Ferrania P30 B&W Film Thread

SyPat said:
Is it an illusion (low res scans ?) but highlights are seriously prone to block. In all previous shots, there is no texture at all in whites.
Or is it D76 ?
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I was an original backer, and had a cart full of P30 when the site crashed during the P30 sale. Never got an order in, but I finally managed to get two rolls in a trade through Facebook, and ran my first roll yesterday. In sun the highlights do indeed block up terribly, I used Ilfosol3 after looking at LOTS of P30 images and talking with a guy in Texas who has been posting the least contrasty pics. Will get some scans today or tomorrow, I printed yesterday, but it's been rainy overnight, so they may not be quite dry enough for today. Very contrasty at ISO 50 and run in Ilfosol3. I've got the fixings for some ID3 and Beutler coming in this week, so will see what a compensating developer can do.

My prints were all done at grades ¾ to ¼ on the LPL, so I have a long way to go in getting it sorted out, unlikely my second roll will get me much closer.

I too found the grain is a bit mushy like Plus-X in Microdol-X. Thought it was the Ilfosol till reading this thread again this morning.
 
sepiareverb said:
.....I too found the grain is a bit mushy like Plus-X in Microdol-X. Thought it was the Ilfosol till reading this thread again this morning.
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That was my impression too, that the grain looked like something that was developed in straight Microdol. And that may not be necessarily bad. I shoot a lot of portraits and the like, and this film may be ideal for that, at least if developed in D-76. Here’s a cropped shot from a model shoot I had last weekend. I used my ancient Canonflex and a R58mm F1.2 lens at F2.0. Out of all the pics I took (about 99% digital), so far this is her favorite. Again, developed in D-76 1:1, continuous agitation.

Ferrania2_crop.jpg


Jim B.
 
Remember, you're looking at a scan. I can further decrease contrast in PS. But your point is well taken, P30 is more contrasty than other B&W films.

Jim B.
 
Mackinaw said:
Remember, you're looking at a scan. I can further decrease contrast in PS. But your point is well taken, P30 is more contrasty than other B&W films.

Jim B.
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Yes, you're right. But I prefer to print, so dialing down the contrast a bit more will make my workflow easier. Prints are still a bit damp, so will scan tomorrow.
 
Amazing what a few hours with a fan can do to fiber paper. I don't know why I never remember that...

Both shot with the MP and 35/1.4 pre-ASPH with a yellow filter. Again, shot at ISO 50, and developed in Ilfosol 3 1:9 for 8 minutes, 15 seconds of initial agitation and 2 inversions per minute for the remainder. Maybe ISO 32 and 6 ½ minutes would work better with Ilfosol 3.

#1 Here, very open shade light. This north facing wall is still in the shadow of the buildings across the street to the left, it's early morning, but with a big open blue sky behind me. A traffic lane and one row of parking spaces, and then a long row of one story buildings behind me here. Not bad. Metered the brick wall, as I would normally do in this situation. The fresh white paint in the bottom right is very blocked up. Shadows are pretty hard to print detail from. This is a print at grade 1.3 on the LPL. I shot this again this morning with Double-X.



#2 Wish I'd had a second camera with me for this one. A very difficult situation for my understanding of P30 (especially on a first roll of it, or first roll of anything for that matter). Deep shadows in the car and under the porch, plus full sunlight on some fresh white primer up on that trim. Super clear, dry day, so really strong morning sun behind me. I bracketed this one, and this negative, a half a stop over how I would normally meter was the one that looked the best. I know I'd have a more printable negative with UN54, but this did react probably much as PanF+ would have, sans the blocked highlights.

Print here at grade ¼, developed in Print NE (Neutol) 1:7 for 3 minutes with minimal agitation. I didn't really work at getting as good a print as I could here, just wanted to get a proof on paper for a scan, and that took four tries where I usually make one, sometimes two. I might try a water bath on this, and could likely tease out some better tonality with more time in the darkroom. I will certainly return to this neg.

 
x-ray, here are some iPhone shots of my films. Fluorescent noise with the phone camera, films are a consistent slightly purplish-grey. Contrasty. This was shot on a morning walk down to the Post Office and drugstore yesterday. Clear blue sky, but early enough that there was open shade from buildings. I went back out about two hours later and finished off the last six frames here. I would have gotten 40 frames, but am glad I didn't go to the very end, as when I unspooled the film in the darkroom it came right off the center, seems like the hole in the film didn't get caught by the tooth in the spindle.









Missed the focus in that last one, if you want to see it again let me know.

Taming the highlights while getting more shadow detail would be what I'd need to figure out to make use of this more often. And this was a contrasty morning for this stuff, but I would often be shooting a 50 speed film on a day like this. With the lack of shadow detail in so much of the P30 stuff I've seen (I've looked at tons of it on Flickr and Facebook besides what's been posted here) I bracketed at 1 over, ½ over and my normal metering for these scenes.

PanF+ seems the closest in tonality to me from this first test. Similar shadow density concerns there (I shoot PanF+ at 40). I've also not used Ilfosol 3 before at all, so I don't know how much of my contrast trouble is coming from the developer. I'm interested enough to want more, but that's because it seems to be a slower film than the 80 stated and there are not a lot of slow options now that my stash of Efke25 is evaporating...
 
sepiareverb said:
........I'm interested enough to want more, but that's because it seems to be a slower film than the 80 stated and there are not a lot of slow options now that my stash of Efke25 is evaporating...
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Agree with you here. I want more too. I’m out of P30 so have to wait until the Ferrania store reopens so I can buy more.

I still have a few hundred feet of Efke 25 in the freezer, so I have a large stash of slow film I can still use. But I like the look of P30. As mentioned in a previous post, the smooth, almost mushy grain, looks to be ideal for portraits.

I need to experiment more with P30. An ISO of 80 is too high. I shot my last three rolls at 40 and even that may be too high. The next stuff I get I’ll shoot at 20 and see what that looks like. Maybe try Ilfosol too, along with Xtol. Kind of fun experimenting with a new film.

Jim B.
 
Thanks, guys. I really like this film, and will certainly buy more when the opportunity presents itself. Of course, I loved Panatomic -X as well.
 
At the Ferrania website they have had the message that the shop is "reopening soon" for several months.
I have a feeling that a year from now the shop will still be "reopening soon".
Perhaps 'soon' is compared to our sun using up it's hydrogen and bloating into a red giant.

By the way, what filter would you recommend to photograph that event with P30.
 
zuiko85 said:
At the Ferrania website they have had the message that the shop is "reopening soon" for several months.
I have a feeling that a year from now the shop will still be "reopening soon".
Perhaps 'soon' is compared to our sun using up it's hydrogen and bloating into a red giant.

By the way, what filter would you recommend to photograph that event with P30.
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Dave Bias, spokesman for Ferrania, is active on APUG on all matters regarding Ferrania. Paraphrasing some of his posts, P30 was a smash success so Ferrania is evaluating how to make more of the stuff (in volume) and the best way to sell it. Only six people work at the plant so the wheels of progress turn slowly.

Find the Ferrania P30 on APUG for more info.

Jim B.
 
brbo said:
Some more (all developed in Rodinal (1:50)):










Not sure what you can make of this particular film by looking at the scans and since I don't print I obviously don't have the eye to tell you much about the film by just looking at the negatives...

The first two were overexposed (unintentionally) and underdeveloped (the first version of the Ferrania P30 "manual" had something like 8 or 9min for Rodinal 1:50; currently they suggest 14min). I guess the last two are more in line with what you should expect from P30 at iso80. I will probably shoot the next roll at iso50.
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Very good.
 
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