Ferrania P30….I’m sure most of you reading this have at least shot this black and white panchromatic motion picture film. Or at least I hope so. It’s a B&W film made by Ferrania. The ISO sensitivity rating is 80 which puts it in a unique spot in the film market.
I’ll start off with saying I am a big fan of the P30. I’ve shot a few rolls and I feel I am figuring it out…finally. I remember the first roll I shot while visiting North Carolina. I ended up developing it in Xtol and the results were meh. I’ve seen beautiful results from other photographers so I knew it wasn’t the film, it was me.
You have to be careful when shooting this film, it’s on the heavy contrast side. Which is fine except on those bright contrasty days. That’s when the way you develop the film can save the roll and produce beautiful results…if done correctly.
This past weekend, I ended up making a batch of homemade D23 2 Bath developer. It was my first time making and using this developer but I was very curious how it would handle the Ferrania P30. So I grabbed a roll and attended a local Cars & Coffee car show. Skip forward to when I pulled the negatives out of the tank. I knew I had something I’d like, the negatives were gorgeous. After scanning the roll and importing to Lightroom, I was amazed how these two worked together. The contrast was spot on, the highlights were developed, the sharpness was there, etc. I did not have to make any adjustments at all and that right there just made my day.
Did I find a great combo? I think so. I definitely would like to try it again just to confirm. I’ve never gotten results like I did from this roll. It’s very encouraging because I really enjoy this film. On a side note, I’ll be doing a blog on the homemade D23 2 Bath developer. Stay tuned and enjoy some sample photos from this roll.
