• [empty spool] (on top.)
  • 1265: Minneapolis Institute of Arts (19 Sept. 2021. Fomapan 400 [as Lomography Lady Grey] @ EI 400.)
  • 1264: Red Wing Memorial Park / new house / Minneapolis Institute of Arts (4–17 Sept. 2021. Ilford HP5+ @ EI 400.)
  • 1263: Beer Dabbler beer fest / Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden & Bird Sanctuary / Maiden Rock cider / Red Wing Memorial Park (28 August–4 Sept. 2021. Fomapan 400 as Lomography Lady Grey @ EI 400.)
  • 1262: Lyndale Park rose garden (all 80-200mm zoom lens) / Beer Dabbler Summer Beer Fest. (7–28 August 2021. Bergger Pancro 400 @ EI 400.) (On bottom.)

Four 400-speed rolls, all shot at box speed, leaving the top spool empty because that makes rinsing easier. Developed on 35mm rolls in the five-roll tank. This is just a standard eighty-minute semi-stand development with one agitation interval after the first minute.

Loaded inside daylight changing bag. Pre-wet film for about half an hour. During the pre-soak, mixed 12 mL Rodinal in 1L distilled water. Poured developer in and topped off with distilled water. Agitated 40x over the first minute, then inverted tank once without further agitating at 40:00. Initial agitations are half-agitations, gently (i.e., gently twisting to a 90-degree inversion, then gently back). After the halfway inversion, let tank sit upside-down, monitoring for leaks. There are none, so it looks like the lids are correctly matched to the tanks again.

After 80 minutes, disposed of developer, rinsed in 68 degree water. Fixed in Ilford Rapid Fixer 1+4 for 6 minutes (that’s now 18 rolls from this batch of fixer), inverting 10x over 15 seconds at the top of every minute. Dumped fixer and rinsed for ten minutes in tap water, then emptied tank, added a few drops of Photo-Flo, filled tank with distilled water and agitated 20x, and hung negatives vertically to dry.

Evaluation and notes

Roll 1262

Really nice separation between floral blooms and the rest of the plant here. As with the rose garden shots on the previous roll, the long lens with the narrow depth of field really pays off here. Pancro 400 has a really delicate texture (especially 3, 4, 8) with a lot of depth, though there’s still an awful lot of grain, and I’d like to see it held back more. Maybe holding temperature down and extending development time next time? (Or finally trying HC-110?) There’s really nice texture on the photos of the statuary, too.

Last third of the roll, after the rose garden, is largely a waste, though there are some decent street shots from the beer fest. Grain works less well here, though.

Roll 1263

Nice texture on a lot of the flower shots here; again, Fomapan looks good in Rodinal. Many of the shots in the shade are underexposed, which is weird; but the shots in the sun are exposed properly.

Shots of Memorial Park are largely a loss: bird lit from above is mostly shadow, not surprisingly; and there’s little tonal separation between objects in the rest.

Roll 1264

I really like the look of HP5+ in Rodinal.

Better separation between tones, bettler look on the bird illuminated from above: lots more detail visible here compared to the Fomapan 400.

Photos of the new house are largely a loss, compositionally; but many of the MiA shots are wonderful: lots of glorious texture on the statuary; plenty of dynamic range; comparatively fine grain with lots of detail. HP5+ looks good in Rodinal.

Roll 1265

Lots of things here are underexposed, as I expected when shooting: it’s dark in the MiA. But a fair number of the frames turned out well; some are really beautiful, especially early in the roll: 2, 10-20. Some of the African sculpture came out really well, too: lots of details on dark statutary on 22, for instance, and some of the following shots. There’s a nice light detail/dark detail balance on some of the mid-roll shots, too, especially 44.

All in all, though there are successes here, Fomapan 400 under any name just doesn’t have enough dynamic range in Rodinal to really get this particular job done.

photos posted