Agfa Isolette III

Agfa Isolette III

Agfa's Isolette range of 6x6 medium format folding cameras are still very much well-used and well-liked, judging by the numerous references and results among film photographers online, a good sixty years since the models were produced. My own experiences with the Isolette are limited and recent, having bought an Isolette III earlier this year at a Stockholm flea market for 200SEK, but I had used an Agfa Record I for a number of years, and the Isolette's construction, styling, design and user experience are all very similar to the Record 6x9 cameras. The Agfa Isolette cameras take 6x6 images, although a couple of the Isolette models had masks for smaller formats. The Isolette III was introduced in 1954, snd is essentially the same camera as the Isolette II with the addition of an uncoupled rangefinder.

The Isolette cameras were provided with lenses of both 75mm and 85mm focal lengths, which are dependent on the lens' widest aperture: f4.5 lenses on the Isolette are 85mm, while f3.5 lenses are 75mm. I've preciously had a couple of medium format cameras in the 6x6 image size with 75mm lenses, a common focal length, but I've sometimes felt it a little too wide on the format. However, it may be worth bearing in mind that the 6x6 format came about with the twin-lens reflex camera, the typical construction of which would not have been conducive to changing the camera's orientation had it shot a rectangular image, and so the square format allowed cropping in either orientation as much as being used full-frame. Using the full, square frame, I find achieving satisfactory compositions require more thought than a common rectangular photographic frame; conversely, it seems a shame to crop the image to do so and not make use of the whole negative's area.

Agfa Isolette III lens and shutter detail

My model has Agfa's Apotar lens in a Pronto four-speed shutter, both being among the cheaper variants available. The Apotar is a triplet lens, but, being post-war, it is coated. The Apotar was the middle of the range of lenses: the lowest priced lens was the Agnar, the lens that my Record I came with, even so it did provide very good results on modern medium format films. The Isolette has focus below 1 metre, although the 1 metre is the last mark on the focus ring (possibly the lens focusses down to 3ft which would be marked on US - under the Ansco name - or UK export models). The marks at 3m and 10m are picked out in red. The Pronto shutter has four speeds 25th, 50th, 100th, 200th, plus B. The addition of the camera's rangefinder meant that unlike other Isolette models, the III no longer sports a T setting (I personally find shutters with a 'T' setting more useful then a 'B'). Other features mark my Isolette as a later version, from 1956 onwards: there is a film reminder dial on the top left of the camera instead of a depth-of-field calculator, the DOF indications are around the lens instead (the film reminder has old DIN speeds of 23/10 - 21/10 - 17/10 and COL T - COL K - COL NT). Film advance is manual, using a red window on the camera back but it does have a double exposure lock on the shutter release: after exposure a small round window shows red until the film is advanced and the lock disengages. The shutter can still be tripped by the lever around the lens when locked.

Agfa Isolette III top plate

The camera had two problems when I bought it: the camera back did not close tight at one side; and the rangefinder wheel was immovable. The first of these problems was solved by using pliers to bend inwards one of two prongs to provide a tighter fit with the camera back's latch (when in Stockholm itself I realised this might be a problem and simply held the back tight when shooting - although on some exposures I wasn't careful enough with this and some show the top right corner of the pressure plate not keeping the film in alignment, falling behind the plane of focus).

Detail of loose catch

I didn't have the tools to attempt to fix this or the rangefinder while in Stockholm. However, as the rangefinder is uncoupled, the fact that it was stuck did not interfere with using the camera, it merely meant estimating distances, and paying more attention to the DOF scale around the lens. Despite these issues, I liked using the Isolette III enough to use it while in Stockholm rather than the Baldalux 6x9 camera I'd brought with me, and shot a number of different films with it, Rollei RPX 25 and 400, Fomapan 400, Superpan 200 and some Kodak Verichrome Pan with a "develop before" date of October 1969.

