Did you avoid too much agitation? In any case, sounds strange to my that it got so dark and so fast as you described. I prepared already Parodinal in Beakers and only the upper layer got oxidised to a mid brown color during te clearing. But the check points that come up to my mind are only those I just mentioned. Beyond that it is a matter of checking the reagents you used. Specially the Sodium Sulfite, as its role is that of a preservative. The developer may work, but ideally it should be oxidised during development and not before it.

[@muharremaltintas]

Hi. I used filtered home water. My chemicals: Sodium Hidroxide, Sodium Sulfite and Parol pain killer tablets that contain paracetamol. I mixed Sodium Sulfite with crashed paracetamol tablets in boiled filtered water. And then i disolved Sodium Hidroxide with 100ml water separately. Its heat has rised. Then i mixed them together without waiting cool down. At this moment it was a milky form. Then i waited 12 hours. I plan to filter it. I saw it's color was dark amber that started at the bottle's top. So after a while it gets darker completely. As you mentioned it may oxidised completely. I try to use it with a film clip to see the result. Thank you.

[@muharremaltintas]

After preparing the mix. I had a chance to test a clip of film. and saw its stenght is good and i took two frames of photos of Ilford PAN 400 film and i developed them by my Parodinal mix. And the result was good. I thought that i need to be sure the developer's condition, i'll test it before use.

[@petervanorsouw2858]

Hi this developer seems to be very gritty and waiting 48 hours seamed a long time to mix this developer. But for my thoughts is that a D76 developer would be much easier to make. How would you compare them.

[@wagnerlungov1825]

D76 is a fine grain universal developer. Parodinal is coarser, but presents higher acutance. So they serve different purposes, that is the first thing to bear in mind. On the operational side, my thoughts are: if I prepare one liter of D76 I will get 2 or 3 liters of working solution. If I prepare one liter of Parodinal I will have 50 liters of working solution (I use it 1:50). OK that I can reuse D76 while Parodinal is a one shot developer. But I don't have a high volume of films, so I will probably dispose D76 working solution before having used it completely. Considering that, the initial work load in preparing Parodinal and fractioning it in monodoses, at the end, is highly favorable to Parodinal if we think of time preparing / number of films developed ratio. Cost wise Paradinal is also much cheaper than D76 in money /films developed. My practice is to use Parodinal for large format and Pyrocat HD for 35mm film. Being both stock solutions of Pyrocat HD also made in monodoses. Hope this helps you in your considerations.

[@petervanorsouw2858]

L@@wagnerlungov1825 Thank you, Yes thoughts on this developer certainly are convincing and I will most certainly look up your formula and mix up a batch. These days I only use 35mm film so D76 at 1+3 have sufficed.

[@randallstewart1224]

@@wagnerlungov1825 When you use D-76 diluted to a working solution at 1:2 or 13, it is used as a one-shot. It is not reused as you suggest.

[@redtreephotography4197]

Tried to make it, but the chemicals never dissolved, they just formed a crust at the bottom of the bottle.

[@apenasimagens]

Did you wait long enough? It may take 2 days to dissolve close to completion. Otherwise, I would question the raw chemicals you are using. This formula has been used for a long time, by many many people. It can't be just a not working formula.