Blog

Canon 300V • EF 28–70mm f/2.8 • Rollei Ortho 25 • Roman Walls at Silchester

The old Roman walls at Silchester do not rise dramatically from the earth. There are no towering arches waiting beyond the trees. No broken columns catching evening light. Instead the place survives quietly grass grows over stone, earth lifts gently where walls once stood, paths still follow lines laid down centuries ago and the landscape remembers even when it says very little.

It felt like the right place to carry a roll of Rollei Ortho 25.

This was not intended as a technical exercise. I was not chasing charts, grain comparisons, or laboratory sharpness. The camera was simply a Canon 300V fitted with the EF 28–70mm f/2.8, loaded with a film I had wanted to explore for some time.

The walk itself became the subject.

Readers interested in my wider analogue work can also explore my film photography hub page, where I collect film reviews, development notes, field studies, cameras, and slower photographic projects built around black and white photography.

A Full Image gallery of my Rollei ORTHO 25 film can be seen at the end of this blog post.

Field Setup

Why Rollei Ortho 25 Felt Right for Silchester

Silchester has always felt less like photographing ruins and more like photographing memory. You walk through suggestion, a raised bank, a slight curve in the field, grass standing a little higher than expected. The town remains beneath your feet rather than before your eyes. Rollei Ortho 25 seemed suited to that.

At ISO 25 the film refuses urgency, It slows exposure, it asks for attention. You begin to notice textures that might otherwise be ignored, stone fragments, flattened grass. The movement of cloud across open ground.

Earlier visits to the site shaped much of this way of working and continue through projects such as Where The Wall Whispers, Roman Silchester Walk and Walking Ancient Ruins with Film Photography. Rollei Ortho 25 simply seemed to join that conversation.

A Film with Technical Origins

[IMAGE – Rollei Ortho 25 box beside camera and negatives]

Rollei Ortho 25 is an unusual film. Although many photographers now use it for landscape work, its background sits much closer to technical photography. The film was designed around applications requiring extremely fine detail, high resolving power, and exceptionally clean negatives.

That heritage becomes obvious once the roll is scanned, grain almost disappears, edges remain crisp, texture carries extraordinary separation and even in 35mm the negatives feel larger than they are.

The film also differs from many traditional black and white stocks because it is orthochromatic rather than panchromatic.

from wikipedia;
Orthochromatic (from the Greek orthos meaning “correct,” and chromatic meaning “color”) refers to a type of photographic emulsion or light spectrum that is highly sensitive to blue and green light, but almost completely insensitive to red light

This changes how the world is translated, blues respond strongly, greens remain rich, red sensitivity becomes limited, the result feels slightly removed from modern black and white photography, somehow older, quieter, perhaps even closer to archival field work.

Official specifications and manufacturer information can be viewed through the Rollei analogue page.

Understanding Orthochromatic Film

Most black and white films today are panchromatic. They respond across the visible spectrum and behave in ways photographers generally expect. Rollei Ortho 25 behaves differently.

Its reduced sensitivity to red light changes tonal relationships.

Blue skies often appear darker.

Warm stone shifts.

Brick can reproduce deeper than expected.

Grass and earth sometimes gain stronger separation.

Around Silchester this became particularly noticeable.

The earthworks felt clearer.

The lines in the landscape carried more presence.

Subtle changes in ground texture appeared more distinct.

For comparison I have also written about Ilford FP4, Ilford Pan F Plus 50 and broader guides covering types-of-35mm-black-and-white-films.

Walking the Walls

The Roman walls do not really ask to be photographed.

They ask to be noticed, and there is a quiet difference in that.

Photography often goes looking for subjects, for something to isolate or frame, but Silchester offers something more elusive. Not objects as such, but traces. A slight depression in the grass where stone still lies beneath. Old boundaries that only reveal themselves in the way the ground lifts and falls. Paths that continue to exist long after the reason for them has faded.

Rollei Ortho 25 seemed to settle into that way of seeing without resistance. It carries texture gently but clearly, letting grass hold its structure and allowing weathered ground to remain readable without exaggeration. Even the sky sits back slightly, present but never dominant.

What came back from the roll felt less like a set of photographs and more like a series of notes made while moving through the landscape. Small observations. Quiet acknowledgements that something has remained here longer than memory can comfortably hold.

A short field clip from the same walk captures the rhythm of the place more directly than words ever can.

In the end, the camera stops feeling like the centre of the process. The landscape takes that place instead.

Working at ISO 25

ISO 25 changes the way you move through a place. It slows everything down in a way that becomes noticeable almost immediately.

Bright open ground still feels comfortable enough, but as soon as the light shifts—when clouds soften the sun or trees begin to break the frame—the work becomes more deliberate. Shutter speeds start to matter in a different way. You become aware of your own steadiness, of small movements in the wind, of how easily a moment can slip past if you are not ready for it.

