DERELICT PLACES - MAMIYA RZ67 - ROLLEI RETRO 400s - Black and White Film Photography

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I have been playing with Rollei Retro 400s recently and thought I’d bring it on the channel.
So far I have enjoyed shooting the film, however, I think before you can really review a film
you need to put it through it’s paces and away from it’s comfort zones before you can decide if it’s for you or not.
So, in this video I decided to shoot three locations on the Isle of Wight all derelict.
These scenes were high contrast scenes.
Above all this film didn’t disapoint me in any way. Punchy and sharp in high contrast scenes and also bags of tone in less contrasty scenes.
I have more of a review on my website www.shootfilmlikeaboss.com.
Camera - Mamiya RZ67 (645)
Film - Rollei Retro 400s
Developer - XTOL Replenished Stock 8 mins at 22°.
Print paper - Kentmere VC Select Lustre Resin 5x7.
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ABOUT MY VIDEOS
If my videos inspire, create ideas and help others in film photography and darkroom work then it's worth making them.
I always welcome comments that are useful towards the video subject that will help others understand the process within.
Keep shooting and thanks for watching.
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[@theoldfilmbloke]

To all Roger's AMERICAN Friends - you notice he DRIVES ON THE LEFT --- hope you remember to do the SAME if you come to UK !

[@Marius-Cristian]

Peter cracking jokes as usual. Hey Peter, how you holding up young man? Is Brentwood & District Photographic Club back in business?

[@JohnTomasella]

I think it would be more exciting to drive on the right.

[@theoldfilmbloke]

@@JohnTomasella Yes -- but I'm thinking about that Boy Motorcyclist near the US base ---

[@ShootFilmLikeaBoss]

When I went to the states some years back I hired a car for two weeks. I got used to it pretty quick. They seem to drive calm over there compared to our roads although I got hooted at a few times ha ha. (Florida)

[@IainHC1]

I pulled up at a roundabout in a hire car in the Algarve once...... Completely lost my direction!...... I was pointed in the right direction by a kindly old (ish) gentleman sat in the middle of said island. I was so glad he was there :-)

[@ribsy]

man you are hilarious! i tell you what i want what i really really want 😂😂😂

[@PaulCSmithPhotographer]

Shoot the "Shit" out of it! Love it mate!!

[@andykphoto]

😹😹😹 I was NOT expecting any spice girls content today, but definitely hilarious. 👍

[@diapozitīvs]

Those splashes could be Antihalation layers getting in the way of developer. Prewash could help this time around to remove said water soluble AH layers off before processing. Wouldn't hurt to try, no? And for pictorial contrast it's said to rate this film ~100. I quite like it at about 200, opens up shadows a tad, comes closer to actual (ISO standard is based on shadows, no?) sensitivity.

[@jamesjacocks6221]

That Rollei Retro and other Rollei films cost a prince's ransom in the US. There is one very greedy importer or a nefarious business model at Rollei, who knows, but they certainly don't seem eager to sell film. My take on this is that American photographers need to get around Rollei and find the source manufacturers. Their film is in the $8 to $12 range now and that's just robbery. I haven't found Rollei's offerings so superior to other choices that they can charge two times the going rate. They sell niche films and boutique films under nebulous badges (eg. "retro") and don't have that much to offer that isn't available elsewhere. Once swore by Agfa/Rollei 25 and 100. No more.

[@TrashTheLens]

Aren't Agfa 100 and Rollei RPX 100 just Kentmere rebrands nowadays?

[@lensman5762]

@@TrashTheLens Agfa film is still manufacturing in either Germany or close by. Kentmere is the budget end of Harman who manufactures films for Ilford. They may well be very similar emulsions.

