2 - Rollei Creative Edition: Redbird

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This is my second review of the Rollei Creative Edition Films. This time I am going to share with you my own personal experience of using Rollei Redbird.

Credits: kneehigh85

My review of this film, the 400 ISO redscale film from the Rollei Creative Edition collection, is going to read very similarly to the review I did a while ago of the Nightbird which you can read here.

I was excited to use this film, and loaded it into my LC-A so that I didn’t waste it in a camera where I could not set the ISO. I used the whole roll back in April/Spring time when it was sunny so that I got the gorgeous orange tones that I had experienced with the Lomography Redscale XR 50-200.

Similarly as with the Nightbird, I was initially very very disappointed when I got these films back from the lab. Despite having shot them in bright sun, and having the camera on the right ISO they are once again super grainy, in fact a lot of the shots were so underexposed I couldn’t even scan them in. I am not a photography expert but I can’t understand how a 400 ISO film shot in sunny conditions can lead to things being UNDERexposed!

Anyway, I do kind of like the dark black shapes on the grainy reddish backgrounds, but it is really not the way I intended for the films to come out.

Credits: kneehigh85

As with the Nightbird, I would like to try it again at some point just to see if I can make any improvement, but for now I would give the film a 6 out of ten, with its only redeeming factor being the brilliant photos I have seen taken by other people online!!!

written by kneehigh85 on 2011-08-20 #gear #rollei #review #redscale #creative #grainy #iso-400 #daytime #lomography #redbird #user-review

6 Comments

  1. laurasulilly
    laurasulilly ·

    I tried the Rollei Crossbird- stupidly, I put it in my Holga, because I didn't think of the ISO setting. Anyways, it's curious that Rollei films don't seem to have the proper ISO they are sporting to have, because my Crossbird is said to be ISO 200 and ALL the shots I took during a sunny day were totally overcast while the ones shot during a rainy day were fine.

  2. wolkers
    wolkers ·

    I got my first redscale film back from the lab today and also I was quite disappointed with grainy pictures. And I googled a bit and found an article (in German, so I guess the link couldn't help you) about how to shoot correctly with redscale. And well, the author stated that you have to consider what redscale film actually is. Redscale film is usual film exposed on the wrong side, this means the light you let through the shutter must first make it's way through several coats until it reaches the light-sensitive coat.
    The author also had disappointing results at the beginning, thought about the consistence of redscale film and then tried to overexpose redscale film. So, if you own a camera where you can set what ISO your film has, you simply set the ISO always lower (remember lower, not higher - so if you have ISO 100, set it ISO 50 or something like that), so your camera lets in more light and grainy pictures are avoided.
    The author overexposed the film extremely and was satisfied with yellow tinted photographs.
    So, simply overexpose.

  3. giuli
    giuli ·

    I also gave this film a try in the same conditions as you did and also got disappointing results :( I will give it another try one of these days, but it was a big bummer.

  4. gvelasco
    gvelasco ·

    All of these shots are underexposed.

  5. kneehigh85
    kneehigh85 ·

    I know @gvelasco - 'twas the basis of my review!!!

  6. kneehigh85
    kneehigh85 ·

    @wolkers I have never yet been disappointed with the original lomo redscale 100. Never underexposes, even at lower iso on a duller day.

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