Sample image with Fomapan 400

Sample image with Superpan 200

Sample image with Rollei RPX 25

Sample image with Rollei RPX 400 at 1600

Sample image with Kodak Verichrome Pan, develop before date of 1969

Sources/further reading:
Isolette range on Camera-Wiki
Agfa/Ansco Isolettes by Andrew Yue
Isolette cameras on J. Noir's Camera Pages
Isolette III manual (first version)

127 Day - Summer 2015

Baby Ikonta with Rollei RPX25

In my previous post I described how I made a film slitter, to cut down 120 medium format film to the width of 127 format. This was partly to ensure I had some film to shoot on yesterday's 127 Day; I cut down and shot one roll of Ilford Delta 3200, Rollei RPX25 and Fomapan 400 apiece. As the length of 120 film exceeds that of 127, I used the end of each length of film for a second roll, which was long enough for 3-4 frames with the Baby Ikonta, which shoots 16 3x4cm frames on a normal 127 roll. All films were developed in Ilfotec LC29; as there are no listed times for RPX25 with Ilfotec LC29, I used a similar time and dilution as I had done for R09 One Shot, 1+150 for 15 minutes. The results were thin negatives, but with a good tonal range, reducing the film's inherent contrast.

Baby Ikonta with Ilford Delta 3200

Baby Ikonta with Rollei RPX25

Baby Ikonta with Fomapan 400

Baby Ikonta with Fomapan 400

Baby Ikonta with Ilford Delta 3200

Baby Ikonta with Ilford Delta 3200

Four years on

It's now four years since I began this blog, and two years ago I took the opportunity to reflect on the state of film as I then saw it. Appropriately for my 100th post, a further two years, on it's worth reviewing film photography once more. For black and white film at least, the market of available films has been stable, if not actively positive, with more new films appearing than being discontinued; as colour film tends (or tended) to be made by the bigger companies in larger volumes, this appears to be going through a period of rationalisation, although as I very rarely shoot colour film, I am not so aware of issues of its availability and as a result, it is a little outside of my review here.

In terms of formats, the near- (and briefly) obsolete 110 and 127 have both made a return, of sorts. Lomo have produced both colour and black and white 110 cartridge films, while Rera Pan 100 is currently the only available black and white 127 format film (Rollei Nightbird is also available as 127 format film, but being a 'redscale' film this is somewhat limiting).

After the demise of Fotokemika, which affected a number of their lines, Adox has continued to produce film, paper and chemistry. Their 'type II' versions of CHS 100 and CMS 20 films replaced the no longer available original films, and Adox also introduced the entirely new Silvermax 21/100 (which I've tested and liked the results), available in 35mm and Super 8 as Pan-X Reverso.

Notable discontinuations include Kodak BW400CN, a film I have used in the past, but only when unable to get Ilford XP2, which leaves XP2 as the last C41 black and white film. Meanwhile Ilford have had problems with Harman Direct Positive Paper due to Ilford Imaging Switzerland, a separate company which made the emulsion, closing down. Macodirect are currently selling Imago Positive Paper, which is apparently the same emulsion coated onto different paper, and presumably there is a limited supply of the stuff, although I have only previously used the original Harman DPP.

Of Macodirect's wide range, the excellent Rollei RPX films have been supplemented by a RPX 25, and this, as well as RPX 400, are now being manufactured as sheet films. For the large format photographer, this has provided a welcome medium-price range, between Foma's black and white offerings, and the higher priced Ilford and Kodak films.

Finally, although it pertains to colour film, perhaps the most exciting news of recent months has been Film Ferrania reaching their Kickstarter goal to allow them to begin to process of making colour reversal film once more - in 35mm, 120 and Super 8 and 16mm formats- in a scaled down refitting of some of the old Ferrania factory buildings in Liguria. The original company had been bought by 3M with the result that the Ferrania name itself disappeared for decades, but within five years of the factory closing down, the first batch of new Ferrania film is scheduled for production this year.

Rollei RPX 25 & 400 available in large format

Casually browsing Macodirect.de last night, I saw that two of the Rollei RPX films, RPX 25 and RPX 400 are now available as 4x5 inch sheet film. These are competitively priced, not as cheap as Fomapan sheet film, but considerably less than Ilford or Kodak large format films (at the time of writing only Macodirect.de is stocking the sheet versions of the films). Of the RPX range, I have particularly been impressed by the RPX 400, which is a very versatile fast black and white film; while RPX 25 I found needed more careful exposure and development, however, as all the other slow black and white films currently available are orthochromatic (Rollei and Adox), a panchromatic 25 ISO film is welcome.

