Adox CMS 20 II AND Rodinal

[robklurfield]

I was not happy with the excessive contrast and near total lack of mid-range tones when I used CMS 20 the first time a year or two ago. It seemed almost impossible to control in Adolux and Adolux here in the US is super-expensive ($17.00 for just enough soup for five 35mm rolls ... ouch!). So, I gave up on the film after just five rolls. Withe passage of time, I thought I'd give myself another chance with it.

I figured that Rodinal is really the most versatile chemical for someone like myself who isn't big on technique.

What I did with this most recent roll was expose it at 6 ISO (it's box speed is 20, but who believes that). My previous roll was 12 and it still difficult to get what I wanted. 6 seems right for my tastes. I diluted the Rodinal to 1+200 ... approximately (I suspect the tube attached to the measuring syringe I used made this less than accurate). Didn't pay attention to temperature. 20 minutes semi-stand (1 minute of agitation at the beginning; 1 minute at the 10 minute mark).

Suddenly I've got some mid-range grays. I challenge you to find the grain in this film.

No crop...

Same image; a bit of cropping (it's from Aperture so I have no clue what percent of crop it is, but really, who cares)...

 

[robklurfield]

 

[robklurfield]

 

[robklurfield]

 

[jalLee2001]

Very impressive

Very impressive

I will need to give this a shot. This reminds me of plus x from the 80's.

 

[robklurfield]

jalLee, thanks. Think Pan-X not Plus-X. This stuff is really, really slow. I like it best 6 ISO. Even at 12 ISO the contrast was too high and I consistently under-exposing.

 

[raytoei@gmail.com]

rob,

how does one shoot at iso 6 ?

assuming outdoors, beach or shopping mall, any chance of capturing people in crowded places ?

i was sort of fantasizing about a Andrea Gursky print with lots and lots of details....

 

[redisburning]

you shoot at f4 or brighter, presumably. tripods are good too.

very impressive results, and certainly more economical than using Adolux. I will give this combination a try using my planar.

edit: did you use film version I or II?

 

[gb hill]

Really liked that shot Reduced Speed. has a dreamy effect going on.

 

[loquax ludens]

I like this a lot. I'm going to give it a try, first in 35mm, then in Minox 8x11mm.

 

[peter_n]

edit: did you use film version I or II?

He posted it as CMS 20 II in another thread.

 

[robklurfield]

It's CMS II.

I shot most of these on days with strong sunlight, though I was sometimes shooting into or from shadowed areas. Most of the images are at f1.4 to f4. Everything was hand-held, but the light was bright enough that I was shooting at speeds anywhere from 1/250th to 1/30th ... though I don't think most were slower than 1/60th.

See my flickr page for more ....
http://www.flickr.com/photos/robertklurfield/sets/72157630370897812/