Shooting Eastman (Double-X) 5222 in the Leica

Speaking of Crawley and FX Accutance Developers, I do have four plastic sealed brown bottles of ACUTOL (no longer available) that I bought three or four years ago from B&H in NYC. Hope it's still good........

I really should try some of this with the XX and +X I am using.
 
The Acutol seems to last a long time if unopened. You can get a chrystaline deposit, but I find that if you warm it up a bit, it will redissolve. Once opened it "dies" rather quickly though. I have three 1000 ml glass bottles, sealed left from a decade or two ago! One day I will try it out, but i dont expect a miracle.
 
i have never processed my own film and don't have the time or inclination to start now. but i am interestedin trying out this eastman 5222 stuff. can i send it to dwaynes for regular B/W processing?

thanks.

bob
 
bob338 said:
i have never processed my own film and don't have the time or inclination to start now. but i am interestedin trying out this eastman 5222 stuff. can i send it to dwaynes for regular B/W processing?

thanks.

bob
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Bob,
Don't know Dwaynes, but if they use a standard-type developer (like D-76) you'll like the results. 5222 is very tolerant of developer-choice, so I'd say, give it a try if you are so inclined.
-Dan
 
Ive been out street-shooting today, with M5/XX and 21mm f4 CV lens. Really like the M5 spot-metering, when I get into the deep shade, or inside, where exposure becomes much more of a total guess! Spent a very enjoyable part of the afternoon under an open-air tent, in the beer garden :D

Mixed 500ml of the A-B Beutler this morning, it's easy to mix with no problems. Will try it first on a mixture of +X/XX. And I have two 100' rolls of Kodak Tri-X, that I bought last month from B&H, so I'm going to roll some of that off, to test against the XX. Both are EI 250 films, I'm very interested in any tonality differences. I suspect apples and oranges, the current Tri-X has been reformulated so many times, the XX is the good old stuff. Anyway haven't shot any real Tri-X in probably 20 years, so I suspect I'll be surprised with the results.
 
You will probably find that the Tri X is pretty close to 400 with Beutler ( I use 11.5 minutes time with it). I have 5 rolls od XX to do tonight and I will do it in slightly reduced time in Beutler 1:1:8 and add some anti-fog (15 ml of 1% solution. Last batch had a bit of fog showing.
Just got 10x100ft of Arista 400 - supposedly re-spooled Tri X. Will roll some up this week and see (Freestyle @ $30/roll!).
Still trying finish off the last 15 or so rolls of Plus X/5322 before fall and gloomy weather arrives too.
 
It seems that the 5231/Plus X works best in Beutler 1:1:10 for 6 min. 10sec/60 sec agitation. Speed is pretty well nailed at 80 asa (though even 100 is fine and easier to remember).
The XX works well in Beutler 1:1:8 and 11 min (same agitation cycle). I did a run without anti fog and found it a bit "grey" and I did one with anti fog (15ml 1% solution for 1500 ml of developer) and the edges cleared up. The first batch could have been due to the fix getting to the end of its life though. Will do some more and check it. The Beutler gives you good edges and a easy neg to scan with plenty of details in shadows. Speed around 250/320 (remember I shoot mainly "Sunny f16" rule with XX). Grain is distinct but oh,so sharp!!!
 
Went out early this evening, to another local festival (this one celebrating the tomatoe). Took M5 loaded with XX and the Canon 35mm f2 to further try out. Despite some rain, I was able to shoot most of a roll, though initially I didn't think XX had the speed for night shooting. Surprisingly, only a few night frames were 1/8 or 1/15, most were 1/30 or 1/45 at F2. Also, no problems at all shooting in the dark with M5's meter, it works perfectly (and I already know it's dead accurate). Even took some (very easy to do) rock-concert pix, of one of the local bands, on the XX. Some very good flare-tests were made with the Canon F2. I really think I'm going to like that lens.

Tommorrow, Leann and I will go back during the day, and I'll probably shoot M2 with more +X, if it's bright. I'm very close to making my first Buetler run, have 500ml of A-B mixed up ready to go. If it's crappy, more XX in M5.
 
