I am not a stranger to Rollei films, but I have to say that never used anything faster than 25 ASA. Never had to, given my excellent relations with other film faster than that. But to be honest, this 200 ASA thing became a curiosity, after a discussion with a friend of mine regarding films with an intermediate speed, between 100 and 200 ASA. I am using FP4 125 and have been a friend of the long gone Kodak Plus-X 125.
I usually shoot the FP4 at 80, rarely using at box speed, so I wanted to check this Rollei 200 when shot at 125. However, plans made at home almost never get followed to the letter, when in the field. So, simply put, this roll was shot at box speed, 200 ASA, with perhaps a couple of shots having the yellow filter on.
The grain is there all right, but it is very shy to appear in its full splendour. I thought this film will show more of it, given its sensitivity. But it was all right, I am pleased with the grain as it is. As I have developed in Rodinal, I expected something of the kind. Perhaps next time change to something not so harsh, something like D76, I guess.
There is some trouble with the highlights but this is my fault I believe. The film was very accommodating with my (at times) wrong reading of the light, shadows and such. The latitude is not so extensive as I thought it would be, but then again Rollei says so.
I was really surprised at how this film reads the various colours. Of course, being a bw film, it does so in a different way than the colour film, but there are differences between this 200 Superpan and say, Fomapan 100. The Rollei sees red in a different way, and at times, if you look close enough, you can see the whitish fringe of the IR. Perhaps I am just seeing things, because one would need a deep red filter to reach the spectral reading for this sort of images. So yes, I am seeing things 🙂 .
Although Nikon FM3A does not have a spot meter, I hoped to take the meter reading on the pipe, not of the sky. It did not work as intended, but the film took care of this and adjusted. Quite impressed.
Tonal ranges are good, at least to my eyes. When shooting with intent to “burn” some parts of the image, it does not destroy them areas, but tackles gently the challenge, like in the last picture here.