[@lensman5762]

I have mentioned this before that most of this ' revival ' of film is unfortunately just a fad and an opportunity for a lot of these guys to spool old stock and sell them under a different brand at quite high prices ( just look and see how many films by Adox or Rollei is no longer available because the stocks ran out ). Some are Chinese, some are the old east European stock and some are Agfa or Kodak. Kodak , Ilford and possibly Agfa are still the only quality film manufacturers. The pricing of films and chemicals seriously precludes any suggestion of film being a mainstream medium for photography. It works for niche style photography but to think that it can compete with digital is just a bad joke. I am a film fan and the bulk of the films I am still using is from 10 or 12 years ago when I used to buy them in packs of 10s or 20s for economy sake. It would be madness to expect to pay just under £14.00 for a roll of Fuji Acros 100 where I used to pay just under £3.00 for it in 2012 ( Acros is reputedly manufactured by Ilford now ) and use ten rolls of it during a shoot and make business of it. On the +ve side I am happy that film is still available and at least for now Ilford prices of FP4+ and HP5+ have not followed the crazy increases of Kodak's.

[@ShootFilmLikeaBoss]

@@TrashTheLens Kentmere is Harman. Rollei 400s is ariel surveillance film made by agfa in Belgium and then Maco in Germany have the licencing for rollei and distribute it as such. This is what I've read from so many various posts new and old. It's all interesting.

[@andre.kuzminsky]

@@TrashTheLens You are right. Also about agfa APX 400 and Rollei RPX 400. It's the same film - Kentmere 400

[@Enevan1968]

400s and 80s are both Agfa Aviphot apparently. And judging by the Avi part, they were meant for aerial photography IMHO.

[@IainHC1]

What were they meant for?

[@lesliewalters3896]

hi, just developed some 35mm rollei retro 400 s in rodinal 1_100 stand one hour agitate half way through, Stunning ! . well worth a try if youve got some film left. if you had a day job , dont give it up for singing ! loved the video as always

[@AdrianBacon]

I’m a long time user of replenished xtol. It’s awesome, though the standard regime is 70ml per 80 square inches. Kodak has a very useful data sheet for it. Just google Kodak J-109.

[@simon.revill]

I recently read a Cafenol book and it mentioned black spots on the negatives of Fomopan being caused by an acid stop bath.

[@siypic]

The RZ gives such a satisfying clunk...

[@catey62]

So does the RB67. gorgeous cameras to use.

[@m00dawg]

I've been using XTOL replenishment for about 2 years now (same stock). I keep the replenished stock in an amber glass bottle and always fill it to the top. When poured it has a bit of a light brown color. It's generally clean when pouring since all the gunk tends to settle on the bottom. If I mix things up too much and do get gunk, I just use a coffee filter to pull it out. The 5L stock solution is in a plastic water bladder (the kind you use for camping) which I decant into a small accordion bottle. I haven't had any problems with bubbles, though I use a DIY rotary I made up using an Arduino, a cheap DC motor, and some 3D printed parts and things. Not sure if that would make a difference or not compared to hand inversions. About the worst thing I've had is with HP5. I noticed if I pre-soak, I'll tend to get scratches on the plastic (non-emulsion) side. Not a big issue for scanning, and usually not for printing, but since I use a condenser enlarger, if I stop down a lot, I can see the scratches on my grain focuser though not on the paper. The second issue, is I got pinholes on one 4x5 negative. I think this may have been due to temperature fluctuations though and not XTOL itself. Other than that, XTOL has worked amazingly well for every film stock I've thrown at it except Pancro 400. Pancro develops just fine but I can't seem to figure out its native film speed when using XTOL and the grain is gigantic. Otherwise XTOL is my goto unless I'm doing stand development (I use HC-110 for that just because I have it and haven't bothered to buy any Rodinal yet).

[@ShootFilmLikeaBoss]

Interesting Tim. I prewash all the films I use in it. This retro400s washes dark brown so I get all that off first then develop. So far it's saved me loads of developer but I can't see the 'matureness effect' yet so I'll have to put it side by side in a few weeks and see

[@m00dawg]

@@ShootFilmLikeaBoss Yeah honestly I haven't seen much of a huge difference between replenishment and 1:1. The big reason I use it is I can be sloppy with measuring out the developer while not worrying about wasting any of it as well as the cost/economy.

