Another sunny day in January saw me getting out for a wander along the local farm roads with my Olympus OM-1 paired with Eastman Kodak Double-X. My lens of choice was my Zuiko 50mm f/1.4, it's a sharp lens when stopped down for landscapes and is a joy to use. I first shot Double-X in medium format in 2021 and had a roll of it in 35mm sat in my fridge waiting for a day like this one to come along. I loaded the film into my camera and headed out the door.
Eastman Kodak Double-X is a black and white cinema film that is rated at 250 iso for daylight and 200 for tungsten studio lighting. In a rebellious mood I set my camera to 200 and made the most of the brightness the sunny, clear sky was giving me on this day. Most of you will probably know what Double X looks like, especially if you have seen "Schindlers List", the oscar winning Stephen Spielberg film telling the story of Oskar Schindler who bravely took care of his Jewish workforce in WW2. If you haven't watched it, go and do it now, then come back and pick this blog up again. Yeah, it's that important a Film.
I also took my Vivitar 45 light meter out again. I have found it to be an accurate and easy item to use whilst out and about. My OM-1 doesn't really need it's built in light meter as it is a fully mechanical camera. If the battery dies it's no big deal, unlike some of my other cameras that rely upon the battery to work. I was able to get decently exposed shots whilst in the shaded areas at the start of my walk which is where I needed the light meter the most. Once I got to the open areas I was able to switch to sunny 16 and test my memory out before taking a reading with the light meter. My guesses weren't too far off the mark, happy days!
Cinema film is best develped in its own proprietary developer, but you can develop it in whatever B&W developer you have. I used Kodak HC-110 and decided to be gentle with it and use dilution H, 1 part developer to 63 parts water. My developing time was 10 minutes at 20 celcius with continuous gentle agitation for the first minute and three gentle inversion every minute afterwards. When I had finished and got to see my film for the first time I was very happy with it, taking the gentle approach was the right thing to do and I hung it in my bathroom to dry.
Once dry I scanned my film with my Ion Slides2PC scanner and had a look at the Jpegs in Affinity Photo. To be honest they didn't need much processing, a few small adjustments were all they needed and the images began to stand out. I then began to choose some images for this blog and used the "DSLR Scanning" method to really get into the meat and potatoes of each shot. The dynamic range of my Nikon D700 really helped me bring the best out of each frame in Affinity Photo and the results speak for themselves.
Here's a few photos from my walk and I have put them and a few more in an album on my Flickr account that you can visit using the link below. I really enjoyed using Eastman Kodak Double-X and have purchased a couple more rolls from Nik & Trick here in the UK pay them a visit using the link below. From film to darkroom supplies, in store developing and used cameras they are excellent folk to do business with. I hope you enjoy my photos as much as I did creating them.
Kodak Double-X 35mm Flickr Album
Nik & Trick Photo Services
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