garden girls

Patience is a virtue or so they say. Well, I can be patient – after all I shoot film -, but it’s still a little annoying that I will have to wait a whole month until I can finally try my new Leica! I guess I will have to compensate by shooting some of my other gear. Today for example I blazed through my last roll of 35mm Tri-X with my Olympus XA in a town some 20 minutes from here. I actually wanted to go out in the morning to shoot some 120 Rollei RPX 400 in my Rolleicord as well (appropriate, eh?), but in the end all sorts of things conspired to make this impossible. I’m hoping that the weather will hold and that I can shoot that roll tomorrow instead. In 120 I still have some Tri-X and RPX400, but in 35mm I ran out of both. I still have a couple of rolls of Double X and a roll of ORWO N74+ though and there is also still a whole 100ft can of XP2 waiting to be spooled up. I definitely won’t be running out of film anytime soon.

In any case, I’m in love with that Caffenol – RPX400 / K400 magic. The tonality is great, it has a bit of structure, but not too much and it has contrast without losing highlight resolution even in really bright situations. The next roll I’ll scan will be one developed in Rodinal to see how the 35mm RPX400 fares with that.

All pictures taken with: Olympus XA, F.Zuiko 35mm f/2.8.
Rollei RPX 400 stand-developed in Caffenol-CL, 60min.

© 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

© 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

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

Comments

  • Harry

    Some nice photos in there, my favorite are the ones with your shadow in it and the guy walking under the bridge,so much concrete in the world, have you noticed the two people giving you a funny look from inside the big mac window ? You also caught the sun on the womens handbag in one …I like the look you are getting with the K400 and coffee.

    That little XA is a good camera and your caffernol mix seems spot on, my own made Rodinal ended in disaster it did not work no development at all.clear film blank fixer only result . Have you a link for your mix, my tank takes 290 ml I intend to try it with my K400 and AX2 which I have never used to see if my results match yours.

    Kind Regards Harry.

    • Lilly Schwartz

      I’m glad you like the pictures! Yes, I noticed the funny looks from inside the window. That’s one of the reasons why I like the picture! And definitely the Caffenol K400/RPX400 combination is fantastic. Definitely makes me want to shoot more of this stuff! And until I finally get my hands on my Leica my little Olympus XA is my favourite 35mm gear. Very small and unobtrusive and as long as the light is decent, it produces great results.

      Sorry to hear about your Parodinal mishap. One of my pals actually managed to get decent results from that. Well, with such experiments it’s better to bulk load and shoot test rolls. Caffenol-CL: My mix for two rolls of 35mm in a 650ml tank is: 26g instant coffee (the cheaper the better), 10,4g washing soda – careful, that’s not the same as baking soda -, 6.5g vitamin C and 0.5g potassium bromide. Mix all the white stuff first or you won’t see whether it’s clumping. Agitation: first 30sec slow inversions – like 3 – and then just leave it to stand for the rest of the time. How long depends on the emulsion: K400/RPX400 and Tri-X is 60min. Oh, and important: start with 20°C, it’s temperature sensitive.

      By the way, what’s AX2?

      • Harry

        Sorry Lilly the AX2 is a mistake it should be XA2 I own two one bought about 15 years ago from a charity shop and another in mint condition in case with flash and manuals a few months ago,I still have never put a film through either though they are both fully working.

        Thank you for your recipe and your developing proceeder I needed a recipe that I know I can produce excellent results from, I will split a roll of K400 36 for testing. Made a new batch of Rodinol and made two separate solutions to mix and made sure the paracetamol/sulphite where well dissolved in very hot water first and then mixed with a cold water mix of Sodium hydroxide I will let brew for a while.,fingers crossed.

        Kindest regards Harry.

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