skate glory

Most of the colour film I’ve shot to date have been cheap emulsions that are sold in drugstores. I managed to shoot some 60 rolls of a cheap drugstore re-branded Fuji 400 before it was discontinued and since then have been shooting a mix of Kodak Gold 200 and Kodak Farbwelt 400. I’m not too impressed with the Kodak Farbwelt, which is supposed to be the same as Kodak Ultramax 400, but the Kodak Gold 200 is really nice actually. It’s a shame that it’s only ISO 200 though because it would be hard to shoot in places with lots of foliage. I already need to drop to 1/250 in such places at ISO 400, so shooting in my usual style from the hip while I’m walking wouldn’t work at ISO 200. 1/125 is too low to shoot moving subjects while you’re moving yourself. I will have to try how the Kodak Gold 200 fares at ISO 400. Since consumer films are meant to look good even in the worst conditions and while being horribly abused I wouldn’t be surprised if it works well.

Speaking of things that work well: Last night’s attempt of rotary processing some HP5+ in Caffenol-CH was a complete success and the results look very promising indeed. I was expecting increased grain with the continuous agitation, but this wasn’t the case. This means that I really don’t have to worry about shooting too much now, since I can machine process 5 rolls in one go without even having to experiment with new developers. And even more interestingly I will probably get away with mixing up 600ml of Caffenol for 5 rolls while I would need 900ml for 3 rolls with my Paterson tank. Did I mention that I’m happy with my new CPE-2? It sure makes life easier!

All pictures taken with: Leica M6, Zeiss ZM C-Biogon 35mm f/2.8.
Kodak Gold 200 developed in Fuji Hunt C41 Kit.