Film Friday - July 18th, 2025. Rollei Paul & Reinhold 640 Film Review
There is this quip by the late comedian Mitch Hedberg that always makes me chuckle. “How long is New Zealand going to be new?” Reviewing Paul & Reinhold, a “limited edition” film first introduced in September 2020 and still available today reminds me of that short joke. How long can a limited edition film be available and still be limited?
Jokes aside, we are here today to take a look at this interesting film released by Macodirect out of Germany to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of Franke & Heidecke. Without delving into a full-on history lesson, it is still worth answering the question “Paul and who?”
Paul Franke and Reinhold Heidecke were the two men behind the formation of Franke & Heidecke in 1920 - the company that would eventually become famous for the Rolleicord and Rolleiflex twin lens reflex cameras, as well as numerous other cameras over the following century. Former colleagues at Voigtlander, Franke & Heidecke wanted to take photographic evolution in the direction they envisioned, which included cameras that made use of roll films (plates and sheets were still the most common forms that film was available in at that time) as well as cameras that were robust, well-designed and of exceptional quality. Their initial camera, the Stereo Heidoscop, was a success and helped the fledgling business get off the ground. By 1928 they introduced their first Rolleiflex camera and the rest, as they say, is history.
Paul & Reinhold has a classic look to it and begs the question, what exactly is this film? Image made with an Olympus XA.
The Rollei brand name has undergone a lot of change since those early days. These days it still shows up on products made by various companies who have licensed the rights to use it. A prime example of this are the various Rollei films available on the market. These films are not made by Rollei. In fact, they are made by a few different companies including Agfa Gavaert in Belgium and apparently Ferrania in Italy (more on that below). The German company Hahns O. Mahn GmbH licenses the Rollei brand name to use on these films which it sells through their site Macodirect. We only point this out to avoid any misunderstanding that this is a film made by Rollei. It isn’t. It is a film about Rollei, celebrating Rollei, but not made by Rollei.
That is probably enough backstory to get us going here. So what is Paul & Reinhold 640, you may ask? The simple answer is that it is a panchromatic, black & white negative film with a nominal sensitivity of ISO 640. The Rolleianalog site markets it as having extremely high sharpness with above average latitude and resolution. This is a good, basic overview of the film to start with at least.
If you are feeling like asking a follow up question, “But what is it really? Is it something else repackaged?” our response would be, we really don’t know. Nobody outside of Macodirect seems to know, despite lots, and lots of speculation. The only clue the wide world of the internet has to work with is the “Made in Italy” declaration on the film’s packaging. This seems to point to some business arrangement with Ferrania, though whether they are making and coating the emulsion, or just cutting and finishing an already produced film is a mystery. And does it even really matter? If Paul & Reinhold creates it own look and feel, then it may well not matter exactly what its provenance is. So that is where we are going to leave that. Let’s instead look at some more images and talk about what we do know about this film.
Paul & Reinhold has great contrast to it that gives the film a nice punch without being overbearing. Image made with a Noblex swing lens camera.
The images in this review were produced over a span of six rolls of Paul & Reinhold, dating back 2-3 years. My first rolls were shot through a Noblex swing lens camera. If memory serves me correctly, they were likely developed in Kodak XTOL or D-76. In the past six months, in preparation for finally finishing this review, I shot four more rolls of the film. Two of those went through my Olympus XA on a trip to New York, another went through the XA again here in Portland and the fourth was shot in a Yasuhara T981 during the annual St. Johns Parade event here in Portland. Those latter four rolls were all developed via a standard minilab machine in Ilfotec DD chemistry. I only mention this because there are some consistencies and some inconsistencies across these various rolls that give me some pause and cause for speculation. But I will expand more on all that toward the end of this review.
So let’s get the TLDR stuff out of the way. My briefest summary of Rollei Paul & Reinhold is this:
Moderately fine grain for its ISO 640 speed. On par with average-grained ISO 400 films, but not as grainy as say Fomapan 400.
Good contrast. There is a nice punch to Paul & Reinhold 640, especially in the shadows. At the same time the contrast across the highlights is smooth and not too harsh at all.
I’ve shot all my rolls rated at ISO 640, so it responds well at that speed.
Have not tried pushing or pulling this film.
It is a great film for compact cameras doing candid street photography. The grain and contrast lend itself well to that subject matter and the faster film speed keeps shutter speeds nice and high.
P&R 640 is a great film for candid street snaps, even in bright sunny weather. Image made with a Yasuhara T981.
