Loaded into the 1.15L tank inside daylight changing bag. Pre-wet film for ~20 minutes. During the pre-soak, mixed 15mL Rodinal (5mL/roll) in ~900mL distilled water. Poured developer in and topped off with distilled water. Agitated 40x over the first minute, then 10x more at 30:00. All agitations are half-agitations, gently (i.e., gently twisting to a 90-degree inversion, then gently back).

After sixty minutes, disposed of developer, rinsed in ~68 degree tap water. Fixed in Arista fixer 1+4 for 6 minutes (that’s now 9 rolls from this batch of fixer), inverting 10x over 15 seconds at the top of every minute. Reclaimed 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 1432

All in all, I like this roll: NP100 looks good in Rodinal, although I think I like the less-grainy look it has in HC-110 better. Still, it’s crisp and has a nice even response curve, and basically works well for landscapes.

A little more agitation would have paid off, since there’s some haloing around sharp edges with different brightnesses on some shots (e.g., 15). There are some focusing problems with the shots taken through the longer lens from time to time.

Roll 1438

The cathedral (00-06) looks great on this film in Rodinal: fine but visible grain, clean lines, nice texture on the ceiling tiles. I’m less enthusiastic about how it does on the musicians outside: a mediocre job of handling the unflattering light, not awful but certainly not fantastic. All in all, highlights are blown out for much of the rest of the roll, so I’m inclined to say it’s overdeveloped and that a shorter development period, or less Rodinal in the soup, would have paid off. Still, it’s workable with a lot of shots, and there are places where the composition works well with the stately medium grays here (e.g., 18).

The second half of the roll, in the French Quarter, is much more successful with people (e.g., 26 and 27). There are some nicely captured moments on this part of the roll (26, 29, 37), too. I’m calling this roll a success.

Roll 1439

No surprise, this is underexposed; and because it’s high-contrast microfilm, the whole roll looks pretty dark. I had expected stand developing to help, and I think it did, some, but not as much as I’d hoped.

Still, there are shots that work well, and the darkness and the high contrast sometimes work together to produce weirdly surreal appearances.