Hi Mark,
thanks for the reply.
On 29. okt.. 2009, at 23.43, Mark Rabiner wrote:
It would seem that Rollei Retro 100 is "equivalent in
characteristics to
Agfa APX 100 B&W film" according to Freestyle.
Which means its the same stuff repackaged.
Rollei Retro is indeed Agfa 100. I specifically searched
it out after
Agfa went bankrupt and bought 100 rolls. I prefer the
scale it offers
over the other films I've tried.
Agfa black and white films I've always found quite a
interesting
tangent to
take form the mainstream but a major issue being the
phantasmagorically long
development times. Much longer than Agfa admits on their
little data
stubs.
And longer than Rodinal suggests on theirs.
That's very interesting data. The guy at the lab might be
relying too
hard on his charts, instead of actually seeing what's up
with the
film....
First he told me 5 minutes for Tri-X, and 4:30 for
Rollei/Agfa. Later
(after he went and checked) he said 4 minutes for the
Rollei/Agfa (in
an automated JOBO at 24C). Obviously 4 minutes is too
short. But 15-20
minutes? They're going to charge me for push processing
at those
times! Besides, I've received many rolls that were
developed just
fine. For some reason it's the last few batches I've
sent, where the
Tri-X (I use for 400 ISO) is fine, but the Rollei/Agfa is
very thin.
Do you think raising the temperature (but staying at
around 5 min)
would work ok?
I'll have another talk with the guy at the lab in the
morning.
So we have to be able to be in the mood to do this it
seems
unusual.. Stand
there in your darkroom over a development tank for 15 or
20 minutes.
Do that and you'll get proper densities and you'll see
exposure was
not the
problem. Don't do it and you get such thin negs you'll
not know
what's going
on.
Sounds like what you're describing. Weird that it just
started
recently, I've been using the same film for years. The
guy at the lab
started there a year ago, I think.
I suggest sticking with Ilford and Neopan and even Kodak
black and
white
films. I hear Kodak has gotten the pink issue out.
I never cared for Ilford or Fuji B&W films, Kodak Tri-X
is beautiful
and gritty, but that's not always what I'm after. Agfa
100/Rollei
Retro has a beautiful tonality to it. If need be I might
have to set
up my own processing. Anyone have a Jobo for sale? Needs
to be at
least semi automatic, no time to stand over the sink in a
darkened
room these days....
Mark William Rabiner
Cheers,
Thor
