Discontinued Agfa APX400 Film - Testing and Tuning Up

My friend Dennis Gallus gave me a 100' roll of Agfa APX400 that he had in his freezer. I shot my first roll of it at the indicated speed of 400, and processed it alongside a roll of Ilford HP5, which I developed for 11.5 minutes in Kodak D-76 developer at 1:1 dilution. Those negatives came out pretty thin overall and very low contrast (underexposed and/or underdeveloped). After reading some old posts online, I learned that APX400 was known to need additional exposure, with some people treating it as iso 320 film, others at iso 200. I also found development guidelines that indicated it needed more development.

 

So, a test roll ensued. I shot a short roll of the film, capturing the same scene exposed for iso 100, 200, and 400. I also changed my development protocol to 10 minutes in full strength D-76. Here are a couple of the results.

 

Scenes exposed at iso 400, 200, and 100, APX400 Film

 

From this, I conclude two things - 1) additional development in full-strength D-76 definitely helped, and 2) somewhere between iso 200 and 320 is probably best for this film.

 

On the same day, I guessed and exposed a full 36 exposure roll at iso 200. It looks pretty good overall. I think I've figured out this film. Not that this information is much use to anyone else; as far as I know you can't get this film any more, though I do see single rolls for sale in some places. But, 100' of it will keep me busy for a while!

 

Thanks again, Dennis!

 

DMC-365.blogspot.com

 

So What Are You Reading? Agfa APX 400 Film Test

 

The Wide View, by Reed A. George

Zeiss SW, Voigtlander 12mm f5.6 Lens

Agfa APX 400 Film

 

I'm testing and getting my shooting parameters down for a new (discontinued) film, Agfa APX 400. My friend Dennis Gallus gave me (!) a 100' roll, which I've started to bulk load. My first roll came out underexposed and possibly underdeveloped (7 mins in D-76, 1:1). After seeing that, I read up about the film online, and found that many people used to shoot it at 200 instead of the indicated 400 speed. I will try that, and believe it will really help.

 

This shot was made with my widest lens, the Voigtlander 12mm f5.6. You can see my current book of choice in the foreground, Eight Girls Taking Pictures, by Whitney Ott. It is a fictional work, telling the story of eight female photographer/artists. I'm enjoying it very much.

 

Thanks again for the film, Dennis! I'll have it all worked out in another roll or two.

 

DMC-365.blogspot.com

 

Obscured

I made this shot recently at work. I was shooting my Leica CL and Rokkor 40mm f2 lens, one of my all-time favorite combinations.

Obscured, by Reed A. George

Leica CL, Minolta Rokkor 40mm f2 Lens

Ilford HP5+ Film, Developed in Kodak D-76

 

I've recently gotten back into bulk loading 35mm film, with a couple of my friends. It's weird, but at current prices, Kodak's products cost the same per exposure in bulk (100' rolls) as they do packaged into single rolls. So, there's no advantage to bulk loading Kodak at the moment. Ilford's products are still priced so as to make bulk loading economical. At $54 per 100' roll of Ilford HP5+ (Adorama), I'm paying $3 per roll of 36 exposures. You get 18 rolls of 36 exposures from a bulk roll.

 

I'm also back to processing my own black and white film. I figure that with the relatively little time I have available for shooting, bulk loading will force me to focus on shooting black and white for a while, which is a good thing. So, I'll take the much cheaper route of processing my own film, since it will be mostly black and white anyway. To be honest, I really enjoy the hands-on processing of my film, anyway. It's good to smell the fixer once in a while.

 

The fact that my friend Dennis gave me 20 rolls of Gekko 100 black and white film, and a 100' roll of Agfa black and white 400 speed film only adds to my rationale.

 

So, get ready for a lot of black and white film shots from me! Hope you enjoy.

 

DMC-365.blogspot.com

 

About to Try Ilford HP5 (35mm B&W Film) for a While

Image Source: http://filmphotographyproject.com/store/ilford-hp5-plus-bw-35mm-x-305m-100-ft

 

My friend Charlie has a couple of bulk film loaders. Since a small group of us have been regularly meeting and shooting film for a while now, we decided to start bulk loading our 35mm cassettes. It's actually interesting what's happening with film prices today. Charlie's a Tri-X shooter, so that's where we looked first. We were unable to locate a 100' roll of Tri-X anywhere at a price that would result in any savings over buying by the 36 exposure roll (savings is about the only reason to bulk load, unless you want to tailor the number of exposures you get per roll). HP5 is still reasonably economical.

 

(Click Here) to buy your film from the Film Photography Project.

 

So, we're just about ready to roll (pardon the weak pun).

 

In the past, I've played with pushing Kodak Tmax 400 to 1600. (Click Here) to see how that worked out.

 

I also found a post on the very interesting blog "35 MMC." (Click Here) to read about shooting HP5 at iso 3200. That's a three-stop push, but sure seems to work well.

 

I don't have any experience with HP5, but will soon!

 

DMC-365.blogspot.com