[@grgygantz6760]

Your on the wrong side of the road. The boat location has got some good art work. Just sitting there.

[@bardamu8294]

The singing killed me 😅🤣. Brilliant Roger !

[@fwatson1990]

Great video as always, really entertaining. How about you put one of those Rollei retro 80s through your pinhole camera and let us see how you get on? I was looking at getting some for mine but was put off by the lack of reciprocity info on the film... Could be a useful fun experiment! Stay safe!

[@ShootFilmLikeaBoss]

I was actually going to do just that! ha ha

[@fwatson1990]

Shoot Film Like a Boss perfect! Haha great minds and all that 🙄😂

[@mattdavis9986]

Another great video! Checked out first call photographic as those prices are low! Had a load in my basket and then found out they were going to charge 8 quid p&p! I only live 20 mins down the road from the warehouse!

[@ShootFilmLikeaBoss]

Take a drive there you lucky bugger lol.

[@mattdavis9986]

@@ShootFilmLikeaBoss messaged them earlier to see if they do collections 👍

[@ShootFilmLikeaBoss]

@@mattdavis9986 if you do say to Jane Roger on Isle of Wight says Hi.

[@matteovrizzi]

Very entertaining style! great.

[@devroombagchus7460]

Thanks a lot for this video. A bit sad. Great photos you took. P.S. Never apologize for wind noise. That's part of being outside.

[@ShootFilmLikeaBoss]

You're spot on. It's youtube. If you don't mention it someone will lol. Cheers Joseph

[@SilntObsvr]

You're over-replenishing -- more is not necessarily better. Kodak recommends adding 70ml of fresh XTOL stock per 120 or 135-36 roll (and discarding enough of the old to maintain volume). Increasing replenishment will move your developer state toward that of fresh stock solution -- it will replace more partially exhausted developing agent than needed, but it will also reduce the "seasoning" of dissolved bromide and other things from the film. With your 100ml per film, by the time you've had your developer six months, it'll be like half-seasoned stock, and you'll see an increase in contrast at the same development time over what you had after your six-seven "seasoning rolls" (BTW, the recommendation is to replenish normally during seasoning, not develop the seasoning rolls before you start to replenish). That said, you should see very little change from fresh stock, to fully seasoned stock, other than about 10% difference in development time to get the same contrast from the same film. Since you shoot a lot of different films, you might not even notice, since there's usually more difference between two film stocks than that and you never really establish (or at least show us) a truly consistent routine with a single film, single developer, set process time (nothing wrong with that, if you like the results -- and you do get some nice results).

[@ShootFilmLikeaBoss]

Wonderful. Thanks for this. I've read so much. I'll start replenishing with 75ml. Don't want to go back to fresh. Cheers.

[@annadenaro9919]

shot a roll of 35mm Rollie Retro 400s last night, and today it took me 2 house to get the film on the reel in the dark bag, it is very humid here today, and the film just kept sticking to everything in the bag and twisting up.... nothing but dramas., my arms were dripping in the dark bag, but I was determined to get the roll on the reel, I couldn't get it all on. Did you find it sticky?

[@ShootFilmLikeaBoss]

That's a bummer when that happens. Occasionally I get a tight roll that just doesn't want to get on the reel even after calling it all the names under the sun! I've never tried steel reels but they are better I've heard for tight rolls.

[@gottanikoncamera]

You really need to do a Japan Camera Hunter What’s in My Bag featuring your camera gear and that potato. Good stuff, man.

[@ShootFilmLikeaBoss]

Ha ha. I do go off on one.

[@erichstocker8358]

I always use oneshot XTOL 1:1 so that I never reuse the stock XTOL. As the stock goes down, I push the accordion bottle down to squeeze out most of the air. When the stock in the accordion bottle is down about half, I pour in more stock from my gal/half gallon bottle of stock. The stock holds up quite well and for a long time in this manner. I usually like the look of 1:1 for XTOL. And it remains very consistent.

