Fun with Film: Ferrania P30 (Part 1- The Agfa Cadet A-8)

Roughly three years ago, I elected to jump aboard a Kickstarter "crowdfunding" effort for the first time, namely one to rescue invaluable film production equipment to enable the resumption of photographic film production in Italy, with an expected reward to me of snapping up a few rolls of E6 transparency film for my financial support.

Yesterday, I had my first chance to sample some of the wares of the down-scaled film production plant in Italy.

Though not the 120 format color transparency film I'd initially expected to be using as a "thank you gift" for my support, I was thrilled nonetheless to have the opportunity to shoot Ferrania's first public product since their small core of workers reinitiated their coating lines roughly six months ago.  This was my chance to shoot Ferrania P30.

P30 is based upon a classic cinema film formula used by legends such as Federico Fellini.  It purports to be "silver-rich" emulsion that can yield a classic cinematic look rich in tonality and contrast to deliver stunning images with strong black tones often absent from many contemporary emulsions. As a Kickstarter backer, I was able to pick up 5 rolls of the film at a modest discount on a pre-sale promotion.

Order fulfillment was nothing of the likes of Amazon's "Next Day Shipping" but this was to be expected, given the small staff of Ferrania still had a number of production and distribution challenges to iron out as they worked through the allotment of orders in this "Alpha" batch, which sold out in a matter of a couple of weeks.  And while waiting for this much anticipated film sometimes seemed to take an eternity, I was quite pleased to see the arrival of the box with my 5 rolls of Ferrania P30 enclosed.

I was also a bit panicked. With 5 rolls of scarce film and numerous cameras to select from in which to shoot this film, I was a bit overburdened with the task of choosing which cameras would be best to conduct my own bit of "testing" on this classic emulsion.

However, being ever a bit quirky with my ways, I couldn't resist the urge to do something a bit "unique" with some of my P30.  I was also interested in seeing some results from this film without having to blow through an entire 36-exposure roll before seeing the first shot.  I elected to "split" the first roll between two cameras, and took the rather unconventional option of spooling it onto 127 backing, for use in my Agfa Cadet A-8 camera.  

Yes, while others were using their limited allotment of this film in their finest machinery worth hundreds if not thousands of dollars, I was snapping off my first sample shots of this coveted film in a $10 box camera.  

Truth be told, it wasn't a bad idea.  Not only would I get a chance to run through the exposure and development process, while acquiring a few "lessons learned" prior to the full completion of the first roll, I'd have a chance to use one of my favorite cameras for "sprocket scans" and get some novel 35mm x 65mm exposures. Besides, the use of a 127 camera for Ferrania film had plenty of precedent, with Ferrania having produced both cameras and film in this format in their heyday. 

After going through the respooling process, firing off 8 shots on the film stock was a piece of cake. Though the mid-Atlantic was in the midst of a mid-Summer heat wave, my lunch hour in the Nation's Capital was one of sunny conditions.  I elected to shoot 6 of the first shots at lunch and save two for a detour on the way home, as intermittently cloudy skies and afternoon thunderstorms moved through the region.  My hope was to get some variance in the lighting conditions for this initial roll, given that this basic camera lacks even a diaphragm setting to stop the lens down to adjust exposure.

Developing the P30, I elected to start this first roll by trying HC-110 in a freshly mixed 1:63 dilution for 12 minutes with 15 seconds of gentle agitation every 2 minutes.  This process is somewhat contrary to Ferrania's recommendations for developing this film, in which they recommend a less dilute formula with near continuous agitation that is more consistent with cinema type development processes.  I noted that the acetate film stock was a bit thick and stiff and as a result, slightly challenging to get going on my steel development rolls.  Unlike many other films that leave a color cast in the developing solution after development, the developer poured out with a neutral cast.

The negatives that emerged after the final bath of Photo-flo seemed to be well exposed and had adequate contrast, a relief given the lack of exposure control available to me as I took the inaugural images.  The film dried to a fairly flat result that whose somewhat thick stock was easily loaded into my full width scanning tool.

The scans from this first batch however, are missing the desired snap that I've observed in some of the other results posted online, but still offered a good starting point to learn more about this film and its character, as well as to strategize some changes possible as I shoot and develop more of this film. Having these images as my first set have certainly given me a chance to think of how to better hone future shots on this film to get a more desired outcome.  

