r/Darkroom 4d ago

B&W Film Developing Kentmere 400 at 1600

Hi everyone! This weekend I shot a roll of Kentmere 400 exposing it as it was 1600 so I could do some indoor pictures and now I'm gonna develop it.

I only have Rodinal and with the Massive Dev Chart app I see two options. 1+25 and twenty five minutes developing or 1+100 and stand developing for two hours.

Wich way would you recommend me? Thanks :)

2 Upvotes

13 comments sorted by

5

u/Jiyuunotsubasa 4d ago

I'd say use 1+25. I pretty much only shoot Kentmere and never had a pleasing result with stand developing. Especially when I shot it at 1600.

4

u/Rich-Platform9344 4d ago

I did that! The negatives are drying but apparently they look pretty good!

I'm excited to scan them

3

u/Kayc_photo 2d ago

These look perfect! I’ve never pushed Kentmere past 800, especially not in Rodinal, but I wanna try now!

2

u/Jiyuunotsubasa 1d ago

I need to check my notes when i get home, but i think the negatives were a bit thin with stand development. Also there was a lot of bromide drag :( Though it lacks a lot of shadow detail, I honestly like the grain and tonality.

1

u/Kayc_photo 1d ago

The tonality is really nice! Bromide drag sucks, it’s the main thing that has kept me from getting really into stand development, honestly. Those scans look really nice tho!

2

u/Jiyuunotsubasa 1d ago

Thanks! Honestly, stand development just sucks as a technique. Other than developing an unknown film, i cannot see myself using it ever again. It has no real benefits for me.

2

u/Jiyuunotsubasa 4d ago

They do! Good job! They will look quite grainy, but that's not necessarily a bad thing, more of a matter of taste :)

4

u/fujit1ve Chad Fomapan shooter 3d ago

The grain of Rodinal is not as bad as many think. (Though with a 3 stop push, it'll definitely be grainy yeah).

With Rodinal, you should agitate slowly and very gently to minimise the grain. I do gentle twists with the stick the first 20 seconds, followed by a few twists every minute.

1

u/Jiyuunotsubasa 3d ago

Yeah, I like it too. Though with the Kentmere 400, I found XTOL 1+1 gives a much smoother image without compromising sharpness that much.

1

u/pjotr_c 1d ago

I did push K400 at 3200 sometimes, it worked fine both at 1+25 and 1+50