To be honest, I never understood that statement.
When doing stand development with 1:200 dilutions, I just eyeballed with what I got, and it turned out alright every single time; mainly for 120 and 135 Foma films. My tanks are using either 590ml or 250ml of liquid. In both scenarios, the amount of Rodinal is obviously less than 5ml for a 1:200 (give or take) dilution.
I have the suspicion that the above statement is more based on the lack of a device being able to provide decent accuracy for measuring small volumes.
While I do not claim this finding for me, I feel it would be a good idea to promote the finding by Will Agar.
While I did not learn about stand development from Will Agar, I was made aware of a cheap measuring device Will is abusing for photography purposes: the medicine (or dosing) spoon.
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| Dosing spoon |
And yes, I used that kind of spoon to dose the amount of raw Rodinal required for my JOBO 1510 tank for developing a 135 roll of Fomapan with less than 5ml of Rodinal.
Method for 120 film:
- pre-soak for 2min
- rinse twice and empty tank
- pour developer in tank and agitate slowly for 1min
- tap tank a few times
- let stand for 90+ min
- empty tank and wash before fixing
Method for 135 film:
- pre-soak for 2min and empty tank
- pour developer in tank and agitate slowly for 1min
- tap tank a few times
- 2 slow agitations every 15min, tap tank after agitations
- after 90min empty tank and wash before fixing
Maybe the agitations for 135 film are not necessary... however, in some experiments, the sprocket holes of the 135 film created streekes of uneven development. The somewhat regular but seldom agitation appears to overcome that problem. However, the agitations will also prevent some of the beneficial effects of stand development to fully appear.
