Fomapan 400 - I might have figured it out, finally

OK, I agree that the title for this post is quite an optimistic one. Still, I have been thinking about how to attack Fomapan 400 film for some time now. I feel I have never really got under the skin of it, and that my negs have been quite far from well exposed almost no matter what I have been trying to do with this film.
So, yesterday I thought what the heck and decided to just as well put it through some real funky process.
I threw a roll inside the Rolleiflex and decided to over expose it, and then (as if that wasn't enough...) also to over develop it to some extent, just to see what that would bring to the table.
Some time ago I read a few words about folks who had done something similar with a roll or two of HP5 with good results, but as usual I couldn't find the article when I needed it. I know they both over exposed and over developed their film, but I'm not sure by how much.

This is Mr. Thor-Ole, the first engineer on board. He knows a lot about stuff and anything going around and around. That's nice skills to have when being an engineer of course.

So what I basically did was to decide to expose the film to 100 ASA. That should give us two stops of over exposure, done directly in camera.
The film were shot down in the engine control room of the ship, with some rather bad lighting as we have seen before from countless snaps taken down there. I used a phone app to measure the light and ended up at 1/8 sek. wide open lens at f/2,8. 
Of course, that's the stupid part of it, as it's completely taking away the speed advantages of using a 400 film in the first place. The case is that this film seems not to be a 400 film at all, which I have been thinking for quite a while actually. Usually my Fomapan 400 shots will end up dark, muddy and extremely grainy. Not so this time though, as you might see from the examples.

Meet Jøran, the Cadet of the engine department. He's probably telling his mother or whoever all about the life on board while waiting for news about when he can possibly get home from this place.

And as if the two stops of extra exposure wasn't enough I also decided to give it about two stops extra in the developer as well.
According to the Foma data sheet the Fomapan 400 in Fomadon Excel (1:1 mix) should have 9,5 minutes in the tank, so I almost doubled that ending up at around 17,5 minutes just to see if something weird might happen.

I might give it another go some other day. Shoot it at around 200 ASA and give it more or less the same time in the developer. That might do the trick... we will see. It would be great to earn one stop if nothing else.
I might even try to shoot it at say 320 and give it another stop or so in the developer as well. There could be several ways to get more or less the same result for all I know. 
What I'm after is simply a better way to use the Fomapan 400 film, as I quite like it but not the way I usually would consume it. 

The second engineer in for a short break. He is using his phone as well, but most likely to search the internet for spare parts for one of his very many old reel to reel tape machines. He's collecting them, you see. Will need a big house some day this young man.

What I can say straight away is that my negs here looks very much printable, and that my typical shadow issues seems to have been gone with the wind. There are bad spots for sure, but nothing like they used to be. For the first time I think I might say there seems to be details in the shadows. 
They might look a bit flat or with some loss of contrast, but then again the "scanning facilities" are still not up to par as you might remember, so it might not be as bad as it looks here.

Next film up for the treatment is the Ilford PAN 400 film. There's one already loaded inside the M6 rangefinder. I have even put batteries inside to be able to use the meter! I adjusted it to 200 ASA and will decide later on how much to stretch the development. There might be a conclusion some day... so stay tuned. 

I mean you have to put your mind into something else when it seems you might be sitting around here for quite a while... 

See that? That's the electrician and the last one working in my department, and he's on his phone as well. What is it with people and phones today and the times we live in? Well... I think we might be excused to some degree. We live well over half of the time away from our dear ones, and some sort of contact is always nice to have. The electrician is the experienced sailor among our team. He's been doing this since the quite early 70's or something like that, AKA "the stone age" to the younger lads among us...