After a successful attempt at DIY developing my first roll of 35mm black & white film recently, I took a risk (it is always a risk for a clumsy guy like me) and attempted doing the same for a roll of 120 film. This is one of two test rolls (Rollei Retro 400) I took randomly to test out my GF670. I’ll talk about the camera later on.
Notice the white patch on the bottom right of the photo above? Okay … here’s the whole story. Loading the 120 film for developing proved to be a big challenge for me. After a couple of attempts, I got fed up and sort of manually roll the film into the spool thingie. I suspect it could be due to me (the clumsy one) rolling the film a little too tight … that some of the frames (and parts of others) were not developed properly. There were patches of white/grey on the negatives! Damn!
Fortunately few of them survived and I was able to confirm that my fuzzyeyeballs can focus pretty well using the rangefinder. Phew! Okay … so the camera works great, metering seems good … but the roll is … a big mess.
After two test rolls (the 2nd one has been put to a KIV status after I screwed up this roll and will be developed in a day or two after I get over the mess) … I am definitely sure the GF670 will be a camera to stay for good in my cabinet. The shutter is super duper silent … something which I don’t quite get used to. The lens seems to be pretty darn sharp!
I didn’t screw up the photo above. The white stuffs on it was a ghost! Arghhh!!! Nah! It was screwed up. 🙁
The following are the frames that got into the ‘Frames of shame’ category today. 😀
I quite like this one (above). Hahahaha!
Somehow I like this one (above) too!
Okay … that’s all for now. I’ll get some sleep, try to forget the mess and hopefully be able to develop the next roll tomorrow (after I go watch some YouTube videos on how to best roll the film).
It looks like the film was coming in contact with itself on the spool as it was being developed. You can perfect your “rolling technique” by practicing in the light until you can do it every time without looking; that’s how I learned anyway. I’m all for happy accidents. Some of those mistakes look cool.
Looks the film was coming in contact with itself on the spool during the developing process. Try perfecting your “rolling technique” by doing it in the light until you can get it right every time without looking. That’s the way I learned anyway. Happy accidents are nice though, so whatever…
@MK : Yeah … that’s what I guessed too. I couldn’t get the roll done properly, so I thought I could just roll it to the middle of the spool. Hahaha. Silly me! Thanks for the tips. My 2nd roll turned out okay yesterday (after about a 15 to 20 minutes struggle with the rolling!). 😀