Never Push Rollei Retro 400s Two Stops

Pushing film is fun, or at least it is until you get too greedy. Join Casey this week as he pushes two rolls of Rollei Retro 400S to 1600iso. The contrast is extreme in this episode. So if you love your photos punchy and grainy, stick around. If you like well exposed photos and solid film latitude, you probably want to skip this one.
Also, if you like Xpan style panorama photos, you'll enjoy this episode.
Cameras:
Canon EOS 30
Pentax 6x7
Film:
Rollei Retro 400S
Thank you to The Tacoma Photo Center for developing this film!
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[@hatonafox5170]

I’m not sure where you’re getting those development times from. Rolliei specifically states on their data sheet that for every stop pushed it’s 1.33 times the base development time. So 15 x 1.33 = 19.95. Multiply by 1.33 again and you get 26.5 minutes. The only way you’d develop this long is if you were doing stand development in Rodinal instead of agitation or rotary development. Also when you push using Rodinal it’s usually a good idea to increase the dilution by 1.5ml per stop per roll in the tank. The margin for error on this film is really low at box speed. Your metering mistakes are really amplified and you absolutely should meter for the shadows. Under development probably wasn’t really an issue. I’d say the primary issue was metering in several frames since you definitely had some looking good. Some of them looked 2 stops underexposed and others a single stop.

[@mamiyapress]

The " Naked Photographer " has tested this film and states that it is a 25 ISO film and at 400 ISO it is already pushed 4 stops. You are shooting this film with a 6 stop push, madness.

[@northwestdepressed]

If that's true, I feel even worse for my lab now, hahahaha. Honestly, that would make a lot of sense though that it is a lower iso film that they push, especially with that amount of contrast at 400 iso. Thanks for sharing, I'll have to go check out his video now!

[@2071photo]

If you load it correctly you can get all 20 frames from the roll, I have a video on my channel on how to do it.

[@northwestdepressed]

I’ll check that out!

[@psybard]

If you're wondering, rollei retro 400s is aerial photography film Agfa Aviphot Pan 200, often exposed somewhere between 125-200 for pictorial use. So by rating your light meter at 1600, it was a 3 stop underexposure minimum, hence the results. Developping longer (pushing) doesn't change the exposure (it's set when you take the shot) but increase the negative density in the higlights (they're "darker"), rendering them "brighter" on the positive. Shadows are unaffected, what's not recorded on the film as a consequence of the volontary underexposure is gone.

[@northwestdepressed]

Thank you for all this information, I did not know it was made by Agfa and that it was an aerial film stock. It makes sense being an aerial film with that higher sensitivity in the red and infrared spectrum. I honestly gained interest in shooting this film after reading about films with infrared density for trichrome work. Makes perfect sense now that I was a full stop under exposed, thank you for the run down!

[@thebramputra]

it's nice.. don't see what's wrong with it.. ?

[@northwestdepressed]

I appreciate that. I think I just had expectations that weren't met with these photos. Also the guilt of that long development time.

[@mlwadester87]

Box speed summer >

[@northwestdepressed]

Box Speed Summer > Sad boy Summer

[@krautnapped]

It really does have that old school run-it-through-a-copier-a-dozen-times punk rock look. Gonna just file this information away for a rainy day.

[@katebr1737]

Interesting video, I haven’t ever developed my films, keep wondering if I should! Loved the panorama with the boat leaving.

[@anthonymiller8979]

Something very interesting about the effect. Dark yes, and lots of lost detail but still something about these I like. Thank you for sharing.

[@northwestdepressed]

I think there's something worth exploring here, but that development time, it's a bit brutal.

[@StephenWhitakerImages]

Great video! For me, the Cinestill chemistry has been a godsend for developing at home relatively easily and economically. The F96 monobath for black and white is wizardry as far as I’m concerned. For most films, bumping the temperature ten degrees and reducing agitation for 6 minutes instead of 4 is sufficient for a 1 stop push, so I assume it wouldn’t take much more for the retro (although I think the 1-stop push yields box speed for the 80 and 400, and I don’t think the tech sheet covers 2-stop push for those). In any case, the fact that I can process anything in a single bath for 3-4 min near room temp or just above before rinsing and calling it a day feels like a cheat code.

[@northwestdepressed]

I need to get on your level! The world of developing film is a mysterious art form to me. I think I might have to jump head first into the shallows on developing sooner than later.

[@StephenWhitakerImages]

@@northwestdepressed easy once you’ve done it once or twice. hmu if you want to try it out

[@danboxer6808]

Enjoyed the video and shots of rainy downtown and your experiment pushing that film. You should definitely give film development a try. It's fun, can be pretty simple and offers new insights into how you make choices when shooting with development in mind. And with Tacoma Photo Center available, you don't have get a bunch of Dev gear, even though BW kit is pretty basic and relatively low cost. And then you can learn to print your negs, which is so much fun

[@northwestdepressed]

It's one of those thing where I'll probably tell myself, "Why did I wait so long to do this? Hahaha

[@basstubert]

@@northwestdepressed I did ;-)