Rollei R3 film grain issue

Just bought a bulk film of Rollei R3, hearing that it is out of production. After self-loading in a casette, try shooting indoors with exposure set at ISO400. After shooting, I pre-soak the film for 1 minute, then develop with Rollei RHS 1:7 20 degrees for 18 minutes (a little push to ISO800): For the 1st minute, inversion once every 2~3 seconds; then every 30 seconds, inversion 5~6 times. For the stop, I use tap water once, then fix it in Kodak rapid fix for 5 minutes.

While enlarging with leitz focomat V35, Oh, my god, the grain is too obvious and more coarse than kodak trix. It is painful to enlarge the portrait pictures for ladies. So I doubt the inversion is too much, which causes the grain.

Could anyone share your experience of how to develop this R3 film?

18m is for 800, for 400 use 14m. No need to push, this film has true speed at 14m, and you could even get away with 12m.

Presoak can be longer, say 3 mins.

Yes, the grain is bloody obvious, even at 400. Bigger than Tri-X at the same speed, in my experience. And the grain appears "dirtier", for lack of a better word.

To minimise grain, it seems we'll have to minimise agitation, but so far I've not had much luck. Even at 12m I'm still getting too-big grain.

Fotohuis seems to have good results from it, but I've never seen his negs, so I don't know how big his grain is compared to mine.

For portraits, I suggest you shoot ISO 50-100, and use RLS (or RHS if you want more contrast).

waileong said:

18m is for 800, for 400 use 14m. No need to push, this film has true speed at 14m, and you could even get away with 12m.

Presoak can be longer, say 3 mins.

Yes, the grain is bloody obvious, even at 400. Bigger than Tri-X at the same speed, in my experience. And the grain appears "dirtier", for lack of a better word.

To minimise grain, it seems we'll have to minimise agitation, but so far I've not had much luck. Even at 12m I'm still getting too-big grain.

Fotohuis seems to have good results from it, but I've never seen his negs, so I don't know how big his grain is compared to mine.

For portraits, I suggest you shoot ISO 50-100, and use RLS (or RHS if you want more contrast).

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Thanks for your reply. I spent Christmas Eve in the kitchen to enlarge another roll of R3, which was developed the day before yesterday. Thanks to warm-hearted Photographer RJ (Dead Link Removed), I developed the roll this way: shooting with EI800, f2, 1/4 second for night low-lit street, presoaking 5 minutes with no stiring, RHS 1+10, continuous rotating with stick in paterson plastic tank for the 1st minute, then gentle rotating for 2 seconds by holding the tank with both hands followed by a tap every minute, total develop for 25 minutes.

The enlarge result is not too bad, feeling a little improvement over the last time (The contrast of grain seems not too chaos now). Though the grain is also obvious compared with Trix, the result is acceptable for street scenes (Sorry, I have no scanner, I couldn't share you the picture.), but I don't enjoy the portrait shot. It seems that the face in the darkness also has some grain glowing, really annoying, disturbing to view, couldn't express the fine skin of ladies. Maybe next time I shall try diluting RHS to a higher ratio, such as 1:25, or 1:50 and extending the development time.

Has anybody use Kodak X-Tol, Rodinal, ilfotec DDX or other developers for R3 before?

2 days ago, I shot R3 for candle light birthday scene, f4~2.8, 1/4~1/8 second. Developed with RHS 1+15, rotating tank 2 cycles every 10 minutes, total 50 minutes. The result is satisfactory after print to 8*8 inch (I use robot 24 square format, 54 photos on 135 roll film). Another indoor shot near window at daytime (ISO400) shows beautiful grains, really amazement, no digital would express.

Last night, I develop another roll of R3 (ISO 200 for indoor shots) using RLS (1+4, 24 C degrees, 2 inversions every 1 minute, total 29 minutes), but the outcome of film is too thin, totally under-developed. Next time, I shall over-expose for ISO below 200.

Just bought a 2nd hand cannon 8400F scanner, it really takes time to digital this R3 films: http://www.fotop.net/ericzhu/Rollei_R3

ericzhu said:

Just bought a 2nd hand cannon 8400F scanner, it really takes time to digital this R3 films: http://www.fotop.net/ericzhu/Rollei_R3

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I liked the candle lit portrait image. Very good Eric.

Keith Tapscott. said:

I liked the candle lit portrait image. Very good Eric.

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Surely I also enjoy this picture. I printed it to 8*8 with leitz V35 enlarger. Of course, the candle and the white cake was burned a little more time than other areas. It's amazing that I could use R3 to shoot candle scenes.