Agfa RONDINAX 35U User Report

[chrism]

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I finally got to use the 35u today (I got a second one with film clip and strap intact). Tri-X @ 400, in Rodinal/Blazinol 1:50 for 13 minutes, then stop, fix and wash. The film is drying right now, but the negs look as if they will be just right. I'm not claiming any great artistic content, but I'll scan the likely looking ones this evening and see if there's any worth posting up as examples of output. It is likely to cause a repetitive strain injury after about a half hour total of twiddling the knob! Here's one answer to that problem:

DIY - RONDINAX 35U Motorized with Meccano - YouTube

I've been practising loading the Jobo daylight loading tank I mentioned above, and it's pretty tricky to get the film started. So far I've just done dry runs with a sacrificial long-outdated film. I'll have to load a canister with a short strip from the bulk loader and see if I can make it work for real...

 

Chris

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[chrism]

Here's the first one off the roll, which gave me a surprise as my mother died in March. I had no idea I had used that M7 so little. I'll have to do something about that...

 

 

Chris

[janrzm]

I finally got to use the 35u today (I got a second one with film clip and strap intact). Tri-X @ 400, in Rodinal/Blazinol 1:50 for 13 minutes, then stop, fix and wash. The film is drying right now, but the negs look as if they will be just right. I'm not claiming any great artistic content, but I'll scan the likely looking ones this evening and see if there's any worth posting up as examples of output. It is likely to cause a repetitive strain injury after about a half hour total of twiddling the knob! Here's one answer to that problem:

DIY - RONDINAX 35U Motorized with Meccano - YouTube

I've been practising loading the Jobo daylight loading tank I mentioned above, and it's pretty tricky to get the film started. So far I've just done dry runs with a sacrificial long-outdated film. I'll have to load a canister with a short strip from the bulk loader and see if I can make it work for real...

 

Chris

 

Hey Chris. Awesome. Yes, I've seen the link before, I thought I'd mentioned it in my post somewhere but maybe I forgot....I have looked in to it and plan to try something similar when I get a spare minute. Incidentally I also have the Rondinax 60 which I intend to use now I've just bought myself a Hasselblad.....Ooops. All the best, Jason

[Stealth3kpl]

I also have the Rondinax 60 which I intend to use now I've just bought myself a Hasselblad.....Ooops. All the best, Jason

 

I have been using the R60. It works very well indeed. However, a word of warning. After the process of stripping the paper during which the film rolls into a storage compartment, the light-tight door to that compartment is closed by turning the dial to "1". If this door is closed too tightly, or you struggle to get the sticky-tape off the film, the ridge of the light-tight door can put a line across the width of the negative. I've started to detach the paper backing from the film with the door wide open in a darkroom bag to guard against this.

Pete

[janrzm]

I have been using the R60. It works very well indeed. However, a word of warning. After the process of stripping the paper during which the film rolls into a storage compartment, the light-tight door to that compartment is closed by turning the dial to "1". If this door is closed too tightly, or you struggle to get the sticky-tape off the film, the ridge of the light-tight door can put a line across the width of the negative. I've started to detach the paper backing from the film with the door wide open in a darkroom bag to guard against this.

Pete

 

Thanks so much for that, appreciate you taking the time to write that. Cheers Jason

[Guest]

One step at a time:

1. good results with the 35U right away

- slow but working it out. Slower than in the trusted Jobo.

And the constant knob-rotating needs getting used to.

But after the unexposed-truely-expired test film (first dry then wetted in water+water+water),

tonight's the exposed-test-film in chemicals.  

 

2. the 60 ruined 2 expired Tri-X rolls

(whose 3 twins out of 6 from the same pack were fogged and lacked contrast in X-Tol in the Jobo)

for different reasons in the same session, already before reaching the water+ water+water stage: 

 

- The film-clip has one thorn in the middle for the 60mm wide film (unlike the one in the 35U, which has 2 thorns for the less wide Leicafilm) so it tore out of the film, leaving a missing round triangle at its end. Cut a strip off with scissors - same tear-out again.

 

Solution: luckily the 35U came with a back-up film spool, so I took the extra film-clip and adapted a narrow strap for the wide spool of the 60, in order to get the narrow 35U strap into  the 60 spool. This time it did not tead out of the film, but the strap doesn't sit in the roll-film spool of the 60 as it should, so this is only a temporary solution.   

 

- the paper-film separation was a repeated mess (also after I losened the screw of the exteriour big winding knob a little).

What should I pay extra attention to?

 

+ I don't have a feeling, that the rollfilm-safe in the 60 is as light-proof as all industrial Leica-film-cassettes, but this can't be so since thousands of Rondinax 60 have been made.

You guys never experienced light leaks with roll-film?

 

3. A near future question would go to Chris, regarding the motor, since

neither the Youtube video from post # 21 nor the photo frpm post # 22 are there any more.

 

Pleasure to try out the Rondinax, more fun on the way and many thanks in advance for your help!

 

Cheers,

Simon-Peter