Rollei Retro 80s in Perceptol

Anon Ymous · Dec 1, 2016

Hello everyone...

As the title says, has anyone tried this film in (dilute) Perceptol? Any development times? Of course, I can do a clip test, and I will, but I need a ballpark time.

destroya · Dec 1, 2016

I have used it with RR80s before but moved to other developers. when I did, I shot the film at 25, developed for 12.5 min 68 degrees in a 1+3 dilution. here's a scan of one

https://www.flickr.com/photos/jkenea/20217383720/in/dateposted-public/

Anon Ymous · Dec 1, 2016

Thank you!

Which developer do you use nowadays and why? Too low film speed with Perceptol?

Athiril · Dec 1, 2016

I've used Xtol and Rodinal with 80S, the grain is already so fine there is only a marginal change at high magnification between full strength Xtol and Rodinal on Retro 80S (as opposed to other films even TMX showing a huge difference).

I think dilute perceptol should be fine if you hit the right time and exposure.

destroya · Dec 1, 2016

I switched to pyro-MC and beutler depending on the lighting and scene. prefer beutler as I can get an 80 speed from it and it controls contrast well. also its easy to make and cheap.
beutler shoot at 80 1+1+8 for 8 min at 20c
pyro-mc/hdc shoot at 50 1+1+100 for 13 min agitate every 3 min after 1 minute initial agitation

also, for this film, try reversal processing it. its a thing of beauty.

Anon Ymous · Dec 2, 2016

Thanks, reversal processing, especially of this film, is certainly in my to do list.

Murray Kelly · Dec 2, 2016

I found the contrast a bit more than I like so now use a mix of HC-110 1ml + Rodinal 1ml in 250 ml water as a stand developer at box speed.

John Wiegerink · Dec 2, 2016

Murray Kelly said:
I found the contrast a bit more than I like so now use a mix of HC-110 1ml + Rodinal 1ml in 250 ml water as a stand developer at box speed.View attachment 168475

Murray,
That looks very good on screen. You must have 14 stops in that shot. How is it wet-printed?

Murray Kelly · Dec 2, 2016

Greetings, John. As I scan it I keep wet with a can of beer. Or, I keep another wine bladder for you!

John Wiegerink · Dec 2, 2016

Murray Kelly said:
Greetings, John. As I scan it I keep wet with a can of beer. Or, I keep another wine bladder for you!

Scan or not, it looks darn good. I hope you're feeling better? They say a glass of wine a day is very healthy. So, keep making those wine bladders go empty. I have one filled with my homemade Perceptol, one with my Xtol replinisher, and one with FX-37. I'm a happy camper and thanks again.
John

Anon Ymous · Dec 2, 2016

Athiril said:
I've used Xtol and Rodinal with 80S, the grain is already so fine there is only a marginal change at high magnification between full strength Xtol and Rodinal on Retro 80S (as opposed to other films even TMX showing a huge difference).

I think dilute perceptol should be fine if you hit the right time and exposure.

Oops, I totally missed your post. So, you think that RR 80s is finer grained than TMX?

Murray Kelly said:
I found the contrast a bit more than I like so now use a mix of HC-110 1ml + Rodinal 1ml in 250 ml water as a stand developer at box speed.View attachment 168475

Looks good, but I'm not sure how much detail the shadows have. There are some compression artifacts at the shadow at the top of the arch, but there's probably some reasonable shadow detail at the negative.

Anyway, I did the clip test and developed the film today, which is drying now. My initial plan was to try 10, 12 and 14' development time for my homebrew Perceptol 1+3, but at 10' things looked too light, so I did 12, 14 and 16' instead. Even so, the 16' clip wasn't particularly dense, nevertheless that is the development time I picked. After completing the process one thing became strikingly clear: that this film has a very clear base, so the density of the processed clips could be a bit misleading. Another obvious thing is that the shots at EI50 are underexposed, but at the same time I'm not entirely sure about those at EI25. Too bad I did't shoot any at EI12. Shadows seem a bit light, but then this film is very clear, something I'm not used to. At the moment I can't print, so I won't know how they print, but I'll scan them. Perhaps if I can get something good without much effort, then they should print ok?

John Wiegerink · Dec 2, 2016

Anon,
With some films I have developing times as long as 22 min. @ 68F in Perceptol 1+3 at an EI of 32. I'm going to be using/testing my homemade Perceptol with some newly acquired 35mm PanF+ and will post my results and examples.

Anon Ymous · Dec 3, 2016

John Wiegerink said:
Anon,
With some films I have developing times as long as 22 min. @ 68F in Perceptol 1+3 at an EI of 32. I'm going to be using/testing my homemade Perceptol with some newly acquired 35mm PanF+ and will post my results and examples.

John, 16' in Perceptol 1+3 is not unusual as far as I can tell from the times provided in the datasheet (pages 6, 7). It's the exposure index I'm mostly unsure about. I can't rule out exposure errors from my part. The sky was a bit hazy that day and there was the occasional small cloud that obscured the sun a bit more for a few seconds.

John Wiegerink · Dec 3, 2016

Anon,
I'll admit that at EI32 my shadows are a little weak and in most cases I should be in the EI25 range, but EI32 is useable for me and a good compromise. I know this is a little off topic here, but the best film I have ever developed in Perceptol 1+3 or 1+2 is Fuji Acros. At 1+3 I can easily get great results at EI80 and could shoot at box speed and be darn happy. The biggest thing I liked about Perceptol and Acros is how my skies came out. Once I had my developing times figured out it was no problem holding detail in the shadows as well as the highlights with exceptional mid-tones. I have five Fuji Acros 120 rolls in the fridge and am waiting for snow scenes to arrive again in Michigan to use them. Truth is, Perceptol or Microdol-X work very well with most films and it's a developer I could easily use 100% of the time if I had to. Some folks don't like developing times that get over the 10 minute mark, but I'll go as long as it takes to get negative that I really like, care about and prints easy. What's a little extra time in development if it means the difference between a picture that makes you smile or one that has you scratching your head.

Anon Ymous · Dec 4, 2016

Well, in case anyone's interested, here's a sample (scans) of the processed film, Rollei Retro 80S in homebrew Perceptol 1+3, 16', 20°C, shot at EI25:

And a 100% crop from this photo:

Rollei Retro 80s in Perceptol

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