Agfa RSX II or Rollei Digibase CR200 compared to Kodak E200

[brianmquinn]

Rollei Digibase CR200 is said to be Agfa RSXII. How does it compare to Kodak E200?

I am looking for natural colors. Some increased saturation is fine but I want to be able to see slight changes in the shades of color not just a mass of super saturated color. I am a long term Kodachrome user. I am not so much looking for a replacement but a new favorite film.

I just used some E6 to photograph my son on his bike. The skin tones were fine but his yellow helmet came out as solid yellow and the bike frame as a solid red. In reality there are many shades of yellow in the helmet and and shades of red in the bike.

I have read that the faster chromes have less saturation so I am willing to try them out to get this effect. Are there any slow slide films without increased saturation still around? I shoot a mix of people and scenic shots.

 

[Michel Hardy-Vallée]

If Rollei Digibase really were RSX II, I would buy it in a second. The 50 film, at least, was perhaps to me the best example of a "perfect" film.

Colour balance was very neutral (whites are always white, blues and reds do not have any particular cast: it was the best film to shoot France's flag!), and saturation was there, but not garish.

It reminded me a little of Kodachrome in spirit, if not in substance. I always describe Kodachrome as the only film with saturated browns (!). RSX would be the film that could show saturated greys.

 

[ntenny]

Rollei claim that the emulsion of CR200 is the same as RSX II 200, just on a different base.

I've shot a few rolls of CR200 and found myself liking the colour rendition---I'd say it skews a little warm, but basically "honest", so that it looks like a natural scene in slightly warm lighting, not like a "warmified" image, if you see what I mean. Whites are white. But it is *really* grainy; to my eye, it's grainy enough to make 35mm a really limiting format.

At the moment I've switched to Provia because of the grain issue, but if Rollei came out with a similar version of RSX II 50, I'd be all over it like flies on a thing that attracts a lot of flies.

-NT