Paul and Reinhold 640 film - One Roll Review

In 2020, Rollei films (MACO) introduced a film to celebrate 100 years of Rollei, which was found by Paul Franke and Reinhold Heidecke in 1920. Last year, I bought a two-pack of this film, which was marketed with an unusual 640 ISO rating.  Of course, as always, there have been numerous theories as to what this film really is, and to be honest, I have no idea, and I don't really care.  The label on the package says "Made in Italy." Perhaps Maco has contracted to Ferrania to do the film cutting and packaging.   I'm sure someone with more knowledge has details, but everything so far has been conjecture.

What I do care about is the film worth a repeated use?  Since the film comes in an attractive 2-pack container, the first roll was my "test roll."  I'll add that I like the idea of the plastic snap-lid 2 roll container, which Adox also used for one of their films, the CMS 20.  Walking around with 2 in the can and one in the camera certainly makes it easier to not lug around more stuff. However, I digress.  Back to the roll of the P&R 640.

I loaded the roll into my trusty Nikon F100, and did some photography in downtown Asheville and around Weaverville, NC. After finishing the roll, I developed it in Kodak HC-110 dilution B for 8 minutes.  I appreciate that the film lays flat and scanned very nicely.  

Obviously a single roll doesn't always tell us much about how a film will perform in all situations.  The P&R 640 seems to have very good latitude, a bit speedier than a 400 ISO film, and very acceptable grain. I do think it's a very good choice for street photography, and really looks good from what I shot.

From the Rollei film site:

• Nominal Sensitivity - ISO 640
• Fine-grain and natural contrasts
• Exposure latitude from ISO 320-1600
• Excellent for available light, action & street photography

Since the P&R 640 is a "special edition" film, it's probably sold out at the bigger stores, but I found that Blue Moon Camera has it in stock, so I have ordered more.  At other sites and on the Rollei film pages, it's out of stock, but should be available after the end of April, 2022. I consider it a good film for the types of photography that I do. It scans well, has great tonal range, and low grain.  What's not to like?

Now, for some results:

Monochrome C-41 - Ilford XP2

A decade ago, if you wanted to shoot b&w with a C-41 film, we had several choices -- there was one from Konica, one from Kodak, and one from Ilford.  Kodak's version had an orange mask like most C-41 films, but Konica's and Ilford's did not (the orange mask made conventional b&w prints more challenging, but I did get good results).  The reasons why someone would want to shoot C-41 b&w are simple -- at the time, it was easily processed by any one-hour lab and did not require any special treatment.  The films were quite good, and I felt that the tonal scale was excellent, especially the Kodak's many iterations of its C-41 B&W. Now, Ilford is the only manufacturer of a C-41 b&w film.  Years ago, I shot XP-1 that was already about a decade expired, and was astonished at how good the results were.  I have shot XP-2 a few times over the years, and found it often was better at an ISO of 320.  Last year, I exchanged a bulk roll of Tri-X for a 10 pack of XP-2, as I wasn't using Tri-X any more.  The XP2 film was a bit expired, and I have been shooting it a bit.  Now that I am doing my own C-41 developing, it's certainly worth noting that it's as easy as any color C-41 film to work with.  Of course, if you wish, you can develop it in b&w chemistry, too, but I have not tried it.  The neutral gray mask allows easier darkroom printing.  Best of all, it scans beautifully, too.   If you are new to film shooting, and want to try b&w, XP2 is a good choice.

SLOOOOW Film Adventure

Another really slow film.

One of the more interesting aspects of using film is that we have the opportunity to experiment with emulsions that are not the every-day sort of film.  In the digital world, the ISOs keep getting insanely higher each year.  But, they never go LOWER.  Typically, ISO 100 is the lowest ISO available.  With film, there are emulsions with an ISO of 0.75.  Of course, most people would never dream of shooting with a low ISO film, and the standard low ISO in the film world is 25.  TechPan, that do-it-all film has an ISO of 25 in most applications.  Kodalith, designed to be a high-contrast graphic arts film has an ISO of 12.  Most of the available (mostly old-stock) low ISO films are designed for specific applications, not as general-purpose photographic films.  I still shoot a dwindling stock of Kodak Panatomic-X whose box speed is ISO 32, but I shoot it at 25 with great results.  Ilford's Pan-F has a box speed of ISO 50, but I shoot it at 32.   The now out-of-production Polypan-F has a stated speed of 50, but can be pushed higher.

an oldie low-ISO  in color, no less. 

To go back to my original thought -- why would you want to shoot a low ISO film?  For one, you can shoot wide-open on a sunny day for great shallow DOF results.   Stopping down, you can achieve a motion blur in the same situation.  So, let's get REALLY slow.  ISO 3.  
I had a project in mind, and that was to do a shoot at the annual Ann Arbor Art Fair, which happens every mid- July. Over the 4 days, there are up to a half million visitors.  What I wanted to do, was to try and get a ghost-like blur of people at the art fair. Of course, it's mid-summer, almost always bright and sunny. How do I do that?
1. Use a low ISO film.  I tried two. The FPP store had a Svema Micrat-Ortho which is a POSITIVE ISO 1 film (or maybe 0.75), as well as a Svema MZ-3, which is a higher-contrast repro film of ISO 3.  2. Use a Neutral Density Filter to allow even less light -- I used a 3-stop ND filter.
3. Use a camera that allows me to get as close to a low ISO setting as possible. My F100 ISO dial goes to ISO 6, and I can compensate +1, +2,  (and more)  full stops to achieve an ISO of 3 or less.
4. Shoot at f/22 if possible.  I used a Nikkor 24-120 AF zoom.
5. Of course, this means a tripod is absolutely necessary.  Remote release is also handy, as well.  

Results

Roll 1 -- The Svema Micrat Ortho was developed in D76 1:1 for 7 minutes.  Exposures ranged from 10-25 seconds.

Roll 2-- Svema MZ-3. Developed in Kodak Technidol LC for 15 minutes.  Exposures ranged from 3-10 seconds.

Both of these films are unusual films that are not being used as the films were intended.  If I were to shoot this way again, I would probably just use some of my Kodak Tech Pan with a 3 stop ND filter + a polarizer or red filter, and a cloudy day would surely help.  Maybe this fall, I will do it some more down town.  

If you want to see some fantastic work in this vein, look up Alexey Titarenko's photographs from Russia.  Really good work.