Rollei Superpan 200

Superpan 200 and Retro 80S come from the same aerial-base PET emulsion family. The practical differences are speed (200 versus 80) and the degree of extended-red response. Superpan 200 reads further into the red and near-infrared than standard panchromatic film but not as deep into the IR range as Rollei Infrared 400. The useful way to think of it is as a film that behaves like standard panchromatic with a built-in mild orange filter effect, without requiring you to actually mount one.

The sky darkening effect is visible in ordinary daylight without filtration and becomes stronger with a yellow or orange filter. For architecture photography this is often exactly what you want: blue sky separation from building facades, textured clouds, and clean stone or concrete rendering. The extended red sensitivity also improves haze penetration modestly, which matters for distant landscapes or urban work on overcast days.

The PET base and dye-based anti-halation mean scans have the same high-acutance characteristics as Retro 80S. There is no base density fogging the scan and the grain boundaries are sharp. Astrophotography users who expose for star fields and want a traditional panchromatic rendering with sky sensitivity have found this useful; the extended red catches nebula emission that standard panchromatic clips.

Processing is conventional. Rodinal 1:50 gives strong grain and acutance. D-76 1:1 softens the grain slightly without losing the sharpness advantage the base provides.

The reciprocity exponent is 1.31. Zone Light Meter applies the correction from one second onward. For astro work especially, where exposures of many minutes are common, the correction table is doing real work: a 4-minute tracked exposure extends to roughly 8 minutes at the 1.31 exponent.