[@smokybear7511]

I thought you guys across the pond said shite instead of sh.. Keep up the good work.

[@ShootFilmLikeaBoss]

Either way. Shite sounds good though ha ha

[@richardtierney7724]

I would watch your vlogs just for the commentary LOL!! Brilliant :-))))))

[@jcw.7774]

Really enjoyed this video. Thank you!! Music and cut was on point. Very entertaining. "George, shut it" cracks me up every time... 🤣. Thank for putting in the effort... edutainment at its best👍👍

[@RomasJurelevicius]

Thanks for a video and good sense of humor, Roger! Just got Rollei 400 (not S this time :) ) and your video pop up! Man, please keep going! You are really inspiring lot of people :) Owe you are beer!

[@JohnTomasella]

I've only developed with HC-110. I do want to experiment with Fomapan 100 so I my try XTOL for that.

[@donbennett3723]

I also experienced some splash marks on my developed film when i was using the invert method, so i changed to the twirl method. I've had no problems since. It also eliminates the leaking Patterson tank problem. Make sure the film is completely covered with chemicals. I twirl all the first minute and then 10 sec for each additional minute.

[@maxwellwellmax878]

Isle of Wight!, thought i recognized the island. Thanks for the Video

[@victorcarmelo8606]

Love deserted places to photography and glad you did a vid on the subject, thanks and regards.

[@TrashTheLens]

I haven't shot 400S but I have a love-hate relationship with the 80S. On the one hand I really like it in 135, but on the other, I had a very bad experience with it in 120. I have no complaints about the emulsion itself, which I think is great, but I do about the finish in 120 - basically I had the texture of the backing paper imprinted onto the film. And not just that, but also the round hole in the backing paper left a round mark on the last frame. I've read a "conspiracy theory" somewhere claiming that Retro 80s is the same emulsion as RPX 25. The only difference being that in 120 the former is finished in Foma plant, and the latter in Harman. I find it hard to believe, but hope to test it out. If it turns out to be true, it would be great -- to have this fine emulsion with a reliable Harman finish.

[@VictorBezrukov]

Wow. yesterday I developed the same Rollei Retro 400s and in addition to the great high contrasts I got these backing paper textures and the black rounds on 10 frames and as i remember only 2 were clean of these signs, but I have to scan them to understand better what is happened. I developed it in my regular D-761:1.

[@ShootFilmLikeaBoss]

Lot's of theories out there on film, like what I said about the replenished developer. I started reading JCH Street Pan was same as 400s but more reading and realised it's not. I like RPX25. Shame you had trouble with 80s. I'll watch out for that. Cheers.

[@ShootFilmLikeaBoss]

@@VictorBezrukov ouch! What camera?

[@VictorBezrukov]

@@ShootFilmLikeaBoss Hassey 500cm with Planar 80 attached. As usual is working perfectly. During the complete lockdown, i exposed and developed a few rolls of ilford Delta 400 - everything turned out clean and nice. And this Retro just kicked me out :-) The only roll i got the same strange backing paper textures was a Chinese Shanghai film.

[@ShootFilmLikeaBoss]

@@VictorBezrukov wow. The backing on my 400s was quality.

[@craig243ful]

have you ever done stand developing and if so what did you use?

[@ShootFilmLikeaBoss]

Rodinal. 1/100 for an hour. Developed lots of film that way.

[@craig243ful]

@@ShootFilmLikeaBoss i'm going to give it a try see what happens

[@PiratePhD]

I read that Retro 400S is also sensitive to infrared.

[@GSchmitable]

I live part time on the island and have been following your channel for some time now. Recently Ive set aside my DSLR and having new found fun shooting and learning about photography using old 35mm film cameras. I enjoy watching your film developing techniques and enlarging in the darkroom and have started to collect together the film develop tank, dark bag and chemicals to try the development process of black and white myself. I like seeing where you go to location to take your camera, and especially appreciate your generosity to show the process of shooting on site and enlarging from the negatives later in your darkroom.

