"The book" on Ferrania's P30 Alpha B&W film

[Herr Barnack]

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Here's "the book" on Ferrania's P30 Alpha B&W film:

 

https://emulsive.org/darkroom/developing-film/film-tests-getting-the-best-out-of-ferrania-p30-alpha-by-scott-micciche?utm_source=EMULSIVE+Daily+and+Weekly+Newsletters&utm_campaign=ce2ffcc3ef-RSS_WEEKLY_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c4b55b017a-ce2ffcc3ef-174834361

 

 

I still need to order a batch of P30 and give this film a try; from the P30 based images I have seen posted online, it looks like an outstanding film. 

 

I like the author's comment on film photography as a process:  "Film photography is a process from pre-visualization to hanging that final print."

Edited April 15, 2018 by Herr Barnack

[Herr Barnack]

I wanted to pass this information on to others - having recently become interested in stand developing, I happened upon what is being called a "semi-stand developing technique" for P30, using Rodinal @1:100 dilution for 60 minutes at 20ºC/68ºF -

 

Semi-Stand Technique:

3 minute pre-soak, 60 second initial agitation with gentle agitation at 15, 30 and 45 minutes for a 60 minute develop of P30 shot at ISO 80.

 

 

Source - http://www.filmferrania.it/p30-processing/

Edited April 15, 2018 by Herr Barnack

[Martin B]

My main issue with this film was manufacturing related: all my film cartridges I got from Ferrania came with scratches making the negatives unusable for darkroom printing. I was able to save the taken photos after scanning and digitally removing the horizontal scratch lines. Ferrania confirmed that they had issues with this during manufacturing their first batches of P30 film. Others described online the same issue. I hope Ferrania was able to solve this problem in the meantime. 

 

The film is suitable in some high contrast situations delivering excellent B&W photos and not suitable at all in others where good tonal range is required. I highly recommend a low grain developer for this film like Xtol. I still have several cartridges of the film, but I doubt I will use them since they all suffer from the scratch issue. And the PP removing scratches is no fun at all and very time consuming. 

 

I might buy some P30 in the future but not very soon after my experience. 

[EMULSIVE]

Herr Barnack, thanks for sharing this all those months ago.

 

Scott has updated the article with a part two covering FF No.1 monobath, Kodak XTOL and ADOX Silvermax developer. I'm thinking you might find it interesting: https://emulsive.org/darkroom/developing-film/film-tests-getting-the-best-out-of-ferrania-p30-alpha-part-2-by-scott-micciche

[EMULSIVE]

The film is suitable in some high contrast situations delivering excellent B&W photos and not suitable at all in others where good tonal range is required.

 

I respectfully disagree, Erfahrener. There are some fantastic low-contrast images out there with excellent tonal range on both parts of Scott's tests linked above. It's a challenging emulsion, that's for sure - part of the territory when dealing with a non-Agfa, non-ILFORD, non-Kodak derived stock!

[dau]

..... I still have several cartridges of the film, but I doubt I will use them since they all suffer from the scratch issue.....

If you have a darkroom, you could try and put the films into clean cartridges.

[M9reno]

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The film is suitable in some high contrast situations delivering excellent B&W photos and not suitable at all in others where good tonal range is required.

 

I respectfully disagree, Erfahrener. There are some fantastic low-contrast images out there with excellent tonal range on both parts of Scott's tests linked above. It's a challenging emulsion, that's for sure - part of the territory when dealing with a non-Agfa, non-ILFORD, non-Kodak derived stock!

I had no success getting normal contrast out of this film, despite trying obsessively over several days developing test strips for different times and in different concentrations of Ilford DDX. I gave up but I still have rolls in the freezer.

 

Do you have a recommended developer and process that might work?