Rollei Superpan 200

I tried a roll. Some sort of surveillance film, with emulsion defects and impurities. Not recommended.
 
I picked up five rolls of 120 on the cheap, here is how it is going so far:

First roll, completely blank due to bad information on the internet for XTOL dilution and development time. It was so underdeveloped there were no numbers on the film edge.

Second roll, a few useable exposures and I determined that I should rate it closer to ISO 200 than the 400 that Rollei/Maco claims for it in XTOL.

Third roll, I determined to rate it at ISO 160 and had interesting results on the two shots that worked. Here they are:

5307180495_807acfe2f8_b.jpg


5307181165_4d35be4eb1_b.jpg


That said, there is no latitude in this film - correct exposure or nothing! It is also very sensitive to light exposure during loading and unloading and I had some lost frames as a result. Best to load and unload in a changing bag.

Two rolls left and maybe some time to kill tomorrow. If so I'm going to try it out with the red filter. I don't have an IR filter but apparently it can be used as an IR film. To be honest, I'm off work and enjoying this as a technical and learning exercise :D , but I would not be happy at all if these were important photos taken in my usually busy spare time :mad: .

In case it helps someone in the future, the shots that worked were exposed as ISO 160 and developed in XTOL 1+1 for 18 min at 20°C.

Cheers,
Rob
 
Shot my 1st roll a few days ago. Measured a little under 200 ISO and developped in rodinal.
I quite like the result. Negatives print nicely, but curl a little.

zw201_05.jpg

Fuji M670 / 100/3.5

Dirk
 
It's a surveillance film with extended red sensitivity and s-shaped density curve.
The extended red sensitivity means that you can get wood effect with a 720nm filter.
The s-shaped curve means that the midtones are rather contrasty while the contrast in the lights and shadow is low. Lights can block easily. Exposure needs to be rather precise unlike other bw films.
All this is valid for the Rollei 80S as well.

At least the Superpan is picky regarding development. Some reported failures seem to suggest that a too short development (which would lead to a rather modest underdevelopment with most films) leads to a nearly clear film with Superpan.
I had one fail in XTOL (which was proven good) but was too lazy to track down the specific cause (which could have been in my case: no prewetting, dilution, amount of development).
I save my few remaining Superpan and 80S for infrared.
 
Its late to jump on this forum but I want to know about prewetting and some other developers for this film specifically mic-x, rodinal, d76, and caffeinol. any advice?
 
Its late to jump on this forum but I want to know about prewetting and some other developers for this film specifically mic-x, rodinal, d76, and caffeinol. any advice?


I tried Rodinal stand development with this film. Too grainy for my taste, but it prints ok in the darkroom. Here is one example (negative scan, not print):

11380526384_efed189ff5_c.jpg
 
I too have recently tried it in Rodinal, and like the results. It has a much better dynamic range and more latitude in Rodinal than in XTOL, as well as a bit more grain. Here is an example:

11178189844_bb33e935dd_b.jpg


Cheers,
Rob
 
So, when these companies say "change in sunbdued light" does this mean "changing bag?"

I was a little disappointed in my latest experiment with SILVERMAX 21 described here. Maybe this was the reason?

By the way Valdas, the cat is a rather striking picture! :)

John
 
It is Aviphot 200 PE1 film from Agfa Gevaert. Aviation type film emulsion on clear Polyester 100um layer hence the advise to change in subdue light. The film has a sensitivity around iso 200.
http://www.agfa.com/docs/sp/aerial/aviphot_pan200_2004-06-15_en.pdf

You can use it for IR film too and in most developers it can be rather contrastly film.
Superpan 200 and retro 400S is the same emulsion. There is also a retro 80S, an equivelent type film on iso 50.

The film is difficult to push so the best results you will reach between iso 160-250 although iso 400 is possible.


Industar-61_SP200 by Fotohuis (Robert), on Flickr

SP200 E.I. 400 in AM74. FED5b + Industar 61 L/D.


Suzanne by Fotohuis (Robert), on Flickr

SP200 E.I. 400 in AM74. M7 + Summicron 2,0/50mm.


Ravenstein, Voigtländer Bessa III 667 by Fotohuis (Robert), on Flickr

SP200 E.I. 160 in AM74. C.V. Bessa III 667 (3,5/80mm Heliar).


