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Ferrania - moving mass production machinery


Sandokan

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Hi,

 

Wasn't sure to start a new thread or hijack an old one (Mods can merge if necessary).

 

I have nothing to do with Ferrania, other than hoping to be a customer and wanting to see them succeed (and hopefully lower the price of film). It seems they have until the end of the year to physically move the larger machinery required to produce film more efficiently.

 

here is a link to their Kickstarter campaign, for those interested.

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Just for clarification, the Kickstarter campaign is not to create the reward slide film - that's already being produced in the existing small-scale production facility.

 

This Kickstarter is to secure the machinery necessary to make large-scale production of the full range of films at global volumes.

 

It will make Ferrania viable as a long-term, global provider of a wide range of negative and chrome film for the foreseeable future, instead of just a niche small-scale, expensive film manufacturer.

 

I've backed it and it's really exciting to see how amazingly quickly the project is being funded!

 

Join in and give color film manufacture in Europe a future! This will mean European jobs, and guaranteed film manufacture in a wide range of types and formats for a long time to come!

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Sadly my memory of Ferrania film is that it was pretty dire in comparison to the other makes, so use of their name even would make me very cautious of it.

 

Gerry

 

What do you think your negative response adds to this discussion? Do you know that the planned films are going to be "pretty dire"? Do you want to discourage creation of real jobs? Do you not want another global producer of film?

 

I'm genuinely curious what the doomsayers' motivation is?

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What do you think your negative response adds to this discussion? Do you know that the planned films are going to be "pretty dire"? Do you want to discourage creation of real jobs? Do you not want another global producer of film?

 

I'm genuinely curious what the doomsayers' motivation is?

Well if its the same company and film stock standards as before then I was not impressed then and am unlikely to be now.

If its a new organisation and films then I have an open mind but I personally think they are mistaken to use the Ferrania name, which among my contemporaries is not synonymous with the highest quality, at least in reversal films

 

Gerry

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What do you think your negative response adds to this discussion? Do you know that the planned films are going to be "pretty dire"? Do you want to discourage creation of real jobs? Do you not want another global producer of film?

 

I'm genuinely curious what the doomsayers' motivation is?

 

IMHO it is perfectly legitimate to mention whether one was satisfied or not with the "original" product. Heck, it would even be legitimate to state here in this forum that one was not entirely overwhelmed with some minor aspects of - say - a camera or lens made or sold by Leica, if you went about it in a discreet manner.

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IMHO it is perfectly legitimate to mention whether one was satisfied or not with the "original" product. Heck, it would even be legitimate to state here in this forum that one was not entirely overwhelmed with some minor aspects of - say - a camera or lens made or sold by Leica, if you went about it in a discreet manner.

 

OK. As I've said before in other threads, I'm against censorship. But I do actively try to perform self-censorship these days: there are plenty of things I have negative views on, but to as great an extent as possible, I try to think "will my negative view add anything to this topic? Or will it just hurt people's feelings, or cause unnecessary conflict?"

 

I'm afraid I often fail to follow my own precepts - but I almost always regret it with hindsight.

 

Anyway, I've recently become very fascinated by all the negativity around new films or even new film cameras. Paradoxically the launch of the M-A triggered enormous amounts of hate and doom around the net, and Ferrania's plans have suffered pretty much the same fate. I'm left bewildered as to what the motivation is - especially in threads like this one, where no-one is being forced to take part in the campaign, but which those of us who are enthusiastic simply want to draw wider attention to the endeavor.

 

Anyway, I'm going back to the Kickstarter to raise my first contribution. Even if I don't actually ever use Ferrania film in the future, the small contribution we make now could cause a huge difference to general film use over the next 10 or 20 years.

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Incidentally, regarding the look of certain films - a while ago I was fascinated by a large number of Japanese photographers (often women) using Solaris for its soft, pastel colors that have a really lovely, poignant, subdued feel. I don't have the Flickr bookmarks anymore, as I thought Solaris film was gone for ever, but a typical example of the look I'm talking about is here (after a quick search):

 

 

or

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/49575362@N05/tags/solaris400/

 

or

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/yukixxx/tags/solaris/

 

Naturally not to everyone's taste, but if we just rescue this sort of look I'd be happy.

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The Kickstarter just went over $100,000! Time to get on the train before it's too late! So get over to Kickstarter and back the project, if you haven't already done so!

If nothing else, more people with access to film means extending the usefulness and value of your Leica equipment*

 

 

* (shameless attempt to appeal to people's sense of self-interest). ;)

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Well if its the same company and film stock standards as before then I was not impressed then and am unlikely to be now.

If its a new organisation and films then I have an open mind but I personally think they are mistaken to use the Ferrania name, which among my contemporaries is not synonymous with the highest quality, at least in reversal films

 

Gerry

 

There old colour negative looks nice https://www.flickr.com/search?sort=relevance&text=ferrania%20solaris

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Sadly my memory of Ferrania film is that it was pretty dire in comparison to the other makes, so use of their name even would make me very cautious of it.

 

Gerry

 

I have no idea what the original was like. Reading the blurb it sounds like they will be making the same colour reversal films as before, when they were a 3M company. I certainly do not expect anything to replace any of the last generation Ektachromes.

 

I am hoping that even if I do not like the film, at least there is a new supplier and they may in the future produce something I like. Maybe it is a little anti-Darwinism to revive a dead species, but lets see if it dies again or is a phoenix.

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I have no idea what the original was like. Reading the blurb it sounds like they will be making the same colour reversal films as before, when they were a 3M company. I certainly do not expect anything to replace any of the last generation Ektachromes.

 

I am hoping that even if I do not like the film, at least there is a new supplier and they may in the future produce something I like. Maybe it is a little anti-Darwinism to revive a dead species, but lets see if it dies again or is a phoenix.

 

To be fair, what they've said is that at the present time they only have the resources to produce a small batch of a re-engineered and improved (in their words) Scotch Chrome.

 

As for the Darwinism or otherwise: their aim is to produce a wide range of film in much smaller quantities, and in more a more agile fashion, so they don't get caught with massive supplies of unwanted stock. So the company won't be the same dinosaur from the 3M era.

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The Kickstarter just went over $100,000! Time to get on the train before it's too late! So get over to Kickstarter and back the project, if you haven't already done so!

If nothing else, more people with access to film means extending the usefulness and value of your Leica equipment*

 

 

* (shameless attempt to appeal to people's sense of self-interest). ;)

 

I did my pledge earlier today. Really hope they have succes with the project.

 

Best

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