My first shot on Ferrania P30.  Looking past the sharpness missing from nearly every part of the frame, I'm a bit more disappointed to see a lack of deep black tones in the shrubbery. 

A bit of buckling produced a contact spot that resulted in the undeveloped portion to the right.  The result here is one that still comes off a rather flat and muddy in spots.  

Admittedly one of the more interesting results of the batch is the single vertical image that I shot, infringed upon by an apparent light leak.  Contrast is improved over the prior two attempts though still a bit lacking, but it is nice to some definition finally in the sky behind.

Another image awash in the noon day sun does manage to get some detail in the distant cloudes, but still comes up lacking in getting the required snap.  

In open shadow however, I saw a bit more promise in the results from the P30.  One bit of slight superficial disappointment in the rolls I picked up is that the block letter typeface signature of the earlier rolls of P30 is replaced with a lighter font that lacks the same effect.

On a darker colored subject in full sunlight, the P30 again seemed to do fairly well, even in this box camera.   Note the interesting offset between the frame numbers and their "A" suffix counterparts.

As ominous clouds approached on the drive home, light levels softened to better pair with the exposure settings of the Agfa camera.  Interestingly, while there is more dark area in this shot than most others, there are also spots of blown out highlights evident as well. 

My last shot of the roll certainly offers the most "retro" image of them all, and makes me a tad regretful that I didn't use a bit more capable camera for this scene.  It is the most underexposed of the batch.

Looking at this octet of images, I see a lot of variables at play to consider on future shots taken on Ferrania. 

One item that will be absent from my future bit of fun with this film will be the sprocket holes.  As I paid more attention to these images in post-processing, I was increasingly aware that their presence in these scans may be "throwing" the total curve in the modest of post-processing to the images.  Sure enough, when I crop out these holes and apply some basic balancing curves, the results I get are decidedly more snappy, as you can see here, compared with the image in the batch above.

This certainly helps, and minimizes one of my most immediate concerns about this film, as removing this from the equation on future rolls creates one less impediment to getting good photos from this film.

In addition, I'll be paying closer attention to the scenes taken using Ferrania, while using metered cameras that can adjust focus, aperture, and shutter speed.  Once I've shot a couple of rolls under more measured conditions using these guidelines, I'll develop the film using the same methods here to see if I get better results, and then evaluate if I use an alternative developing solution to my beloved HC-110.

In spite of the room for improvement in nearly every aspect with these images, I'm glad I started with P30 using these methods.  Not only did I learn a lot about the film after only a portion of a roll, but I also learned more about film photography and development methods as well as scanning and post-processing practices.  

My experimentation with P30 is just beginning, and I look forward to optimizing things to where my future rolls show marked improvement based upon my lessons learned with this first portion of film.

Fun with Film: Ultrafine Extreme 400

Choice can be a wonderful thing, even if the details of some choices can be troublesomely obscure. One need only look at Ultrafine Online's "Extreme 400" film in 35mm format to get a good example of this.

A private label film of uncertain origins, Ultrafine Extreme 400 is a film option available in 35mm format in both long and short rolls for a very reasonable price.  I was generously bequeathed a small number of these 12 shot rolls by my buddy and fellow camera buff Mark who features his collection at The Gas House, and have really come to like this film.

Questions linger, most notably "who makes this film?" One might presume it is Ilford Private label film, which may make sense.  As I seem to recall, a known Ilford product marketed as "Kentmere" has similar dot-matrix style film edge markings.  Still, I've tried Kentmere 100 before and found it didn't have quite the contrast that I've noticed in the Ultrafine product.

Below is a test roll, shot on the Darth Vader camera, the Konica Aiborg, showing this film in action in various lighting.  

In bright light, highlights can be hard to tame on the Ultrafine Extreme 400.  However, in this case, the result is a very nice glow to this swan at Hagerstown City Park. 

For a subject obscured in shade, with bright backdrop, the Ultrafine film did a good job of retaining shadow detail while not excessively blowing out the background. 

Some subjects won't have quite the isolation that is often desired, but some of this came from using a film with a slow lens.  The building in the backdrop is only somewhat muted on the Aiborg. 

