• 1305: St. Paul / Inver Grove Heights / Duluth, MN. (18–30 July 2022. Ilford HP5+ @ EI 400) (on top.)
  • 1304: St Paul. (18 July 2022. Ilford HP5+ @ EI 400) (on bottom.)

Two more rolls in one of the two-roll tanks, developed at an overlapping time as rolls 1271/1286/1292/1295 are in the five-roll tank. All are HP5+ at EI 400. I’m trying out a new K-mount lens I picked up cheap, a Tokina 35–135mm zoom lens. The zoom function is a bit sticky, and I’m hoping that’s why the previous owner abandoned it at a secondhand store; image quality looks good through the camera body but I want to see some photos developed before I start using it regularly.

Loaded inside daylight changing bag. Pre-wet film for about an hour. During the pre-soak, mixed 500mL Caffenol CL: 8g washing soda; wait for it to dissolve and stop bubbling; 5g Vitamin C, wait for it to dissolve and stop bubbling; 10g iodized salt, wait for it to dissolve and stop bubbling; 20g instant coffee, wait for it to fully dissolve and for bubbles to dissipate, all in 400mL tap water, topped off to 500mL. Poured developer in. Agitated 20x over the 30 seconds, then 5x at 25:00. All agitations are gentle half-agitations (i.e., gently twisting to a 90-degree inversion, then gently back). There are none, so it looks like the lids are correctly matched to the tanks again.

After 60 minutes, disposed of developer, rinsed in 72 degree water. Fixed in Ilford Rapid Fixer 1+4 for 6 minutes (that’s now 24 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 tap water and agitated 20x, and hung negatives vertically to dry.

Evaluation and notes

Roll 1304

Roll seems to be somewhat over-developed, especially at the beginning (say, first six or so shots). Often tonemapping a raw negative results in very usable negatives, though (e.g., 09, where what couldn’t be salvaged from blown-out highlights in a direct scan shows a whole lot more detail).

Compositionally and in terms of subject matter, I’ve sure had more inspired rolls, although there are some nice compositions with strong off-diagonal elements here (e.g., 14, 15, 17, 21). Really, the last half of the roll makes up for the lackluster first half.

Roll 1305

Again, this roll seems overdeveloped. Tonemapping raw files often provides usable pictures, though the photos at the end that show people make it clear just how much contrast still remains.

Some of the shots here are really beautiful, and sometimes the contrast works well with their composition (13, 14, 19, 30), fortuitously. Frankly, I’m happier with some of these shots than I have been with a lot of film lately.