Rollei RPX 25

Rollei RPX 25 in 35mm and medium format

Having reviewed both Rollei RPX 100 and 400 in recent months, as Maco also introduced a new low-speed fine grain Rollei RPX 25 at the end of last year, I wanted to test this film too. Like the 100 and 400 ISO versions, it's available in 35mm and medium format, and all films have now been repackaged, in cartons instead of the plastic containers prevously used, and the 35mm cartridges now have DX coding. Previously the 100 and 400 speed films, like other 'Rollei' branded films from Maco, had printed adhesive labels affixed to uncoded generic cartridges. The new packaging suggests that Maco are investing resources in their RPX range for the foreseeable future. Maco have been known for buying stock from other manufacturers, rebranding and repackaging film, and when RPX 100 and 400 appeared, there was much speculation online about its similarities to Harman's Kentmere 100 and 400 films. While there is currently no data sheet available from Maco for Rollei RPX 25, on Macodirect the new film is described as:

...a low-speed panchromatic black and white film with a nominal sensitivity of ISO 25/15° [...] Rollei RPX 25 is characterised by a high sensitivity reserve of one f-stop, depending upon development. The thin-section document-emulsion is poured onto a highly transparent base and offers an extraordinary sharpness, with finest grain.

As I have done for the other two RPX films, for a first roll in 35mm, I wanted to test the film for latitude. Shooting the film with a Praktica MTL3 camera, I shot the frames on the first and second rows with exposure indexes of 6-12-25-50-100-200; the frames on the third row were all shot at a rating of 25. I developed the film using the manufacturer's recommendation of 6 minutes in R09 One Shot (Rodinal) diluted 1+25 at 20ºC.

Rollei RPX 25 latitude test contact sheet

I also shot a second roll at 25 ISO. I used a yellow filter on some of the shots which included the sky. The second roll was also developed in Rodinal, but this time diluted 1+50 for 11 minutes at 20ºC, an alternative recommendation for the film.

Rollei RPX 25 film test contact sheet

My first impressions from developing these two rolls were that Rollei RPX 25 has very different qualities from RPX 100 & 400: it was immediately clear that the negatives were of high contrast; the film base was very clear and tough (I was unable to tear the film). The film also dried very flat, there being almost no curl to the negatives once cut. When printing the contact sheets on Kentmere VC Select paper, I tried making the contact prints without using a multigrade filter, meaning that the contrast should be in the middle of the paper's range, but the contrast was too high with almost no detail showing at either extremes of the latitude tests. I reprinted the contact sheets with a 00 multigrade filter for the minimum of contrast, as with the sheet shown above. As Rollei RPX 25 does not demonstrate the wide latitude of the other RPX films, exposure needs to be more exact, and, I suspect, it also requires more careful development.

Rollei RPX 25 at box speed, developed in Rodinal 1+25, 6m at 20ºC

In scanning the negatives, I was able to supress the extremes of the film's inherent contrast and pull detail out of both shadows and highlights, which may not be as easy to do when printing in the darkroom. The above image I shot for the latitude test specifically because the scene showed a very wide contrast range, and would be ideal for testing this (however, the brick wall, also shot for the latitude test, was not as good a subject, tending with underexposure to look more graphic and linear). In terms of grain, the flatbed scanner I used wasn't capable of resolving its fine detail. The latitude test appears to show that highlight detail is quickly lost with overexposure; in the shot of the daffodils, not a great photograph by any means, the highlights are almost entirely featureless, but with less exposure the shadows would have suffered. The film developed with a dilution of 1+50 may have had slightly less contrast, but this was hard to judge as the lighting conditions were different: although many of the scenes are lit by the sun, it was later in the afternoon.

