As I have mentioned before, I was sent a package with a variety of items in it. Two of the items were redscale film. This blog gives you the lowdown on what redscale film is.
So, as I had just fixed the Spotmatic I decided to use that camera first to try out the film. This one was Kodak Gold 800asa, the instructions said to set the camera to overexpose by 2 or 3 stops. I set the camera to 2 stops under at 200asa. The Spotmatic meter was now working really well and the needle was moving as it should. I wandered around my home city and finished the film. Getting the film developed was not quite so easy. I tried to tell Yodobashi Store that it was a redscale, but I couldn’t seem to communicate it. A few days later, I received a phone call that said the film would take an extra 2 weeks and be $3 more.
For this film I paid for negative scanning. Here are the results
Some were underexposed and the redscale didn’t really rock my boat. You can see that the different lighting conditions changed the colour of the shots you get. The more underexposed are more green, the more overexposed are more orange as the article I linked to before suggested.
There was another film to try. I thought I would put it in the Pentax ME Super as it works really well and I prefer it to the Spotmatic. I thought it would give a fairer chance to the experimental film. This time I set it to 3 stops under, so for the Kodak 400asa I set the camera to 64asa and waited for a brighter day. I was more prepared when going to the developers, Kitamura. They also seemed more aware of redscale film. It was the same 2-week wait and $3 extra though. This time I chose not to pay for the scan and used my CanoScan to digitize the film.
I much prefer these shots, so I think 3 stops is the way to go and a reliable camera of course.
I enjoyed trying this out and know I could make my own redscale quite easily, but getting it developed in Japan is too much of an effort for me to try regularly. If you do feel like trying this out, this is how you can make your own homemade redscale film.
Great results especially the second roll. I wonder if it needs the 3rd stop due to using expired film? Maybe a 4th stop would render blue skies, I have managed it once. If I am shooting redscale I tend to make the last stop adjustment on either shutter speed or aperture, usually aperture so I have a little more control.