Thanks.
Flickr tags are a world of their own. I go wandering off to some strange and interesting places, to the detriment of what I first went for - such is life.
 
This is why I like Flickr! You start out looking for something specific and just looking something up in an old style encyclopedia - you suddenly find yourself looking a sculptures and "staged" scenes done with Lego or in an seemingly endless "slideshow" of black and white pictures. Much is "dreck", but some of the stuff is really good. Just wish that those digital shooters would edit their cards before they dump them on Flickr!!
 
Just got off the phone with Film emporium, says they are clean out of short rolls of Double-X and Plus-X. Only way to get any from them is the order the full 400' or 1000'ft rolls.

The person on the phone says its seldom to see such short rolls like the 100'ft - 200'ft rolls come in since they give so little time for film makers. Not worth it to sell it back, they just shoot it and use it up.
 
ItsReallyDarren said:
Just got off the phone with Film emporium, says they are clean out of short rolls of Double-X and Plus-X. Only way to get any from them is the order the full 400' or 1000'ft rolls.

The person on the phone says its seldom to see such short rolls like the 100'ft - 200'ft rolls come in since they give so little time for film makers. Not worth it to sell it back, they just shoot it and use it up.
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So if you really want to give it a good try, commit and buy a fresh roll from Kodak NYC. It's really not so expensive. "Short Ends" from what I am gathering, are scarfed up rather quickly, like within an hour or two of being turned in. I lucked out and got a "Long End" from them, but really it's the luck-of-the-draw. Why not just call Kodak (they are very nice and helpful!) and roll some XX up?? Bet you'll like it.
 
I just finished hanging four more rolls, which I just ran together. Two rolls of 5222 XX, and two rolls of 5231 +X. Developer used this time was ADOX Borax MQ, in a four-reel metal Honeywell Nikor tank. Temperature was 21C (ambient), developing time was eight minutes, agitation was fifteen seconds initially, then five seconds every 60 seconds. My ADOX is about three months old at this point, and I haven't used it in awhile. I wanted to see how it would do with +X, and the XX rolls were important to me, and this is my favorite dev so far.

All frames look great (as usual) I'd guess I'm getting about 100EI from this combination with the +X. As exposure is increased slightly, shadow detail is amazing, while still not burning out the highlight values. Detail is incredible. I -really- like this +X Movie Stuff, and the important XX rolls also look fabulous, which I completely expected.

I loaded two more fresh rolls of each, XX for M5, and +X for M2. Getting great results from all of these. Tommorrow my new 85mm f1.5 Canon arrives, you -know- I'll be out playing with that with both bodies!
 
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Does anybody else remember Eastman 4X Pan (about ISO 500) os XT Pan (about ISO 40) from back when the movie folks were still shooting a lot of B&W? I really miss XT pan.
 
Al

I remember both 4x and Xt Pan. It seems like I got them from Freestyle or what ever their company was called then.

I am out of town until Wednesdays 10/8 and I will go back and look in my files to see how I developed them and see how they scan. I haven't gone back so far in my collection of negs before, this would give me a good reason to do so. I think I was using a Pentax Spotmatic at the time. Might be fun to look back.

Seems like I remember them from the late 60's or early 70's.

Thanks Al for bringing up this memory.

Leo
 
A quick note, I ordered a 400' roll of XX 5222 from Kodak a couple of days ago. The rep on the phone asked if I wanted 100' or 400' rolls. So in case anyone is wondering, Kodak must have 100' rolls in stock.

I'm getting ready for my yearly pilgrimage to Japan. I will be in the closet loading this weekend. Going to give my Leica/Summar IIIa a workout this trip.

~Gary
 
Perhaps they meant 1000' rolls? It also comes in 4000' rolls.
Personally I will stick to the 400' ones. Quite easy to load by hand, no bulk loader required.
 
Last weekend I shot a roll of 5222 at EI 640 (approximately) and developed them in Diafine. I had to print most of them at a #3 contrast filter instead of my usual #2, but they were very easy to print. I have posted a few samples (scanned from the prints) in the flickr Eastman Kodak 5222 group.
 
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