I was actually quite surprised that this shot came out as well as it did.  A heavily shadowed pool with bright streams of light made for a very contrast laden scene, but the Ultrafine film creates an almost ethereal scene rich in both deep tones and glimmering highlights.  

More evenly sunlit scenes tended to render a bit flat at times.  There are no real black tones noted in this shot, only deep shades of grey.

Another challenging scene with bright and dark areas doesn't render as nicely, largely because, unlike the pool scene above, I didn't set the Aiborg to overexpose by 1.5 stops. 

Cloud rendering is pretty nice with this film, though I'm not quite certain how the light spot originated on this exposure.  The railroad tracks tend to get a bit too obscured and tree details are lost in this image. 

Back to bright sun and water, the Aiborg seems to have found a very suitable film for use in decent lighting. 

Correct focus on the fiddly Aiborg can be a challenge, particularly as I try not to irritate the ornery goose. 

Sometimes, contrast could be a bit excessive.  Still, the sharp rendering of the details in this scene on this film gives me an interesting amount of appreciation for the maligned Aiborg. 

For landscapes in varied lighting, Ultrafine Extreme 400 can be a good choice.  At its nicely discounted price, it's a nice option for casual shooting. 

Closing this set in the same way in which it started - swans.  

Overall, I'm particularly pleased with the Ultrafine 400 film.  It makes an affordable choice for casual shooting on slower cameras where 100 speed film may be a more risky option.  The availability of 12 shot rolls, while only slightly cheaper than full length rolls, makes a great test roll length when trying out new cameras in a quicker manner.  

One word of warning is that the 120 film under the same label appears to not be the same product, and has been reported to be prone to quality control and grain clumping issues.  It would appear the supplier of the medium format film marketed under the same moniker is not the same as that for the 35mm film.  

Fun with Film: Kodak Supra 100

The world of Color Negative Film has gotten to be a bit dull to me - not dull as in "unsaturated," but more so dull in that there are not a lot of fresh options when I care to see if I can try out a new palette. 

Fortunately, there are, at the moment, a number of expired film stocks still found today, under 15 years old, that can still produce good results.  While these films may not be readily available, or even consistent from roll to roll, they can at least make for a fun new shooting exercise to throw into a trusted camera to see what you get.

One such film is Kodak Supra 100, an emulsion that appears to have shown up on the market around 2000, just as the world of digital photography was about to take off.  The introduction of a slower 100 speed film during an era when compact point and shoot cameras (that tended to need faster speed films) had gained so much traction in the market is an interesting and refreshing thing to note.  I'd presume that this film was marketed towards serious amateurs using SLR cameras or similar equipment.  

Information on Supra's selling points today can be a tad scant given that many web pages contemporary with the period the film was sold, have since vanished into cyberspace.  It seems that this film's main strengths were a vivid color and fine grain in comparison to the Kodak Gold and Royal Gold products at the time.  Supra was discontinued in all speeds around 2003, and remaining stocks of the film appear sporadically on eBay and other sales outlets, often in quantities of 5 rolls or less.

I happened to snap up a small lot of expired film from an ebay auction that included one roll of Supra, and was curious to see what this film could do, though the most recent examples of the film I could find on the web were a bit too "Lomo" for my tastes.  I elected to set out close to home with this film loaded in my Exakta VX, swapping from the Domiplan 2.8 to the Primotar 3.5 lens, and then finishing the roll in the Minolta A5 in order to see what sort of color the latter camera might provide.   

At the onset of the roll, the Supra provides a look that certainly doesn't look like a roll of film that was likely 15 years old, offering up bright colors that embody the vivid morning on which I rambled about.  Grain increase is evident in the sky, but is by no means distracting. 

Supra handled contrast well, offering a natural yet vibrant rendition that still showed adequate shadow detail. 

One of the advantages of the Exakta's waist level finder is not having to pull a muscle to get a low shot like this.  Contrast is a bit low, but the Domiplan offers up some bubbly bokeh.

Shot at a near wide open aperture, this image still gives off a good color with particularly true to life green tones. 

Another shallow depth of field shot doesn't offer the same bokeh as my lower perspective shot from above, but does show the vivid color strengths present, even on this old film stock. 