Image1-10, C.V. Bessa III 667 by Fotohuis (Robert), on Flickr

SP200 E.I. 200 in D74. C.V. Bessa III 667 (3,5/80mm Heliar).
Scan from fiber-print.

Good results in AM74, D74 and also A-49 seems to be very suitable for retro 80S/400S aka SP200.
Rodinal 1+25 to contrastly. I did not check 1+100 or so. Maybe better.
 
If you are into Rollei Films, why would you want to use Rollei 200? It is a "difficult" film just as Fotohuis/ Robert said. Go with RPX 400 or RPX 100 instead, the faster is simple like TRI-X amd the slower 100 Iso is a very nice fine grain film that likes 1:100 dilution with Rodinal very much. You cannot go to simpler developer/ film combo nowdays. For extra speed, Maco has the RPX-D developer for RPX 400, fine grain with speed up to 1600 iso with "normal" contrast and grain.
http://jukkapro.blogspot.fi/
 
Well, these Retro films have fine grain and are very sharp and you can do IR with it.
The RPX film range are regular panchromatic films and yes they push well especially with the RPX-D, designed by SPUR for Rollei. A RPX 25 will be also introduced within this product line. An iso range from 25-1600 has been covered then for these Rollei RPX films.
 
I shoot Rollei Superpan films at 160 successfully. I use it because it is the fastest film that uses the polyester base. The polyester base has superior archival qualities.
Otherwise I would use T-max 400.
 
You are right about the polyester base. Fomapan 120 roll films have also Polyester base. But the Rollei S series (S)ynthetic have all 100um polyester base in 35mm and roll film format.
 
I know it's an old thread, but I have just developed two rolls of Superpan 200 (35mm) and both were so thin, almost completely transparent, barely can see any image. The thing is that I used to develop it in Rodinal. This time I tried in XTOL 1+2 (14 min as recommended in the massive dev chart). The developer is fine - I used the same stock to develop TRI-X just an hour later and this came out fine. I am not sure what went wrong with Superpan in Xtol, but the same lesson learned once again - always test the new combo of film/developer using the test strip...
 
... always test ...

Absolutely. Particularly unusual films like Superpan 200. Expect to toss the first roll or two as part of the learning process.

I bought a dozen rolls of Rollei (Agfa) Superpan 200 in 35mm-36exp format a few years back. It is a difficult film to learn because it's a bit unforgiving. I shot some with it using my (1939) Berning Robot II, Nikon F6, Leica R8, Leica M4-2, and Leica CL. The F6 and R8 don't like it much ... the thin base drives the film transport a little goofy and frame spacing is all over the map. The CL didn't like it much either; it jammed the transport at frame 14 and had to be unloaded. The Robot II and M4-2 worked fine with it.


Leica R8 + Elmarit-R 135mm f/2.8
Rollei Superpan 200


Manually loading reels with it for processing is a pain due to the thin base and its propensity to curl. I've found using the Agfa Rondix 35 tank is ideal for processing it ... No reel to load. The Rondix 35 is a continuous agitation system. I fitted an orange filter and exposed at EI 80 to adjust for the filter light loss. Development in the Rondix 35 uses HC-110 mixed from concentrate at 1:49, 68°F, for eight minutes. The negatives it makes are contrasty, full of texture and grain, and decent density in the shadows.

Scanning it is also a pain: the Nikon Coolscan V autoloading negative carrier gets all twisted up again due to the thin film base and the variable frame spacing (with F6 and R8 cameras). I used the manual carrier, which is slow but reliable, except with the Robot II, where frame spacing was pretty regular and I found VueScan parameters that drove the autoload reasonably well.

Some others made with Superpan 200: Superpan 200 – GDGPhoto on Flickr

I still have a couple of rolls of 135 format left, but I think I might pick up a couple of rolls in 120 format and try it out in the SWC and the Perkeo II. It's a tricky film but fun to tussle with. After all, if you want ease or reliability, just use Tri-X or FP5 ... :)

enjoy,
G
 
I use Superpan 200 in 120. No problems with loading it in my Jobo reels and perfectly flat after drying. Shot at 200 and developed in Rodinal 1+25 for 8min.

 
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