Shooting Eastman (Double-X) 5222 in the Leica

I've followed this for a while, and want to get back into bulk loading. But I don't want to deal with 400 feet. That leaves Orwo. How does the 400 speed Orwo stack up against Double X?
Thanks,
 
If you go to Flickr - thera two sites with ORWO stuff. "New ORWO black and white film" and "ORWO film". Plenty of samples there - and on this site there is enough XX stuff to compare.
I have shot some of the ORWO 74 and it i very close to the XX -and it is marginally faster (true 400 iso). At the moment I am shooting with the ORWO UN 54 - the 100 iso film. Looking for a replacement for the EK 5231. Very similar quality.
My best results have been with either D96 or Pyrocat HD (ORWO 74) and Beutler 1:1:10 for 7 min with the ORWO UN 54 at 100 iso.
 
Tom:
Thanks. I'm not able to judge how a film will print in a traditional darkroom by looking at Flicker - I guess it's just lack of training on my part. I like Acros 100 (the old Arista rebranded stuff) with Beutler 1:1:10. I'll try the Orwo UN 54 and probably some 74 in D-23 1:3. Thanks again for the help.
 
I got an email from one of a film house alerting me that they have short ends of 5222 for .20 per foot. Not a bad price considering how hard short ends are to find these days.

PM me if you want the contact info.

Bob

edit--they have asked me to handle getting orders together, they don't have the time or resources to deal with small orders. so please PM me directly with the amount that you want and i'll try to get it going.
 
I have just finished running (now drying) eight rolls of Eastman XX, which I processed in an old eight-reel Nikor tank. I used the soup I tried just previously, which seems to work quite well:

1900 ml water at 20C
32 ml HC-110 straight syrup
20 ml straight Rodinal
water at 20C to make 2000ml

Processing time was 11.5 minutes at 20C, with 20 sec initial agitation, then 5 inversions per minute thereafter. Negs look very smooth, great middletone and highlight detail, and with sufficent exposure, plenty of shadow detail. One extra stop seems to look better to me than exposing it per meter readings (eg: 1/250 at f/11 looks better to me than 1/250 at f/16 in full sun). I habitually shoot two frames, most often I prefer the one with the extra exposure. These rolls are all shot with my Canon RF's, and Minolta SRT's. Everything appears really excellent looking very quickly.

Still have 20+ rolls to process, need to get crackin' on that. Helpful that my basement is now at 20C ambient.
 
Loading Ten Canon "V" Cassettes

Loading Ten Canon "V" Cassettes

Here I'm about to load ten Canon "V" Film Cassettes with XX.
Thought I'd take a quick snap, to show how easy this process is to do.
Ten strips of masking tape pre-cut, pull out an "arm's length" approx 36-37 exposures of XX right off the 400' core, tape it on, and roll it up. Just requires some patience, clean dry hands, and total darkness.

This is basically the Canon version of the IXMOO Leica cassette, which fits late model VT Canons and models that came after.
 

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My bulk roller had a great fall, and there was a few chipping. Was worried that there might be light leaks so did a test roll..... I guess everything is fine. So will bringing them for my bangkok trip......

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m6, 21mm color skopar, EK5222 @800, DDX @20c for 10 mins
 
I've followed Andy and a few others enough ;) My next big film purchase will be a 400 iso 400ft roll of Double X ...
 
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I have been shooting with the ORWO 54 (100 iso). Trying to find a replacement for the EK 5231 (+X).
This combination seems to fit the bill. ORWO @ 100 iso, developed in Td 201 (Anchell/Troop - The Film developing cook book). It is a 2 bath soup, 3 min A and 3 min in B continious agitation.
Leica M6 and C Biogon 35mm f2.8
 
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What I like about the Td 201 is that you can run several types of film at the same time - and still get decent negs.
This is XX @ 320 - in the same tank as the ORWO 54
 
Hi
Last weekend I had to shoot double x at ASA 400 and now I'm supposed to develop it but I don't know the times. Digital truth says eleven minutes in Rodinal 1+50 but that's the same time as the ASA 250 so I'm not very sure about that. I was thinking maybe something like 14 or 15 minutes in Rodinal 1+50. Does anyone have any experience about shooting XX at ASA400? These photos are pretty important so I was thinking that I'm probably going to shoot another roll of XX at 400 and develop it first and see how the negs turn out. But still I would appreciate any tips for the developing times!

Thanks!
 
Hi
Last weekend I had to shoot double x at ASA 400 and now I'm supposed to develop it but I don't know the times. Digital truth says eleven minutes in Rodinal 1+50 but that's the same time as the ASA 250 so I'm not very sure about that. I was thinking maybe something like 14 or 15 minutes in Rodinal 1+50. Does anyone have any experience about shooting XX at ASA400? These photos are pretty important so I was thinking that I'm probably going to shoot another roll of XX at 400 and develop it first and see how the negs turn out. But still I would appreciate any tips for the developing times!

Thanks!

http://www.project-double-x.org/devdata.html

.
 
Hi
Last weekend I had to shoot double x at ASA 400 and now I'm supposed to develop it but I don't know the times. Digital truth says eleven minutes in Rodinal 1+50 but that's the same time as the ASA 250 so I'm not very sure about that. I was thinking maybe something like 14 or 15 minutes in Rodinal 1+50. Does anyone have any experience about shooting XX at ASA400? These photos are pretty important so I was thinking that I'm probably going to shoot another roll of XX at 400 and develop it first and see how the negs turn out. But still I would appreciate any tips for the developing times!

Thanks!

I tried using TriX developing time pushed to 800 and 1600, quite happy with the result. Maybe you could consider it.
 
Thanks for the replies.

I tried using TriX developing time pushed to 800 and 1600, quite happy with the result. Maybe you could consider it.

Hmm, 16.30 and 18.30 seem a bit long. But on the other hand, today I developed two rolls of XX shot at 250 and 12 minutes in Rodinal 1:50 gave me nice contrasty negatives. I guesstimate speeds and apertures so it seems I underexpose repeatedly and thus 16.30 could actually be about the time for me. I think I'm going to shoot that test roll at 400 and develop it and see how that works out.
 
Back in the 70's when I pushed the -old- Tri-X, I would routinely add 50% for a one-stop push, and 100% for a two-stop push. I haven't done much with Rodinal, but recently I've been adding it to HC-110, and I like the results!

I always find it's better to overdevelop film, than to underdevelop. You can always burn through the extra printing density, especially with XX. It's very forgiving of overexposure.
 
Back in the 70's when I pushed the -old- Tri-X, I would routinely add 50% for a one-stop push, and 100% for a two-stop push. I haven't done much with Rodinal, but recently I've been adding it to HC-110, and I like the results!

I always find it's better to overdevelop film, than to underdevelop. You can always burn through the extra printing density, especially with XX. It's very forgiving of overexposure.

You're adding Rodinal to HC-110? More details please? How much? What does it do? and why? I develop about 40% of the time with Rodinal, 30% with HC-110 and about 20% with D-76. Other 10% playing with other developers like Pyrocat HD, Exactol-Lux, DiXactol Ultra, a couple others...

Personally, and mostly because I scan most of my negs, I find slightly over-exposing the negs (1/3rd to 1/2 stop, i.e. 100 speed film sjhot at 80 or 64, 400 speed at 320 or 250) and then underdeveloping (maybe minus 10-15% time) to give me the best negs for a scan. Too much development makes for cool, snappy-looking negs but makes for too much density for scanning well I find. YMMV.
 
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