tears for a rabbit

Shooting film is an exercise in patience. You can’t see the picture right away and the whole process gives you only little glimpses until you can finally see the outcome of your efforts scanned or printed in the darkroom. I often wait so long with my processing that I don’t even know what is on the roll when I throw it into the developer. This doesn’t mean that I don’t remember certain shots. I actually wait impatiently until those finally pop up on a random roll that I pull out of the developing tank. With the roll I’m showing you today I was curious about the very first picture in this post. It certainly didn’t disappoint!

And seriously, if RPX 400 isn’t K400, then it must be a twin or something! I only developed one roll of K400 in Caffenol-CL before and the tonality was just as lovely as with this roll. It definitely looks like the same emulsion to me. Although I like my recent results with Rodinal too, I think the K400 / RPX400 really shines in Caffenol by the way. Of all the developers I have tried with K400 – D76, Rodinal, Tetenal Ultrafin and Caffenol-CL – it was Caffenol that I liked best.

All pictures taken with: Olympus XA, F.Zuiko 35mm f/2.8.
Rollei RPX 400 stand-developed in Caffenol-CL

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

Tears for a rabbit.

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

Walking around with a huge … vegetable. As you do …

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

Good place to read the newspaper. I used to sit on this bench occasionally to read as well.

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

I love the tonality in this one.

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

“champagne is punk” … apparently …

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

In Tetenal Ultrafin I always had a bit of a problem with highlight resolution where it came to K400. Well, RPX400 in Caffenol doesn’t seem to have that problem.

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

I guess he noticed.

Comments

  • Harry

    Hello Lilly, They do have a look of Tri-X to them, would be interesting to see a 120 RPX go through your rolleicord to compare with Tri-X pictures. I am testing some Kentmere tomorrow in my home made Rodinol for the first time. I am still trying to find a decent film/developer combination that I am totally happy with when it comes to Kentmere film , the caffenol looks promising what where your times on it.I feel my hobby is more chemistry than photography at times. F2 & F4 weather in the UK.

    • Lilly Schwartz

      Indeed, there is a little Tri-X in these, but still something different too. The next roll I shoot will definitely be some 120 RPX in my Rollei and I’ll dev it in Caffenol too to see how it fares. It will probably take a while before I post the pictures though.

      K400 is not so easy I think. It’s ok in Rodinal, but not great. It also took me ages to figure it out in Tetenal Ultrafin, but in the end I quite liked it. The only problem that remained was edge overdevelopment, probably due to too little agitation. If you ever come to try it, then it’s 15.5 min, 30sec at start and end and 5-10 sec every minute. Too little agitation and you get edge overdevelopment, too much and you get massive grain and iffy tonality. I think Caffenol is the best so far although grain is a little more pronounced than with Ultrafin. I did stand-development in Caffenol-CL, so 60 min starting at 20 degrees. 30sec agitation at the start – 3 full inversions – and then just leave it standing.

      Yes, occasionally it feels like it’s more chemistry than it should be, although of course I usually just order ready made developer. It’s mainly that agitation can be so difficult to figure out. I always seem to end up either with too much or too little and can’t seem to find the sweet spot. With Caffenol it seemed unproblematic though.

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