[@ShootFilmLikeaBoss]

Once you've got your starter kit sorted it's just fun and practice after that geoffrey. Email me if you need any help. Cheers.

[@seal-nowweretalking6753]

Love your posts geez, you bring the joy back into photography whilst educating us on this wonderful medium. -Seal

[@ShootFilmLikeaBoss]

Cheers SEAL.

[@seal-nowweretalking6753]

@@ShootFilmLikeaBoss So welcome Geez. “SEAL” 😅😅 ….nice touch, you figured me out. ✌🏾&💜

[@kamaksi24]

So at 9:54 i see 3 - 4TB external drives. Is that 3 seperate drives or are they in a raid configuration. Either way, that is some serious storage!

[@ShootFilmLikeaBoss]

Just all separate.

[@edwardcrosby5034]

I’ve shot it with a R72 filter and got some interesting Infrared results, but it goes quite contrasty.

[@ShootFilmLikeaBoss]

Interesting. Cheers Edward.

[@fredricknietzsche7316]

suprised you did not use a colored filter (aka red) with the near infrared film and very bright skys.

[@ShootFilmLikeaBoss]

I don't have one for that camera unfortunately.

[@lensman5762]

Nice . Difficult contrast range to manage and you did well. The 80s is from the same stable as the 400. Very sharp with high sensitivity to the Red light. You need a compensating developer for 80s if you don't want the contrast to get out of hand. I use Adox( Agfa ) Atomal 49 with this film and I rate @ 50. You can get some around £5.00 for a 1L pack. There are 3 parts that need to be mixed with distilled water. One word of advice if you decided to go for it, this Adox version has almost no shelf life so use the stock solution within a couple of weeks. Keep well.

[@ShootFilmLikeaBoss]

Cheers. What about Rodinal? Or XTOL1/3

[@lensman5762]

@@ShootFilmLikeaBoss I would imagine that XTOL is a better choice than Rodinal. If Rodinal is your developer of choice then I would go for stand development. Atomal works very well for low/medium speed films and if the agitation is kept under control it retains shadow detail and highlights well . The grain is just what you'd expect from a 1+1 dilution of D76. I have not worked with XTOL for over 12 years so my memory of its performance is a bit well, non existent TBH. I would have used Atomal as my main developer but for it not lasting long. I have read some of the other developers now manufactured by Adox exhibit the same behaviour such their version of the old Paterson FX39. My guess is that they may have omitted the preservatives from the developers for obvious reasons but then again, I have a suspicious mind.

[@dummbephotos]

Love the turn table. :)

[@MrPeetersmark]

I shoot the rollei retro 400s all the time. Really like the contrast it gives. Gets tricky in the bright sunlight though because it’s sensitive in the infra red region. Messes with the light meter reading.

[@ShootFilmLikeaBoss]

What developer do you find best for it Mark?

[@MrPeetersmark]

I tend to lean towards stand development with rodinal if it’s sunny. Otherwise I use my go to which is hc110.

[@morganmorgann9869]

Another great video ,any tips on loading 120 film onto the spiral for processing not having much luck .thanks.

[@ShootFilmLikeaBoss]

Is it a plastic or steel reel?

[@morganmorgann9869]

@@ShootFilmLikeaBoss Its a plastic reel

[@ShootFilmLikeaBoss]

Email me Morgan. I have a sample clip to send you if it helps.

[@yea6645]

Do you want to trade your 645 back for a 6x7 back? I have one i could swap

[@fredricknietzsche7316]

if you followed the channel closer you would know: 1, its a loaner 2. he prefers 6x4.5 which is why the owner sent him the 645 back to try.

[@ShootFilmLikeaBoss]

Thanks. I do want a 67 back but need the 45 also.

[@ShootFilmLikeaBoss]

@@fredricknietzsche7316 it was gifted Fredrick lol