Having spent some time with this film now I feel inclined to agree with Macodirect’s assertion that P7R 640 is a sharp film. Despite its naturally higher graininess associated with its faster film speed, the film does deliver a nicely sharp look to it. This is helped by the film’s contrast, of course, which gives the appearance of greater sharpness. But Paul & Reinhold does strike a nice balance between the appearance of its grain and the sharpness of its edges. In some ways it reminds me a bit of Tri-X in this regard.
I find the contrast of Paul & Reinhold 640 perhaps its most interesting quality. At a glance, I would say the film has slightly higher than average contrast. The images have a bit of drama to them. Having shot films like Delta 400 or Rollei RPX 400, I can see the difference right away. But at the same time that contrast mostly seems to be found in the shadows and darker tones. Across the lighter tones and the films highlights there is a nice evenness to P&R 640 that actually does remind me of the contrast of Rollei RPX 400 film. That latter film has become one of my favorite summer films for how well it handles in direct sunlight. Paul & Reinhold, despite being higher contrast than RPX 400, has similar behavior in its highlights. I shot a couple rolls of this film on bright days in direct sunlight and was impressed by the results. The highlights still have a nice density to them without having clipped to white. Meanwhile when shot in more overcast conditions the film keeps from looking dull and too flat, adding some contrast to that naturally flat light.
Paul & Reinhold 640 documenting the local pickleball matchup on a bright summer day. Despite the high contrast of the light, the resulting image is well balanced and not too harsh at all. Image made with an Olympus XA.
Meanwhile, Paul & Reinhold 640 shot on an overcast day in Manhattan. There is still a nice contrast to the image that doesn’t look flat or dull at all. Image made with an Olympus XA.
There are a couple of other interesting and unique qualities to mention about Paul & Reinhold 640 film. The first is that, in a clever marketing gimmick, the film is sold in two-packs. One roll dedicated to Paul Franke and the other roll dedicated to Reinhold Heidecke. The pair of rolls comes in a handy two-roll plastic storage case. I love this and the fact that the sticker on each of the two rolls is different and printed with the name of each member of that famous duo. The other interesting quality is that the film is marked on its packaging as “Made in Italy”. This is the information tidbit that has given the internet much to chew on. Most of the Rollei-branded film comes from the Agfa Gavaert factory in Belgium but apparently Paul & Reinhold wanted an Italian vacation. The only business producing film currently in Italy is the Ferrania plant. Ferrania has no product anywhere close to this film though. Their P30 and P33 are ISO 80 and ISO 160 respectively. Not to mention they have been out of production for months now while Paul & Reinhold has remained consistently available. So is Ferrania producing a film specifically for Macodirect? Is Macodirect sending them a film produced elsewhere and Ferrania is handling the cutting and packaging? Can it possibly be a Ferrania film rated at a different ISO and repackaged as Paul & Reinhold 640? As I said above, I really have no clue so instead I choose to treat this film at face value - that is as its own unique ISO 640 black and white film stock.
It is worth mentioning that one of my packs of P&R 640 exhibited heavy scratch marks throughout the entire length of both rolls. I spent significant time cleaning up these scratches but they can still be seen to some extent in the above images. I had not seen film scratched in this way since the early days of Ferrania P30 film when they were ironing out the kinks in their production systems. This issue does seem to support the speculation that Ferrania is handling this film in some manner. Images made with an Olympus XA.
This is where we are going to leave Paul & Reinhold 640 for today. There is still more work I would love to do with this film. How does it push, or pull? What does it look like shot with a yellow, orange or red filter? Does it have infrared sensitivity (pretty doubtful but since there is no official datasheet for it we cannot know until we try)? But should you shoot Paul & Reinhold 640? I think that answer is safely a definite yes. The film is a nice higher speed addition to the camera bag, it performs pretty well and is surprisingly versatile. And it comes in those handy two-pack film containers. There is a lot to like here. Which really only leaves us with one more question: just how long will this limited edition film still be limited?
We have almost every film stock available on the market. Check it out!
If you need an excellent lab for meticulous film developing, topnotch optical prints, traditional darkroom printing and superb film scanning, we’re your lab!
Also, sign up for our weekly newsletter The Loupe and keep your eyes peeled on our social media feeds every Friday when we feature a different film and also offer it at a one day discount of 15% off!
The contrast of Paul & Reinhold combined nicely with the multiple exposures of the Noblex to create this interesting image.
P&R 640 once again showing surprising temperance when shot on a clear sunny day. Images made with an Olympus XA.
