FerraniaP30alpha
The incredibly fast change
to digital photography in the last few years has regularly been accompanied by
predictions of the demise of film. But
nothing could be further from the truth.
Film has survived and has even experienced a renaissance. Film is growing.
Just a little while ago
Kodak announced that Ektachrome film will return and there even were rumors of
a possible return of Kodachrome, as unlikely as that might be. Now the Italian firm of Ferrania has
announced that they are reentering the film market with their new Ferrania P30,
a black and white film.
Photo by Nikola Baldini
(this image is from the first handmade roll produced by the factory)
Initially it will be
introduced in a limited “ALPHA” edition.
It is a recreation of a film from 50 years ago, not unlike the new ADOX
films, but it is made using thoroughly modern production methods.
According to Ferrania,
“With its cinema pedigree, ultrafine grain, and very high silver content,
FERRANIA P30 ALPHA has no peers in the modern analog film market.”
FERRANIA P30® ALPHA is an
80 ISO panchromatic black & white motion picture film for still
photography, and reintroduces the legendary P30 film produced by Ferrania
during the 1960s. FERRANIA P30® ALPHA is coated on triacetate base and features
an incredibly high silver content of 5 grams per square meter.
Photo by Nicola Baldini
Ferrania is an older
company. They first began to make films
in 1917. Based on their success, they
eventually became known as the “Kodak of Italy.” In 1964 Ferrania was bought out by 3M,
headquartered in Minneapolis/St.Paul.
Under their leadership, Ferrania became the world’s 4th largest film manufacturer. However, after the meteoric rise of digital
photography, Ferrania decided to leave the film market in 2009. FILM Ferrania was established in 2013 by
co-founders Nicola Baldini and Marco Pagni.
Here is the Ferrania press
release:
Cairo Montenotte (SV),
Italy – FILM Ferrania is proud to announce its first product, FERRANIA P30®, in
a limited ALPHA edition.
FERRANIA P30® ALPHA
reproduces, with modern techniques developed by FILM Ferrania scientists, the
exact film that made Ferrania world-famous more than 50 years ago.
With its cinema pedigree,
ultra fine grain, and very high silver content, FERRANIA P30® ALPHA has no
peers in the modern analog film market.
Pre-sales of FERRANIA P30®
ALPHA in 35mm still format, with 36 exposures, began mid-February 2017 at www.filmferrania.it/shop.
One of the most active
film manufacturers is without a doubt the company of ADOX. They offer a wide variety of high quality
films, all made in their factory in Berlin, Germany.
Just recently ADOX has announced
that they are expanding and building a new production facility right next to
the existing one in Germany. This will
double their production capacity and it will also overcome the crowded
environment at their current facility.
In addition to building a new plant in Germany, they have also acquired
a facility in Marley, Switzerland.
ADOX states: “Since
December 2016 we are now officially our “own” micro-industral area. This allows us to start expanding, which we
will do with the building of a second hall of the same size than the old one
[…] When the new building is finished we can internalize additional steps in the
production. This will increase our independence from other manufacturers and
enables us to broaden the scope of products.”
Specifically, the new
facility will provide room for more lab and office space, more refrigerated
space for storing master rolls, a new coating machine, a machine shop to
maintain their current, and a lot more.
For more info go to
www.adox.de
Needless to say, there are
quite a few other film manufacturers.
Generally, the most popular films are black and white films because they easily eliminate the need for independent labs to have the them developed.
Leica M6, 90mm f/2.8
Elmarit, Agfapan APX 100, Agfa Rodinal 1:100
From time to time I have
inserted some of my own black and white photographs in articles and more often
than not readers have asked what films and developers I use. To answer that question let’s look at films
and developers in general first.
Any film emulsion uses
silver halides as the light sensitive agent.
The larger the silver halides, the more sensitive the film is to
light. When film is developed, the image
is formed by clumps of silver halides which show up as grain when
enlarged. Since faster, more light
sensitive films start out with larger silver halides, the resulting grain
clumps are larger as well.
Considering that it is the
grain clumps which make up the image and its inherent detail, it stands to
reason that a fine grain film should be used to obtain as much detail
(sharpness) as possible, which means using a film as slow as possible under the
light conditions where the photographs are taken.
Since the grain clumps are
formed during the developing process, it should be obvious that developers will
make a definite difference as well. To
make the grain smaller, some developers use a silver solvent. While this results in smaller grain, this
also results in softer edges of the grain clumps which will lead to the
appearance of less sharpness.
An extreme example of high
acutance over small grain detail
To avoid this, some
developers are formulated for high acutance.
While this will lead to a slight increase in grain size, it also
increases the edge sharpness of the grain substantially with the result of much
sharper appearing images.
It sounds like a
contradiction to use a developer with high acutance (increasing the grain
size), if we want to obtain the sharpest images possible. However, when combining a high acutance
developer with a fine grain emulsion, the results can be amazing.
One such developer is Agfa
Rodinal or one of its resurrections, ADOX
Adonal/Rodinal. In the late 60s
the original ADOX factories were sold to DuPont. They later sold it to Agfa.
With the closure of Agfa´s consumer imaging branch in Leverkusen in 2005, ADOX
became engaged in manufacturing again, trying to save as much knowledge as
possible and transfer it to a smaller level of production. ADOX successfully brought back Agfa’s MCP,
MCC, APX (Silvermax) and the entire Agfa B/W chemical line.
Scan of the full negative
Leica M6, 50mm f/2 Dual
Range Summicron
Agfapan APX 25, Agfa
Rodinal 1:100
Cropped section of the
same negative
Further crop of the same
negative
Final crop from the same
negative
The full image would be 35
x50 inch, 85 x 130 cm in size
My favorite films were the
Agfapan APX 25 and APX 100. They
disappeared from the market with the demise of the Agfa consumer imaging
division. But they have been resurrected
under the ADOX Silvermax label.
Since these are very fine
grained films to start with, a high acutance developer like ADOX Adonal/Rodinal
presents no problem. You will still end
up with amazingly fine grain and with the added advantage of high acutance,
meaning very fine grain, very sharp negatives.
In addition, the ADOX Adonal/Rodinal must be used with a high dilution,
which makes the developer very economical as well.
Most recommendations are
to use a dilution of 1:50, developing with constant agitation for 30 to 60
seconds and 5 to 10 seconds for every 30 or 60 seconds thereafter. For myself I used a modified developing
process starting out with a dilution of 1:100.
Instead of manual agitation, I used a Jobo film developing drum on a
Beseler motor base with continuous agitation for 15 minutes. This gives the assurance of completely even
agitation because the base reverses direction approximately every 2.5
rotations. In addition it gently rocks
the developing drum from side to side.
Another advantage is that one does not need to stare at a timer for 15
minutes.
Leica M6, 135mm f/2.8
Elmarit, Agfapan APX 25, Agfa Rodinal 1:100
Any enlargement from a
black and white negative can only be as good as the enlarger and its lens
allows. For that reason I have used a Leitz
V35 enlarger which has given me results that rival enlargements made from
medium format negatives.
For other articles on this blog scroll down in the column to the right to BLOG ARCHIVE
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