In 2021 I was given a sample roll of Agent Shadow 400, a new film brand from Stephen Dowling at Kosmo Foto. The aim was to raise awareness of his Kickstarter campaign to raise the necessary cash to make this film a reality. I had already backed the Kickstarter when I got the sample roll and I was happy to write an article about it on the Casual Photophile website. Thanks to the excellent film photography community, the Kickstarter was a success and the film went into production.
I had chosen the briefcase box with five rolls of Agent Shadow 400 and a graphic novel titled "The 36 Frames" and my kickstarter reward arrived not long after Stephen announced they were being posted out. I'm very happy with the quality of the presentation box, graphic novel and the packaging of the film itself, a lot of care has gone into them and it shows, but what about the film? Well, I managed to get through a backlog of things to do and was finally able to load a roll of Agent Shadow 400 into my FED 2 with Jupiter 8 50mm f/2 lens and decided to meter at 400 iso so I could compare with my previous experience of the sample roll.
I spent a week picking out a few shots here and there as I went about my daily business or headed out for a wander around my local area. I also took it with me on a trip to visit my daughter and grandchildren and captured some shots on my journey. I was using it as my "daily driver" and metered using the Light Meter Free app on my android smart phone.
My FED 2 was as solid and dependable as ever. I had been rotating through my collection this year and hadn't used it for a while, but it didn't take me long to get reacquainted with it. I realised I had missed the industrial clunkiness of this Ukrainian built rangefinder camera. As I have mentioned in earlier blogs, I had wanted one for a while to scratch my Soviet rangefinder itch and it has not dissappointed me.
When it came to developing my roll of Agent Shadow I wanted to try something different from my sample roll that I shot last year. I chose to develop my film in Kodak HC-110 dilution H 1+63 from concentrate. I haven't seen any mention of developing Agent Shadow in HC-110 dilution H on the Massive Dev Chart nor on the list that Stephen very kindly provided on the Kosmo Foto website (there's a link below).
I have grown quite fond of dilution H for my B&W films and after some research and a bit of math I came up with 12 minutes at 20 celcius. This seemed a reasonable figure so I set to it and soon had it developed and hanging to dry in my bathroom. I scanned the film into my computer with my trusty Ion Slides2PC 35 mm scanner and removed dust spots and scratches with Affinity Photo.
My sample roll of Agent Shadow 400 came out rather nice when developed in HC-110 dilution B and when compared to dilution H for this first production roll I could see a difference in the grain straight away. The longer time in a more dilute solution tamed the shadows of a bright sunny day and gave me plenty of detail to work with in Affinity Photo, but did leave me with more grain which to be fair isn't bad. It fits in with the "Film Noir" theme Stephen uses in the packaging and promotional material.
My experiment with dilution H was a success and I have shown it is a viable solution for the home developer. Next time I will try dilution E 1+47, which has been commented upon by several folks I follow on social media to be a sweet spot for this film, but that's a story for another day. Or maybe I can go for a night shoot and push it to 3200. All I need is a dark, stormy night an an owl hooting. If you want to try Agent Shadow it is on sale now on the Kosmo Foto website (link below)
Here's a few of my photos from this production roll of Agent Shadow 400. If you enjoy my blog, please consider making a donation using the Ko-Fi buttons on this page and as always I have posted these photos and more in an album on Flickr you can visit via the link below. I hope you enjoy them.
Buy Agent Shadow 400
Agent Shadow Development Chart
Agent Shadow Flickr Album
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