Film Ferrania - Developments from October 2023 onward

thinkbrown · Nov 10, 2025

Andrew O'Neill said:
You gotta do better than that! EI and developer, please!

Haha, sorry. Shot it at 50 ISO in my Pentax 17, developed for 8 minutes at ~71°F in D96 (not DF96, which Google seems to be incapable of understanding) with agitation for ~10 seconds at the top of every minute.

Andrew O'Neill · Nov 10, 2025

@thinkbrown thank you!

cmacd123 · Nov 11, 2025

Scott Micciche said:
It is probably a true pancro 80 ASA film now

That is the Way I interpret it, the early version, in the all black box that vaguely resembles 3M dynachrome packaging would be 1950s style orthopanchromatic, while the stuff shipped in the boxes with the big F on the top would be panchromatic - more sensitive to red.

Silverprint Italy · Nov 13, 2025

@albireo
The "moribund" forum is analogica.it, in my opinion still lively, thoug being Italian and devoted to those who print in the darkroom has unavoidably less users than an forum in English, more open to new technologies as well.
The test from where an EFS of 12 Iso was determined for the Ferrania P30 (first and second versions) was made by a reliable and expert BW technician and photographer, it refers to a C.I. that is printable.

@moderators
Some Italian users, banned from the analogica.it Italian forum for their untollerable behaviour in that place may be interested in saying that the forum is "muribund" or that the information given is uncorrect. Please understand.

Agulliver · Nov 13, 2025

Film Ferrania's latest Instagram posts state that the new film is coated in Italy.....which would seem to exclude them rebranding something else.

koraks · Nov 13, 2025

Moderator note responding to this:

albireo said:
see this moribund forum here

Silverprint Italy said:
Some Italian users, banned from the analogica.it Italian forum for their untollerable behaviour in that place may be interested in saying that the forum is "muribund" or that the information given is uncorrect.

We prefer discussions on Photrio to remain congenial and respectful. This applies both to references within our own forum, as to other places. While it's fine to reflect on anything photographic (including forums), we kindly ask you to keep such reflection constructive. Negative off-the-cuff qualifications are problematic as it's evident that these can come across as insulting to some. We also ask to act in a de-escalating fashion so as to avoid mole hills growing in avoidable mountains. Please keep this into account. We observe that there is considerable overlap in the demographics of the various online photo communities, and we regard Photrio as an integral part of this global community. Let's act in this congenial spirit. Thank you.

albireo · Nov 13, 2025

@koraks - fully understand and appreciate you de-escalating , but in fairness towards me I would only like to add that the guy above is barking up the wrong tree - I've never been banned from that forum.

Sorry about this, and back to Ferrania as far as I'm concerned. I bought 5 rolls of the new stuff and I'm keen to try it. I will expose and develop a couple of rolls and share impressions.

Andrew O'Neill · Nov 13, 2025

albireo said:
@koraks - fully understand and appreciate you de-escalating , but in fairness towards me I would only like to add that the guy above is barking up the wrong tree - I've never been banned from that forum.

Sorry about this, and back to Ferrania as far as I'm concerned. I bought 5 rolls of the new stuff and I'm keen to try it. I will expose and develop a couple of rolls and share impressions.

Looking forward to it, albireo.

polaromar · Nov 13, 2025

For what it's worth, this is a shot I took using "old" P30, probably coming from the last batches made before the shutdown. Glass is Zeiss T* 50/1.4 Planar (T) on a Contax 167MT, developed in TMAX developer by my local lab, shot at ISO 80. Box was the old (not P33) style.

Andrew O'Neill · Nov 13, 2025

That film looks dead when shot at box speed. It's alive and well at EI 32, though. I hope the new stuff improves on the speed, without compromising its unique look too much...

schyter · Nov 13, 2025

J'adore (this ... film)

flavio81 · Nov 13, 2025

thinkbrown said:
Haha, sorry. Shot it at 50 ISO in my Pentax 17, developed for 8 minutes at ~71°F in D96 (not DF96, which Google seems to be incapable of understanding) with agitation for ~10 seconds at the top of every minute.

That's remarkably fine grain for a half-frame 135 shot !

thinkbrown · Nov 13, 2025

flavio81 said:
That's remarkably fine grain for a half-frame 135 shot !