Rollei RPX 25 at box speed, developed in Rodinal 1+50, 11m at 20ºC

I wasn't entirely happy with the results of the first two films in general, although some individual shots were better than others. Due in part to shooting the film on a bright sunny day, the inherent contrast of the film was problematic regardless, and I felt the manufacturer's recommendations for exposure and development were some way off giving satisfactory results. I wanted to try reducing the contrast by developing with a higher dilution of Rodinal. Although the general strategy when attempting to achieve pictorial contrast with document-type emulsions (such as the Ilfodata HS23 film, and Rollei ATO 2.1 - and Maco's own publicity describe RPX 25 as having a "document-emulsion") is to expose more and develop less, with the highlights in danger of blocking out at box speed, such as in the frames rated 12 and 6 in the latitude test, I wanted to try rating the film at 50 to avoid this. Maco's own quote is that RPX 25 has a "nominal sensitivity of ISO 25" with a "high sensitivity reserve of one f-stop" could be read that the film's true ISO is more like 50, but with exposure recommended for 25.

Rollei RPX 25 stand development film test contact sheet

I shot another two rolls of 35mm, one with my Olympus OM10, rating the shots at 25 and 50, and some at an intermediate exposure index of 32, and another film in the Kodak Retina IIa. For the film from the OM10, I used stand development in Rodinal diluted 1+100; the film from the Retina was developed with Rodinal diluted 1+150, but for 12 minutes at 20ºC with normal agitation, a much higher dilution than the 1+50 recommended. At the point of hanging up the negatives to dry I could see that the results were better, with the film developed at 1+150 looking a bit thin; subsequently scanning these negatives was much less trouble than the first two rolls, where I found it difficult to keep highlight detail without making the lower range of midtones lose separation, leading these to become muddy. With a higher dilution of film developer, the highlights were easier to control, although with the stand developed negatives, the shots that had areas of sky within the frame showed these as virtually featureless, and attempting to recover or preserve detail in the scanning caused problems with halos around the branches seen against the sky. The negatives developed at the dilution of 1+150 were better in this regard. Nevertheless, with these dilutions I printed the contact sheets striaght without reducing the paper's contrast.

Rollei RPX 25 at box speed with stand development in Rodinal 1+100

Rollei RPX 25 at EI 32 with stand development in Rodinal 1+100

Rollei RPX 25 at box speed, developed in Rodinal 1+150, 12mins at 20ºC

Feeling that the developer dilution of 1+150 was close to the result I wanted, I shot a roll of RPX 25 in medium format with a Voigtländer Bessa RF, rating it at around 25 using the 'sunny 16' rule for exposure (I noticed that medium format RPX 25 has identical backing paper to Ilford's 120 films, unsurprising perhaps, being made in conjunction with Harman, but the older packaged versions of RPX 100 and 400 had different backing paper, with instructions in both English and German: at the end of the roll there is the injunction 'Hier Falten/Fold Here'). I modified my times and dilutions from the previous 35mm roll, and developed the medium format film in Rodinal at 1+120, for 14 minutes at a lower temperature of 18ºC.

Rollei RPX 25 (medium format) at box speed, developed in Rodinal 1+120, 14mins at 18ºC

Rollei RPX 25 (medium format) at box speed, developed in Rodinal 1+120, 14mins at 18ºC

The results from the medium format roll appeared to show that extending development time while lowering dilution, and perhaps importantly temperature, brought less extreme contrast to the tonal range, while keeping good tonal separation. Incidentally, using a pre-war uncoated lens with these medium format shots may have also helped with the contrast a little - I had hoped for an overcast day with flat lighting to shoot the medium format film based on the previous 35mm tests, but highlight detail has held up well. Even with the bottom-of-the range Helomar lens, the negatives hold a huge amount of detail - with the shot below, it's possible in the original scan to count all the bricks in the building in the centre between the two high rise blocks, which promises well for prints made optically, as opposed to flat-bed scans.

Rollei RPX 25 (medium format) at box speed, developed in Rodinal 1+120, 14mins at 18ºC

Rollei RPX 25 is very different from the two faster films that share the RPX name, different enough that for Maco to use the RPX label for this film feels misleading. Both Rollei RPX 100 and 400 are much more flexible films where the recommended exposure and development times give good results with a variety of shooting conditions; from my tests RPX 25 needs far more careful exposure and development to bring out its own distinctive qualities of sharpness and fineness of grain without losing tonality to its high contrast. As a film photographer, while other emulsions are being discontinued, it's heartening to see new products appearing; as a low-speed fine-grain film, Rollei RPX 25 may well not be a good choice for a general all-purpose black and white film, but for the right subject conditions, with attention to exposure and development, it does provide beautifully sharp and clear results.