venerdì 18 settembre 2020

Rollei Retro 400S Rodinal Special : Portraits and Street

Some shots and impression of Rollei Retro 400S shot with my EOS 620

Developed in RO 09 Spezial (aka Rodinal Special or Studional) 1+31 for 15 minutes, standard 20°C.

Some Portraits in open shade of Raffaella.


Or a portrait in the evening, dusk.

Overall the skin tone rendition is extremely smooth and pleasant, the tonnes are differentiated. Highlights keep wonderful. Shadow are closed, as usual for this line of film, but not blocked.



Some street shots and Architecture shots.

In the shade of a cloister:

Chiostro di Santa Marta - Canon EF 28/1.8

But also in the evening sun, the contrast is managed acceptably, with a strong result.

Borgo Palazzo


In this evening sun shot, the quality is high, architecture details are differentiated.


Here a detail from  36MP scan. I think quite impressive for a 400 ASA film: there is moderate, sharp grain with amazing detail! So much finer than e.g. HP5, Foma 400 or such.


Sum up: impressive film, if you can live with the difficult shadows and precise exposition needed. NO overdeveloping, or highlights will get dense. Nothing really hard like Retro 80, it is more like a faster version of the SuperPan 200.