Rollei RPX 25

[Alan Clark]

I am curious but know nothing about this film, which Silverprint sells.

Has anyone here used it?

Alan

[richardw]

Originally Posted by Alan Clark

I am curious but know nothing about this film, which Silverprint sells.

Has anyone here used it?

Alan

Yes Alan. I like it a lot too. If it comes out in sheet sizes too I will be very pleased indeed.

It is a true normal contrast film with a good range of tones, not a high contrast document film like CMS 20 that needs fiddling with to get a range of tones.

The pre-soak rinses out like black ink.
The 120 substrate lies almost as flat as sheet film, making it very easy to manage in a negative holder.
It produces lovely negatives in my favourite developer (OBSIDIAN AQUA).





(Both above exposed at box speed and developed in OA.)

I'm sticking with it for my slow emulsion choice from now on and I no longer miss ADOX CHS 25 ART. The RPX 25 is a higher quality offering altogether. It is like having the lovely tones of CHS 25 but with a film made to the high quality of ILFORD films. If someone told me ILFORD made this for the Rollei brand I'd believe them.

richard

[Alan Clark]

Richard, many thanks for the quick and very informative response. I did have reservations about its tonality when I saw the word "document". but your comments have persuaded me to give it a try.

I do like your photographs. I take it these were on 120 film.
I wonder if anyone has tried the 35mm version.

Alan

[JOReynolds]

Exquisite prints, Richard, and a nicely set-up scan. I credit your expertise more than the film manufacturer or developer formulation.

[RichardWarom]

They are lovely prints Richard and have a real 3d quality about them, I must give this film a try, thank you for the information.
Richard

[Rob Archer]

Is this a 'modern' version of the old Agfa APX25? If so I'd like to try it. When APX25 went I moved to Ilford PanF+ which is lovely but has a completely different tonality to APX25.

[richardw]

Originally Posted by Rob Archer

Is this a 'modern' version of the old Agfa APX25? If so I'd like to try it. When APX25 went I moved to Ilford PanF+ which is lovely but has a completely different tonality to APX25.

I'm not familiar with APX25.

I also use Pan F Plus and like it too. Here are some Pan F Plus photographs I've put on Flickr

https://www.flickr.com/search/?w=23468852@N02&q=Pan%20F

and here are the RPX 25 photographs to compare.

https://www.flickr.com/search/?w=234...N02&q=RPX%2025

I develop Pan F Plus as soon as I get home so it usually means I have to "use up the film" by wasting frames.

If RPX 25 turns out to be capable of being left in the camera with some frames exposed for longer than the Pan F Plus then I will probably migrate to RPX 25.

All that is needed now is for it to be made available in 4x5, 8x10 and Whole Plate then will my cup runneth over...



richard

[Mark J]

Thanks for the info - this looks very tempting and hopefully will be out there longer than the Pan 25 which I used briefly and liked. I just bought five rolls to try anyway . I need a substitute for APX25 in 120, and something a little different to Pan F, although that works very nicely with good tone in PMK . I haven't seen a dev time for RPX25 in PMK yet, but I'm guessing if it needs about the same as Pan F in Rodinal etc then I might go for 8 mins at 20 deg C in PMK for starters.
I'll keep you posted .

[Mark J]

I have tried the RPX out now, only one roll yet . This was in 120 format .
After a lot of deliberation & examining times for RPX & old Agfa APX 25 in Rodinal and PMK, I reckoned about 10mins in Pyro PMK - and was a fair bit out !
Negs are rather overdone, although the shadows exposed for 25 ISO are about where I expected.
So , I will try 8.5 to 9min in PMK for the next roll . Grain looks very low & great sharpness, so it will be one to work with, I reckon . The handling is good - the behaviour in the changing bag ( tape at the end of the roll , film curl ) are very much like Ilford , and the developed film-curl is low, almost flat, so should be relatively painless to contact print .

[simonhall]

Originally Posted by richardw

The RPX 25 is a higher quality offering altogether. It is like having the lovely tones of CHS 25 but with a film made to the high quality of ILFORD films. If someone told me ILFORD made this for the Rollei brand I'd believe them.

richard

The whole line of RPX films appears to be produced by Harman Technology (Ilford) for Rollei. They are unique emulsions, although the 100 and 400 are perhaps similar to the Kentmere line of films according to many reports. The backing paper is identical to Ilford's and the packaging is remarkably similar. I don't think there is any doubt that they are produced by Harman, which is great news as it should mean they are high quality very consistent films.

If I had a need for a slow film I would probably go for RPX25, mainly due to the issues around latent image stability with Pan F.