Ferrania Ferrania P30 - Film Gallery

Shot a roll with a Nikon F3 at the botanic gardens, subdued glass house lighting in part, semi-overcast winter landscapes and wildlife photography on the rest – thrilled with all the results, contrasty but the detail is there, macro shots of orchids came out especially well. Developed in Ilfosol 3, no issues.

This film, outoors on a sunny day, will produce contrast reminiscent of shooting Plus-X with an orange filter. I stand-developed in Rodinal 1:100 at about 70F for 45 minutes. TIght grain structure, but plugged highlights. As others have said, this film is better suited to cloudy conditions, or available dark work where higher contrast is needed, or desired for effect.

I love high contrast film and overall darker than typical images. I haven’t met a high contrast film I didn’t like…until now. Some images were acceptable overall. Most images contained black or white and no tonal range in between. This film reminds me of Kodak b&w infrared….glowing whites and not detail solid blacks. Maybe I just need to shoot another roll…maybe not.

I have nothing but respect for what Ferrania is trying to do, but if I’m being objective, P30 is just a terrible film. To get a usable image you have to read through various articles of people trying different developers, because they too can’t get a usable image, and then crossing your fingers that your negatives aren’t completely duotone black and white without any grays. Hard pass.

My preferred BW film. Strong contrast, very fine grain, beautiful when shot at box speed or pushed.
I buy extra rolls. I use an autowinder camera and about 1 time out of 4 it will rip the film out of the canister completely when loading the roll. Annoying but the images are worth the gamble.

While I am only one roll through this offering. What I see I like very much. The blacks are very black and the whites are very white. I’m not seeing a lot of grey tones and actually like that. It has that old film look from another era–think Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon, La Dolce Vita. My first attempt was with DDX for 15min with constant gentle rotation 1+6 dilution and scanned with Epson V850. Excited for the next roll.

I tryed this film in Street Photo in medioeval cities.
Developed in d76 I obtained a good scale of gray expecially in shadows. I alwsys fit a yellow filter on my lenses. The home water photographers use for the developer (I have never understood how) has a role on the results on traditional bw film.
Satisfyed

The term “cinematic” is often nauseatingly used without true intention, but this film undoubtedly fits the adjective. Though it requires greater consideration than more latitudinally gifted B&W film stocks, the results achievable on P30 cannot be matched by competitors. The tones are unbelievably rich, like swimming through a bath of chocolate, and even with its high contrast there is more detail than expected in mixed lighting situations. In fact, despite all the warnings about its peskiness, I have been able to shoot indoors and in bright sun with hard shadows without losing information where it counts. It’s not for everyone and certainly not for every situation, but I’m so glad Ferrania is back in business with P30.

After watching Otto e Mezzo, years ago, I wondered the film stock and if it were ever made into still stock. Well it turned out Ferrania did just this. The 80 ASA film is spectacular, with a huge tonal scale in the right developer.

I got what I was expecting and will try it again. Love the high contrast and this is something you need to think about when shooting and composing. I shot it at box speed ISO 80 with an Olympus OM4 in auto mode with a Tamron 35-70 Adaptall-2 lens.