Lets Celebrate a New Product Announcement! Two new Rollei films announced

[moki]

I just got my first samples of both RPX100 and RPX400 (10 each) and will test them the next few weeks with Rodinal and Caffenol-C-M as developers.
I really hope, they're a replacement for APX... otherwise, I have to buy as much of the old APX as I can get and get a new freezer

The 120 will be available in late december if everything goes as planned.

[seafoto]

Let's stick to the doom and gloom, I've just tried Four Rollei Retro 400, developed in Rollei RHS, precise timing and temperature and drew out four almost clear strips, Then processed an Ilford Delta 100 in the RHS and all came out good. Two of the Rollei films using a different camera, still almost clear, very faint image. So, went back to my favorite film Ilford HP5, still in RHS developer, and all good negatives.Could be me!! As my previous communication says, I'm returning to my darkroom, but have processed many films before, never almost clear negs.
I have one more Rollei film to go, not sure what else to try, during the last film I increased the time by two minutes but no real improvement.
I do accept that this is part of the fun of this hobby, all digital are perfect but thats why I'm back in the darkroom.
Any information on this film would be very wellcome or I may have to pull out "The Beginners Guide to Photography"

[canuk]

You've got to calibrate your films....I've found recommended development times to be way off what I determine to be correct following controlled testing using a densitometer. If you believe published times you will, in some cases, experience the results which you apparently have.

[rphenning]

Never had to calibrate tri-x and I can get 2 or 3 rolls of that for what I would get for one roll of Rollei film. Nah.

[moki]

The Rollei Retros are basically relabeled APX and they use the same developement.
The RPXs seem to need a slightly longer time, but I haven't tested enough to give exact numbers. They're not bad films, but nothing special either. I found the 100 (developed 13min in R09 1+40) to have really nice tones, mediocre grain and pretty low sharpness. The 400 is similar, but does hardly reach 400 ASA while having a little more contrast.
The RPX 100 was really nice in Caffenol-C-M, though... Rodinal/R09 is probably not the best choice for these two.

[GeorgK]

Retro 100/400 is APX
RPX is Ilford/Kentmere.
But to Caffenol "experts" this should be all the same anyway, so who cares...

[dr5chrome]

The news we have is these 2 films are NOT happening.

regards.

[Klopstock]

Did you say they started announcing and selling these films in their blatant style - and now it's already gone?

In that case it was the shortest lifetime of a family of films I ever heard of.

[aldevo]

Should this really by that hard to verify?

Aren't these just the Ilford-prodcued Kentmere 100 and 400 films, anyhow?

[Alex Bishop-Thorpe]

Ilford's statement was that they don't participate in rebranding their products any more, after the 2005 restructuring - this is something they reaffirmed when Kentmere 100/400 came out. But there's no reason they cant contract out their production line for other manufacturers, or even formulate new emulsions for them. They've done this in the past. It makes sense, they have a top of the line facility that's sitting idle between their own production runs. Just because its made on Ilford's machinery doesn't mean they're an emulsion that's already on the market.

That said, I have no idea what it is or where it comes from, so who knows.