I was very lucky last Christmas to receive a generous gift from my Emulsive Secret Santa. Included in the box were a number of rolls of film, a camera strap, and a pin badge. Also in the box was a lovely Kodak Retinette IIa camera along with a very nice letter from my kind benefactor.
The film included two rolls of Eastman Double-X and I was very happy about that. Unfortunately, I think my happiness at receiving it also made me very cautious about shooting it. I felt that I didn’t want to waste the film on everyday snaps and that I should use it at a worthy location or occasion.
I’ve come to realise that this is probably not the best thing to do. I was given some great film and instead of getting out and taking some great pictures I was instead hoarding it away like Gollum with the One Ring. Last weekend I visited the steam and vintage rally at Lincoln and as I was packing my bag, grabbed a couple of rolls of HP5+ – my go-to black and white film – before I realised that I should shoot some of the Double-X. After all, the rally would have a load of vintage vehicles and that a classic black-and-white cinema film might make them look really great, so I grabbed a roll and popped it in the bag.
I shot a couple of rolls of 135 colour film first (I shot a LOT of film on the day – for me at least – 2 rolls of 120 and 3-and-a-half of 135. It has been quite expensive getting it all processed!). Then I dropped in the Eastman Double-X and got to work with that, getting through the whole 24 exposures.
After getting the film processed, the negatives looked vey contrasty and I initially feared that I might get almost two-tone images with blown highlights and crushed blacks, but upon seeing the scans emerge, there was actually plenty of detail across the whole range. They were still very contrasty but, hey, if anyone likes contrasty photos, it’s me! It’s certainly a classy looking film, and the way the the higlights show halos (due to the anti-halation layer being removed from the film I presume) is nice too.
Anyway, I’ve not uploaded all of them to Flickr yet, but here are three from the roll…
Nikon F80, Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 & Eastman Double-X.
Taken on 17 August 2019
Steel City Snapper photography 
These photos look great. I’ll definitely need to try this film 🎞
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First impressions are that it’s a nice, distinctive film. It being movie film certainly imparts a bit of a Hollywood feel on the pictures.
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That’s what I like about Double-X — very contrasty with plenty of midtones. Nice work!
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Thanks Jim. I’m looking forward to shooting the other roll – having seen the results of the first I certainly won’t leave it as long this time! Thanks again for the gift. 🙂
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Very nice. Double-X is one of my favorite stocks. Regarding the anti-halation layer being removed, unlike Vision 3 and other color motion stocks, Double-X does not have a remjet layer. So the slight halo-ing is just inherent to this emulsion. This film stock does date way, way back after all. I think it’s aesthetic is absolutely beautiful. If Kodak ever stops manufacturing it, I will be extremely upset. Again, nice work.
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Thanks P. I wasn’t aware about the lack of remjet, so thanks for pointing that out. I’ll most likely be posting another Double-X photo later today – it is a very nice looking film.
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