There is no rush in this film, and eventually you stop expecting there to be.

Silchester suited that rhythm perfectly. Nothing there is hurried. The walls have already waited centuries, and another few seconds of exposure feels entirely in keeping with that sense of time. You begin to work with patience rather than against it.

In open sunlight it remains manageable handheld, but under broken cloud things begin to slow. Woodland edges demand more care. And once you drop into deeper shade, a tripod stops being optional and becomes part of the process itself.

It is not a film for chasing movement or reacting quickly to changing scenes. It is a film for standing still, for waiting, and for allowing the landscape to settle before making the exposure.

For landscape studies and quieter, more reflective work, it feels entirely at home.

Development and Process

Part of the experience of film doesn’t end when the shutter closes. In many ways, that is where it begins to shift into something quieter. There is a rhythm to it. Mixing chemistry, preparing tanks, loading reels in dim light, and then the slow uncertainty of waiting while images begin to appear.

Rollei Ortho 25 suits that slower rhythm particularly well. It feels consistent with the way it asks to be photographed in the field; deliberate, careful, unhurried.

This roll was developed in Rodinal at a 1:25 dilution. What came back from the tank was immediately striking—clean negatives, strong separation, and a clarity that feels almost architectural in its precision. There is a sense with this film that it holds detail very honestly, without exaggeration or softness getting in the way. It simply records what is there, then steps back.

For those beginning their own journey into home processing, the <a href=”https://fineartpics.co.uk/simple-film-development-guide”>Simple Film Development Guide</a> may be useful as a starting point. The camera used for this walk also plays its part in how the process feels. The Canon 300V is one of those cameras that disappears once you start working with it—lightweight, unobtrusive, and easy to carry over longer distances without drawing attention to itself.

I have written more about it in my Canon EOS 300V review, along with some notes on long-term reliability in Canon 300V Shutter Failure.

Development Notes

Always test and adjust for your own workflow.

Scanning and Image Quality

Scanning this roll was perhaps the most surprising part of the entire process.

What first stands out is the sense of detail. Not in an aggressive or clinical way, but in how much of the landscape seems to carry through the negative with ease. The film holds onto texture in a way that feels almost expansive, as though there is more information in the frame than you initially expect from 35mm.

Grain is present, but so fine it almost disappears once scanned at a reasonable resolution. What remains instead is clarity. Grass keeps its structure without becoming brittle. Stone edges stay defined but never harsh. Even subtle transitions in earth and weathered ground remain readable.

There is a slight impression that the image scale has shifted, as though the negatives are behaving closer to a larger format than their physical size would suggest. It is not literal, of course, but it speaks to how clean and controlled the film can feel when everything comes together.

For readers interested in the wider behaviour of black and white film—especially how grain and surface character affect mood—you may also find the articles on Film Grain and Film Texture useful alongside this review.

Technical Specifications

Official data sheet and manufacturer information.

Final Thoughts

Rollei Ortho 25 will not become an everyday film for me.

It asks for too much deliberation in situations that often move quickly. Wildlife, changing light, fleeting weather—all of these feel slightly out of reach for it. It resists urgency, and that resistance shapes the kind of work it naturally belongs to.

Yet around Silchester it felt entirely at home.

The Roman walls there do not present themselves as something complete. They survive in fragments, in suggestions, in the way the ground still remembers what once stood above it. Nothing about the place feels loud. Everything feels partially hidden, as though time has agreed to soften the edges rather than erase them.

Rollei Ortho 25 responds to that kind of landscape with unusual clarity. It does not interpret or exaggerate. It simply records what is there, then steps back and allows the structure of the scene to speak for itself.

In the end, it did not feel like I was photographing the walls directly.

It felt more like I was photographing what remains around them.

Related Reading

Film Photography Core

• central archive for all film work, reviews, and field studies
• foundational guide to shooting analogue photography
• practical home development workflow

Silchester & Ancient Landscape Work

• a quiet field study of the Roman landscape
• atmospheric exploration of Calleva Atrebatum
• Walking Ancient Ruins with Film Photography – photographing history through absence and trace

Film Comparisons & Technique

• classic mid-speed black and white film
• Ilford Pan F Plus 50 – ultra-fine grain, slow tonal work

Mindful & Reflective Practice

• Mindful Photography – slowing down and working with intention in the field

Rollei ORTHO 25 Film Gallery

Show Favourite Photos

Please leave this field empty

WANT MORE?

SIGN UP TO RECEIVE MY LATEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIPS & TRICKS & PHOTO STORIES

We don’t spam! Read our privacy policy for more info.

Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription.