Fun with Film: Rollei RPX 25

In a world dominated by speed, sometimes, it can be a little refreshing to slow things down. The world of cameras is no different. Today's digital equipment can shoot at ISO speeds unheard of just 20 years ago, when 3200 speed was a pure adventure in graininess.  My two digital cameras will actually shoot no slower than ISO 200, which I am not always thrilled about.  

The reason is that I sometimes would like to shoot sunny scenes at a wide open aperture to get thin depth of field and good bokeh, and the 1/4000 top shutter speed doesn't always cut it at an aperture of f/1.4.  The only alternative is to put on a ND or polarizing filter to cut off the light coming to the sensor.

So I was naturally intrigued to see an ISO 25 speed film among the options available when I got back into shooting film, and snapped up a roll to give it a try.  Only later, after getting a 120 camera with an f/2.9 lens, and finding that it actually worked pretty well, did it occur to me that I had a perfect combination of film and camera to test, and I wasted little time loading up my Franka Solida with this neat find.  

This, my friends, is Rollei RPX 25 film.  

Imitation Perle: Whispers of the Welta

It is often said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.  This definitely rings true for consumer products. It was often with much amusement that I would see "COBY" headphones done in a style and typeface that looked just like those from "SONY." There are many more examples to be sure, but I don't need to belabor the point.  

But what about products that look just like another established brand, but lack any markings whatsoever, leaving you to wonder if they are made by the brand itself? Is that flattering, or just downright odd?

And herein lies the mystery of my latest acquisition. It minces no words when it comes to who made the lens and shutter, but is totally "hush hush" on the actual manufacture of the camera itself.  Still, it is close enough in form to a Welta Perle to make me think it might be a product of this German manufacturer.  Thus, I can't resist the play on words in calling this new acquisition my "Imitation Perle." It turns out that this may be a Welta made camera marketed as either the Rodenstock Citonette, or alternately a Schaja 100, but I'm not entirely sure.  In any event, I'll stick to my moniker for now.

I stumbled across this camera upon perusing classified listings at the Analog Photography Users Group.  The seller listed the camera as an "Antique 120 Folder With Rodenstock Trinar 75mm 4.5 Lens," quite possibly also seemingly baffled by the lack of a maker to the camera itself. Initially listed for $37, the price for this working camera had just been dropped to $22 including shipping.  It seemed like a good buy with no big risk, and I'd been contemplating getting a second 645 folder to supplement my Ikonta A 521, so I wasted no time in making contact with the seller to make the purchase.

The camera arrived quickly and safely, and looked to be in good working condition.  It showed some signs of use, but considering it was over 70 years old, it was to be expected.  A gentle cleaning and some checks of the shutter confirmed that it was at least ready for a test roll. The shutter sounded like it fired pretty accurately, but instead of color transparency film, I elected to test this camera using a roll of Kodak Ektar 100 color print film to allow some degree of exposure latitude if the shutter speeds were off.  

The "Imitation Perle" on the left bears a lot of striking resemblances to the real article, seen at right, and has a nearly identical form factor despite a few interesting differences.  

Fun with Film: Agfa Crossbird 200 / Digibase CR200

Kodachrome, Ektachrome, Anscochrome, Agfachrome, Scotchchrome, Astia.

Each of these is a line of color transparency films that is no longer manufactured.  Kodak is out of the business, and Ilford is strictly manufacturing only Black and White Films. Ferrania is actively working to get into the production of transparency films, but production of the initial Kickstarter batch has yet to begin. As such, only Fuji remains to produce Velvia in 50 and 100 speed versions, as well as Provia 100F.

But there is one other option in medium format at the moment - Rollei Agfa.

Typically a seller of a varied line of black and white films of various lineages, the European supplier actually offers one pseudo-slide film among its range of offerings.  I say "pseudo" because they apparently offer the same film packaged and marketed in two different ways. On one hand is the Rollei Digibase CR 200, a traditionally marketed color transparency film based upon the old Agfachrome 200 formulation.  On the other hand is a film called "Crossbird 200," a color reversal film marketed towards being "cross processed," that is, processed in the chemistry for color negative film instead, so as to yield unpredictable colors.  From all appearances, both are the same exact film.

