Mirko Boeddecker wrote
: We’re wondering whether the market will accept further price increases. Alternatively, we could switch back to the old R09 formula and use lower-quality paraminophenol. This would largely have only cosmetic effects (the developer would cloud over more quickly) and a minor impact on shelf life.
So what we’re asking is whether customers are (still) willing to pay more for good quality, or whether it’s better to lower the quality and keep the price the same.
By the way, you can reply in the forum ;-)
Rodinal is, after all, an extremely inexpensive developer when calculated per film.
I’ll give replying a go, even though the original question was posted a while ago :) .
I’d say the key question is, on the one hand, what the price difference would be versus how much the shelf life would be affected.
When calculated against the actual cost of the film, those few millilitres of developer are a very small expense. At a 1:50 dilution, I need about 10ml for a roll film, and at the current price of €14.50 for a 500ml bottle, that would work out at about €0.29 for the developer per film. I reckon whether it’s €0.29 or €0.39 per film is relatively insignificant when you consider all the other costs.