With a somewhat backlit scene, the Supra's colors are still quite nice.  The blue sky rendering tends to be a bit more flat however. 

Another try at a shallow depth of field shot shows off a nice result on what is typically an overlooked lens in the Domiplan, as well as the rich green tones this film can provide, even under overcast. 

The film's rendition wasn't always consistent however. as the yellow hues here tend to suggest. 

Skin tones in the shots above and below aren't very flattering, with a greenish cast evident.  This seems a film more suited to landscape work. 

A mid-afternoon shower provided me a quick chance to see how this film performed in such conditions, and it responded with a similar cool green cast. 

I switched to the Primotar for the last few images, and found results to be acceptable, but not particularly stirring. 

The Primotar however, had the disadvantage of having all of its shots taken under overcast.  STill, the tones here are particularly lush and pleasant. 

Again, a cool, but not distracting, tone embellishes the images taken on Supra 100.

My last shot on the Exakta was this one, proving that even with a slow f/3.5 lens and a vivid waist level finder, it can be tricky to get the shallow depth of field effect desired.  The image lacks any true focus, but the color rendition is quite lovely. 

After switching to the A5 for the last few shots, I didn't get a lot of sun with which to shoot.  Still, the Supra delivered some decent results in light that it was not really optimal for, even when it was new stock. 

When given a modest amount of sun, the Supra tended to have a bit more of the green cast that made it work well under overcast, but in this case, it gives off a soft muted portrayal. 

But with the sun at my back in softer light, the muted look was actually pretty favorable. 

A pair of close focus shots under overcast have a nice balance, and the fine grain works well in spotlighting the sharpness of A5. 

A wide open shot doesn't quite nail focus, but still gives off a lush result. 

Closing out with this one, the sky takes on a hazy hue that is a bit unappealing, with an excess of pale yellow in the green tones.

Supra, in my view, provided impressive, but not stellar results.  The grain structure was quite good, and the colors could render nicely.  Generally, the film has aged well, but was still prone to some shifts and casts, particularly under light to moderate overcast. 

Looking through the results of this roll, it seems as if Kodak was aiming to compete with Fuji's Reala with their Supra film.  Having tried both films, I can find things to like in both, but am certainly partial to the Fuji product.  I wouldn't actively seek out a stash of Supra in the future, but if it came my way in a mixed lot, I would certainly shoot it without hesitation, provided that I was shooting landscape images and the lighting was favorable.

Fun with Film: Agfa 100 HDC

When it comes to color film, there have been Kodak loyalists, Fuji Loyalists, and those who just like shooting film regardless of who made it.  I'm certainly one who falls in the latter camp, but I've long admitted a particular fondness for Agfa color films.  I love Ultra 50, used to shoot a bit of my favorite portfolio shots on Portrait 160, and had also liked using their "general purpose" color films as well.

One of those films, not often found today, was Agfa 100 HDC.  It was a very clean and snappy film, and one that I tended to find more neutral than the warm tones of Kodak Gold or the cool hues of many Fuji stocks.  

I managed to come across a short sample roll of HDC not too long ago, and decided to give it another try.  To get as many images from the roll as I could, I spooled it onto my custom 828 backing and shot it in square format through the Bantam RF for which I had the 24x24mm square mask made.  Here is a look at some of the good and not so good from this roll.  

I was quite pleased at how this long expired film had held up over the decade and change since it was made.  Taken in late afternoon light, this image conveys a look that looks just like the scene taken.  The blue-green color of the street posts is actually the shade they are painted.

Curiously, some of the green tones have picked up some warm rosy undertones, as this image conveys. 

Contrast in my results could tend to be soft in spots, such as in this image. 

When immersed in shadow, the colors were muted, but still rather neutral. 

Unlike many expired films, the grain has held together well in this sample roll. 

I tried zeroing out the saturation in this image to see how it would appear.  Nice tonality, though a true black is missing. 

I wish I had shot more of this film in better light, as the soft overcast tends to take a bit from the rendering of this film stock. 

Overall, I was happy with the results from this roll of 100 HDC, and have managed to find a longer roll to put into use in the not too distant future.  Maybe I'll shoot it in a true 35mm camera, or maybe I'll have a bit more fun with that square format Bantam!