Eastman Kodak 5222 Double-X with a Contax RTS II

I’ve been shooting Film for a relatively long time but I’m quite cautious when shooting it, I have my comfort zone where I have my preferred Film and stick to it – reluctant to try anything else or explore.

My go-to Colour was Kodak Ektachrome e100vs and when that was discontinued (I still have two precious rolls in the freezer for that next exotic trip abroad where I’ll shoot it carefully) I was bewildered and grudgingly had to use the various Fujichromes until Kodak released the regular Ektachrome, which though not perfect almost had the ‘look’ I like.

But with B&W there has always been a lot of choice and prices used to be quite low and very affordable.

To cut a long story short I eventually settled on the Rollei Retro 80s and 400s – I have been very happy with the results and the price isn’t sky high as on Kodak, Fuji and Ilford (I formerly loved shooting Fuji Acros 100, Ilford FP4+ and Agfa APX 400 – but when prices started to rise I started using Agfafoto APX and then once upon a time about 12 or so years ago shot a roll of Rollei Retro 80s and used that (and the 400s) exclusively ever since.

Now Retro 80s is a tricky film to shoot – highlights can easily blow out and there’s a lot of contrast – but get it right and the results are lovely! What it lacks though is nice delicate tonality (400s obviously has more but still not perfect) so I’ve ever been put off from shooting various scenes to assess Film as I lacked experience with other films and also lacked the time and inclination to experiment. Experimentation with Film stocks to me seems like a massive waste of time and effort – I cannot afford to waste Film and am not one to set up test subjects and then spend time with it all – yes, it’s a lack of patience and/or laziness, but I like photography as I enjoy it and only photograph something I want to and which gives me pleasure (hence I couldn’t ever be a paid wedding or event photographer as I’d get bored and impatient), anyway I was happy with the Rollei films so didn’t think much of it.

I’d go through phases of B&W shooting, sometimes I’d shoot a couple of rolls when the day or circumstance allowed it, or when I had a nice old vintage camera to try out and then nothing for a year or four or more.

Recently upon purchasing the Durst Automatica I have had the B&W bug and have been really itching to go out and shoot. I also wanted to shoot more stuff with my Contax RTS II and the odd selection of lenses I have – I don’t own a single Carl Zeiss lens for it!

I have the Yashica ML 50mm f2 (which I chose for it’s very compact size and the swirly soviet style out of focus areas) I really like this lens a lot (it’s my favourite standard lens of any make or type) – it has so much unique character and some M42 lenses which I also use on my two Minoltas – The Helios 44-2, Pentacon 135mm f2.8 and the Auto Chinon 35mm f2.8. I’d like to get a wide angle (likely a Yashica ML) and a short tele 85mm Jupiter 9 at some point. Opening aperture to focus and stopping down to meter on the M42 lenses is annoying but even with the shortcomings I’m pretty happy with the lenses I have. I generally look for lots of character, soft interesting contrast and OOF areas and such rather than razor sharpness. I prefer the Yashica 50mm f2 to the Carl Zeiss 45mm Tessar I used to have when I last owned (then sold) the Contax RTS II about 10 or 12 years ago. It’s only slightly larger, as well built but so much more interesting – though I must say I miss the 45mm focal length which I prefer to 50mm and the Zeiss Tessar snub-nose looks damn cool! I bought this Contax last summer.

Anyway, browsing Nik & Trick’s website a fortnight ago while on the look out for some Ferrania P30 to try and some Rollei Retro 80s to buy, I came across Eastman Kodak Double-XX 5222. Now I must admit, I’d never heard of this film before, I’ve tended to avoid new and alternative Films such as Motion picture stock and simply stuck to what I know. I liked the look of the description and after looking at some Movie stills from Memento and some others, also some photographs on Flickr for a few minutes, I took a punt and bought two rolls! I also took another punt and bought their Bellini Liquid Diafine DF2 Duo-Step. (I had been watching a fantastic Youtube channel by a gentleman called Martin Henson in a few videos he sings the praises of Diafine and I really liked what I heard, so I was quite inspired to try some out for myself.

Fast forward to last week and my stuff arrived! I then the following rainy miserable day decided to go out for a walk with my son to the ruins of a 14th Century Church close by (which I had photographed nicely on some Fomapan Creative 200 Film with my RTS II a week previously) and through the fields and woods to the banks of the Colne Estuary near my home. The rain kept starting and stopping – typical April showers in this English Spring. The clouds were interesting though, with chases of sun and wonderful reflections on water and wet paths. I took my Contax RTS II, the Yashica ML 50mm f2, the Auto Chinon 35mm f2.8 and Pentacon 135mm f2.8  and I set the ISO to 400 (box speed is 200). I had my usual Deep Yellow filters attached.

The rolls of Double-X have only 30 exposures so I had to be very careful not to waste any shots. I shot using the internal meter in Aperture priority and used exposure lock often when exposing.

Returning home I decided to develop using my usual Rollei Supergrain developer. I must say I was very happy with the results.

I have always loved Don McCullin’s dark moody landscape photographs, with ominous clouds and shafts of light with his wonderful use of water and I have been touched by his photos, I often find myself trying something similar though of course in my own way and according to my minds eye and that day there was some very beautiful evening light on the water and on the pathways.

Eastman Kodak 5222 Double-X developed in Rollei Supergrain

The next day we went out again, this time with Mrs Ibbs and Mother-in-Law with us. Same route, different light and lovely weather! This time when I got home I decided to give the Bellini Diafine DF2 Duo-Step a go, I had never used this before but in for a penny in for a pound as they say and I just developed the Film 3+3 minutes at whatever temperature the (cold) water came out of the tap as.

I again, very pleased with the results, the negatives contained a lot of detail. Martin Henson says on his video that Diafine gives a very detailed yet flattish negative making it ideal for scanning as you can then easily manipulate the TIFF file in Adobe Light Room to get the finished article you’re after. To be honest the negative was similar on the light table to that developed in Rollei Supergrain but it has more delicate and smother finer tonality – whereas the Rollei Supergrain developed negatives have more contrast. regardless, I’m now a convert to this Film stock – it’s wonderful!

The Bellini Duo Stop aka Diafine is superb. It’s now my go to developer and suits the Kodak Eastman Double-X Film perfectly. It’s like shooting Digital – you can switch ISO on the fly throughout the roll of Film – lowish or dim light? 400, sun comes out and it brightens up? 100 – whatever you want! Then Develop the Film and every shot is perfect! What a perfect combination – the Film has everything I’d want with a B&W Film and the Developer just goes with it.

Eastman Kodak 5222 Double-X developed in Bellini Liquid Diafine DF2 Duo-Step

All Photographs. Contax RTS II Yashica ML 50mm f2 Chinon Auto 35mm f2.8. Pentacon 135mm f2.8 Tiffen/B+W Deep Yellow Filters. Eastman Kodak 5222 Double-XX. Scanned using Epson Scan on Epson 4990.

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