On my return to shooting on film, I was naturally pretty dismayed to see that the selection of color transparency (slide) films had dwindled as much as they had.  Amid my digital shooting days, I recall seeing the news that Kodachrome had passed on, but had no idea that the Ektachrome line had passed as well.  As I began to explore the offerings at B&H Photo, only the trio of remaining Fuji films remained as options, along with both iterations of the Rollei Agfa 200.  The straight "Digibase CR200" version was only available in a five pack, and I certainly wasn't ready to commit that kind of money to an unknown yet. However, the "Crossbird" version was available in single rolls, and I gladly pulled the trigger to try to a test roll, so as to be able to compare it to the remaining Fuji films.

Reading up on whatever I could find regarding others uses of these films left me a little worried, and admittedly rather unenthusiastic about using the roll of film.  For one, the film is on a polyester base instead of acetate, which reportedly leaves it susceptible to "light piping" if any of the film sees the light of day, thus inciting recommendations to load it under subdued light or darkness if possible.  Other reviews however stated that the finished results when processed using E6 chemistry, left an unpleasant and overwhelming yellow cast in the image.  As such, it took several months before I finally took the plunge and loaded the film into my Yashica 12 on Christmas Day, 2014, so as to begin to snap off a roll of test photos. 

Kodachrome Classic Monday #34

Every Monday, I'll be spotlighting a different classic Kodachrome slide that I've picked up, and trying where I can to detail the who, what, when, where, why, and how (much) of the image:

This Week:

What: Business district on a cloudless day.

An Autographic Experiment Part 1 - Shooting 120 Film in a 116 Format Camera.

It had "quirky" written all over it, so when I spotted the idea, I too was all over it.  

As is evident in many of my posts, I've gotten a bit engrossed with the 6x9 format as of late. It is the largest format I have ever shot in, and I had expected it would be the largest format that I would ever shoot film on, as I didn't see myself ever expanding to something like a 4x5" field camera, as it seemed far less convenient than my beloved 120 roll film.

Still, there was a hunger in me to shoot in a larger 120 format to get a super sized image on film.  

And as it turns out, the 6x9 cm format is not the be-all end-all of 120 formats, as there are cameras available to shoot both in a 6x12 as well as a whopping 6x17 panoramic format.  But neither options were really music to the ears of my wallet.  

And then I saw this webpage from Mike Connealy...

I was engrossed in the idea! Take a camera of a different format, and, with some degree of educated guidance, feed it a roll of 120 film to get a full bleed image that is approximately 66mm x 110mm in size, about 30% larger than the 6x9.  It seemed like it could be a really fun experiment at least, so I set about to see what I could find on the world's largest and most "evil" auction site! ;-)

Since Mr. Connealy had managed to successfully perform this task on a ca. 1929 vintage Kodak Autographic 1A Pocket of 1926 to 1932 vintage with no modification whatsoever, I elected to look for that same exact model. Prices on the 1A Pocket tended to range from about $25 to $40 plus shipping in possibly usable condition, not expensive at all, though maybe a bit much for what might ultimately turn out to be a single experiment versus a recurring shooter.  

SPOILER ALERT:

There is a happy ending to this story as the ancient camera and modern film made lovely images together.

Kodachrome Classic Monday #33

Every Monday, I'll be spotlighting a different classic Kodachrome slide that I've picked up, and trying where I can to detail the who, what, when, where, why, and how (much) of the image:

This Week:

What: Business district in a postwar transition

Fun with Film: Rollei Infrared 400

It has taken me a little while to really get back into shooting black and white film.  Between my fascination with old color Kodachrome slides and the wealth of color that was amid the landscapes during the Summer and Fall when I began to get back into shooting film, the premise of stripping that vibrance from my resulting images was not something I was initially ready to do.

That bias has since abated, with the rural landscapes largely having turned to a rather uniform palette that is the color of dull straw since November, the once rich green grasses now in a muted shade of sickly moss, and the colorful foliage on the trees now replaced by withering vines and branches.

However, even as I dove back into film, and was picking up a roll or two of whatever color films were still obtainable, a black and white film caught my eye that seemed particularly interesting to try. It took some time and effort to find a lab willing to process it, but finally, I have results in hand.  The film in question: Rollei Infrared 400.