Rollei Redbird

The Rollei Redbird is a Redscale film. Like Lomography’s Redscale, it is an inverted color negative film.

Turned the right way, it has a sensitivity of ISO 400, but by turning it over, it should be overexposed a bit. The more you overexpose it, the less red you get. It’s best to do a bracketing to get the perfect mix for you.

The film was introduced in 2009 by the German companies Rollei-Film and the Spürsinn Group.

The Redbird is available as 35mm film and it can be used in almost any 35mm camera. The 35mm film is also available preloaded into a disposable camera.

Development

Rollei film is usually developed using the C-41 process and this is offered by most photo labs. There should be no extra charge for development. However, problems can arise when developing in other labs that do not specialize in the specifics of the film.

Turning the film causes the more sensitive side of the material to be exposed, and depending on the technique, scratches or other damage can occur. To avoid this problem, the film stock would need to be turned back to the correct side. This is a bit of work, but better than risking damage to your own images.

Another problem can occur with the prints. Many photo labs adjust the colors when making the prints to get the “correct” colors. However, with Redscale photos, such image correction is not possible, which can cause the prints to be somewhat disappointing. It is therefore advisable to digitize the images yourself and then print them out, or to point this out to the lab to avoid disappointing results.