Ferrania P30 is Back....Again

[f.hayek]

Not sure this film is particularly good when paired with modern lenses.

You're probably right. Gonna drag out the Summicron Rigid and Canon 50/1.4 LTM for Ferrania

 

[Godfrey]

The Chair by the Church - Santa Clara 2021
Kodak Retina IIIc + Schneider 50mm f/2
ISO 80 @ f/5.6 @ 1/250​

This was made on Ferrania P30, exposed at EI 100, processed in HC-110 diluted 1:49 for 8 minutes with continuous agitation.

I love the textures that express with this film!

G

 

[Godfrey]

My four rolls of new P30 arrived. Woo Hoo! I've loaded one into a Retina. 😀

G

 

[Godfrey]

I've just processed a roll of the Ferrania P30 in my usual soup, my usual way. Very very rich, contrasty, deep film! Next roll I'll modify my standard soup and workflow to reduce contrast a trifle.
Perhaps scan tonight. 😀

G

 

[Retro-Grouch]

The Chair by the Church - Santa Clara 2021
Kodak Retina IIIc + Schneider 50mm f/2
ISO 80 @ f/5.6 @ 1/250​

This was made on Ferrania P30, exposed at EI 100, processed in HC-110 diluted 1:49 for 8 minutes with continuous agitation.

I love the textures that express with this film!

G

Great shot!

 

[Godfrey]

I ran another roll of Ferrania P30 through the Kodak Retina IIc. It is a wonderful film, but I do have to do some investigation to figure the best way to process it. My standard processing technique doesn't work well enough to get the most out of it ... I think it needs more exposure, a more dilute developer, and a longer processing time to tame the contrast. I've got another roll loaded for testing these things.

But I did get a few satisfying photos with the last roll. This was made from an extremely thin negative, but captured what I had in mind pretty well:

Two Trees Frame A Hidden Gate
Kodak Retina IIc - Xenon 50mm f/2.8
Ferrania P30​

enjoy! G

 

[Mackinaw]

I ran another roll of Ferrania P30 through the Kodak Retina IIc. It is a wonderful film, but I do have to do some investigation to figure the best way to process it. My standard processing technique doesn't work well enough to get the most out of it ... I think it needs more exposure, a more dilute developer, and a longer processing time to tame the contrast. I've got another roll loaded for testing these things.

I've taken to shooting Ferrania at EI 25. That seems to tame the contrast. I develop either in Xtol or Rodinal. I scan, not wet darkroom, so can compensate for any exposure differences in PS. I really like this film.



Jim B.

 

[Godfrey]

Looks good, Jim!

I completed my test roll and processed it today. Most of the roll was made of subjects with ISO 50 setting, and most of the exposures I also made a +1EV shot on top of that, using one of the small Voigtländer light meters in reflected light mode. The last series of exposures was an Xrite Color Checker and a TriTone target: I made a set of more rigorously controlled exposures from the nominal EI 80 Sekonic L478 incident reading with bracket exposures at half stop intervals (0, +.5, +1, +1.5, +2 EV). I decided to go with my usual HC-110 developer mixed from concentrate at 1:99 dilution, and set the development time to 16 minutes. I used a continuous agitation Agfa Rondix 35 tank, my usual 35mm choice.

The results ... are nearly perfect all across the board! Considering nominal ISO 80, +1 to +1.5 EI settings (essentially ISO 40-30) produced the best results on the Color Checker and TriTone targets, but almost all of the ISO 50 exposures from the walking about show excellent tonal range and detailing, with no blocked highlights and no overly-thin shadow values. I will use this processing chemistry and standardize on ISO 40.

I'll have a couple of the photos scanned tomorrow, when I can work better. I'm too tired now to scan them properly... 🙂

G

 

[Godfrey]

Okay: My test roll is scanned results are posted to Flickr.com at https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjAePJM

I changed my usual processing methodology to a more dilute HC-110 concentration (1:99 vs 1:49) and doubled my standard process time (16 vs 8 min). A test sequence indicated that the speed at this processing methodology is between ISO 40 and ISO 25 and produces a very full tonal scale that is easy to invert and render to finish.

You'll see at the Flickr album negatives and positives of the test setup with the revised processing in a set of three diptychs showing the ISO 80, 40, and 25 negatives-positives pairs, and the reversal tone curve I developed based on the ISO 40 capture. After that is a set of ten sample exposures, attempting to cover a relatively wide range of lighting and contrast situations.

The sample photos were all made with the meter set to ISO 50, exposures tweaked by eye beyond that (usually adding .3 to 1.0 EV). The digital captures were made with the Leica M10-M and Macro-Elmarit-60 set to ISO 400 @ f/11 @ 1/8 second manual mode (regardless what Flickr shows). I applied the tone curve I developed, and then individual exposures were gently tweaked to bring out the desired tonal qualities. These final tweaks were all very small deviations from the default curve I'd created.

ISO 40 histogram and tone curve:

ISO 40 - HC110 1:99 - 16 minutes​

Sample photos (two of the ten):

Dragons


Under Construction​

Enjoy! G

 

[markjwyatt]

I finally got a roll to try it. Should be fun.

 

[james.liam]

Contrast just seems a bit much.

 

[dkreindler]

Ferrania Grand Bend by Derek Kreindler, on Flickr

Ferrania Grand Bend by Derek Kreindler, on Flickr

Ferrania Grand Bend by Derek Kreindler, on Flickr

Tough film...last frame is indicative of the underexposure that plagued my first roll of this film, but I am eager to try it again

 

[Mackinaw]

Tough film...last frame is indicative of the underexposure that plagued my first roll of this film, but I am eager to try it again

P30 I shoot at EI 25. I scan, not wet darkroom, so I find that blasting the shadows with as much light as possible gives me an acceptable scan. The highlights I can take care of in PS.

P33 is a true 160 speed film. Wonderful stuff. I hope they offer in 100 feet rolls.

Jim B.