In February I took a short trip to Guadalajara, Mexico. And, naturally, I brought a camera and a bunch of film. Unlike last year’s trip to Bogotá, I brought no color film.
Guadalajara is very sunny. As a result it has a built environment that provides a lot of shade. So I have a lot of photos either with bright sun or a high contrast between shade and sun. Perfect for B&W film!
My second roll of the trip was Kodak XX, the Film Photography Project version. Metered at their suggested 200 ISO and developed in Rodinal (1:60 for 7:00). Which is a first for me. I’ve shot XX before, but have always used the recommended D96 developer.
I’m not sure if it was the Rodinal or something else, but this film looks super weird. Very grainy. Kinda reticulated? I developed two other rolls at the same time, and they don’t have these problems. So I don’t think it was anything with my chemicals.
I considered it being a problem with airport scanning, since I didn’t ask for these to be hand checked. But all 3 rolls went through the same security scans. Maybe XX is affected by scans more than my other films? Not sure. Other people have developed XX with Rodinal and not had problems. While other people have noticed that it increases grain.
Whatever it is, I’ll probably use D96 next time I shoot XX.
This first photo is a good example of the problems. The giant hair on the negative is an unrelated problem!
In shots with more subdued sun shots, the problems are less pronounced.
But even then the whole thing looks kind of soft and off.
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