Through the 3 years I’ve shot film in earnest I’ve tried a few film stocks, but mostly shot on Fomapan 400, HP5+ or Kodak Tri-X. A little while ago I shot my last roll of Fomapan 400 which meant it was time to get started on the most recent acquisition, my supply of Rollei Retro 400 S, a film stock that I heard about from Ted Vieira when he was a guest on the Negative Positives podcast. I shot a roll of that stock in my medium format camera a while back and enjoyed it so I figured I’d give it a go in my 135 cameras too.
I’ve only developed a single roll of it so far (working on roll 2 and 3 in my 135 cameras at the moment), but I must say I do like it very much! It’s quite contrasty compared to the Fomapan 400 I’ve shot a lot of lately, but that is stuff that appeals to me, it looks like the images have a bit more punch! Also, they’re a heck of a lot less dusty and with less drying spots than the Fomapan stuff that I’ve had issues with a lot lately. Not to mention it dried ridiculously flat in the drying cabinet and was a breeze to scan!
The shots in this post were done at the small seaside port and village of Barsebäckshamn, not too far away from were I live on a very sunny (but windy) day. It feels good to be out by the sea at any point during the year, but I must admit it is a lot more tolerable when there’s swimmers in the water, rather than ice!
I don’t know if I will shoot this exclusively from now on, but it looks like I’ll shoot quite a lot of it in the future. It’s a little bit more expensive than the Fomapan 400 I’ve shot before, but not excessively so (like the even nicer JCH Streetpan I shot a roll of a while back), so I can work with that.