P30 is surprisingly fine grain. I need to rescan some of my TMax 100 shots to compare (I switched my setup around so I want it to be fair) but I think it might even be finer than that.

thinkbrown · Nov 13, 2025

flavio81 said:
That's remarkably fine grain for a half-frame 135 shot !

For comparison, this is TMax 100, also shot in the Pentax 17 and developed in D96. Obviously the TMax is a stop faster and generally more flexible, but it does serve as a really good reference for just how fine grain P30 is.

Agulliver · Nov 15, 2025

I've also found P30 to be incredibly fine grained. Which is why I'd love to see it in the 8mm cine format at some point....though as long as Foma keep putting out the Fomapan 100 negative in 8mm I am actually happy.

flavio81 · Nov 16, 2025

thinkbrown said:
P30 is surprisingly fine grain.

Well, now that i think it again,
It is not so much when you consider the old P30 is, for practical purposes, an ISO 25 or ISO 32 film.

thinkbrown said:
I need to rescan some of my TMax 100 shots to compare

Yes, but Tmax 100 is a true ISO 100 film.

Maybe P30 should be compared to Adox HR 50 film, which is slower than 50...

thinkbrown · Nov 16, 2025

flavio81 said:
Well, now that i think it again,
It is not so much when you consider the old P30 is, for practical purposes, an ISO 25 or ISO 32 film.

I shot it at 50 ISO and got results I'm quite happy with. Whether or not that's the laboratory ISO who knows, but it seems to perform quite well there.

For a boutique film that's allegedly based on a very old cinema emulsion, I wouldn't have expected the grain to be as fine as it is, so in that regard I think it's still surprising.

Agulliver · Nov 17, 2025

I always shot P30 at 50ISO, which worked for me. Developed in ID-11. Yes, it's contrasty but that is sometimes a look that works.

I hope I get the chance to try P33.

polaromar · Nov 17, 2025

I have no problems shooting it at box either. Looks beautiful. I like contrast though.

tykos · Nov 17, 2025

meanwhile the facebook page of the italian store that has always been close to Ferrania since the resurgence suggests they may be involved in some positive film thing.

Translation by me, more or less adequate:
FilmFerrania officialy reappears on Facebook. Another small but important positive step*, or rather negative, since this is what characterizes their current emulsions. Positive will follow shortly both bw and colour.
*Citing Neil Armstrong "bla bla moon quote". For whom would like to read "negatively" these words, we specify: "negative" is meant to be film both bw and colour. "Positive" means positive film both bw and colour.

flavio81 · Nov 17, 2025

tykos said:
Translation by me, more or less adequate:
FilmFerrania officialy reappears on Facebook. Another small but important positive step*, or rather negative, since this is what characterizes their current emulsions. Positive will follow shortly both bw and colour.

WHAT? Finally they're going to make E6 film?

Difficult to believe, but I want to believe!

Agulliver · Nov 18, 2025

They certainly perfected conventional B&W film before the recent problems. While not to everyone's tastes, I don't think there were any complaints about the quality control or coating of P30, P33 and Orto.

They were said to be working on colour in the background but if they've achieved anything like in-house colour film, negative or positive, that would be quite something. Colour me sceptical on this one. Maybe it's more connected with one of Jake Seal's previous projects than Film Ferrania?

flavio81 · Nov 18, 2025

Agulliver said:
They certainly perfected conventional B&W film before the recent problems. While not to everyone's tastes, I don't think there were any complaints about the quality control or coating of P30, P33 and Orto.

Good point, the consistency needs to be commended too.

loccdor · Nov 18, 2025

flavio81 said:
WHAT? Finally they're going to make E6 film?

Difficult to believe, but I want to believe!

That would be lovely. If nothing else, it could put downward price pressure on Ektachrome.

brbo · Nov 18, 2025

loccdor said:
That would be lovely. If nothing else, it could put downward price pressure on Ektachrome.

Yes, like Lucky, Orwo and Harman colour film put price pressure on Portra and Ektar . All those new experimental films are priced higher (some even significantly higher) than lower end Kodak films (which, in addition, are technically much better).

So, lets stop dreaming and setting unrealistic expectations. We'll be very lucky if Ferrania slide film ever sees the light of day and extremely lucky if it's even 10% cheaper than Ektachrome.

We are buying those new films because they bring variety and not because they have better price-performance ratio.

Film Ferrania - Developments from October 2023 onward

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