"Finast" private label film.

Earl Dunbar · Jul 5, 2005

Since not many places were open yesterday here in the Excited States (July 4th holiday) and I wanted some 35mm colour neg film, I ended up buying some 200 speed labelled "Finast", which is a private label brand distributed in various supermarkets and drug stores in the northeast, perhaps elsewhere.

The film is stated to be made in Italy. Does anyone know if this means this is a Ferrania product? If so, what are your experiences with it?

I'm using the film for casual shooting, as I would not commit something important to a film I hadn't tested. My reason for choosing it over Kodak was that I'm simply unhappy with Kodak's implied "roadmap" for film imaging, so decided not to give them my money. (I'll draw the line at Kodachrome, though. Please don't take my Kodachrome away!) As far as Fuji goes, I've never been a huge Fuji fan, though I don't find their films to be "bad", I just wanted to try something different. Besides, the Finast was enough cheaper that I thought, why not?

Earl

srs5694 · Jul 5, 2005

Is this color or B&W? If color, as I suspect it is, another forum might be more appropriate.

In any event, AFAIK "made in Italy" on a film box is a sure sign that it's Ferrania; if another Italian film manufacturer exists, I've not heard of them. A few years ago, Ferrania was much grainier and had much more subdued colors than other manufacturers' films. I believe this difference is much less pronounced today, but I've not used much Ferrania film of late.

Paul Howell · Jul 5, 2005

I thought Ferrania bought out the 3M color division and is now using 3M technology.

Earl Dunbar · Jul 5, 2005

You're right, it's colour and it should have been posted in the correct forum. DUH! In any event, I'll find out soon enough what the stuff looks like. If it's still somewhat grainy and subdued, it might be a good choice for certain subjects and situations and be a good film to have available. I remember Agfacolor 1000 as a grainy but quite wonderful colour negative film. And I tend to like more subdued or natural colour over super-saturated for most things... more Zen meditation than revival meeting is my style.

jimgalli · Jul 5, 2005

Hi Earl. Closed the second thread and moved the original to the color section. Most importantly though I'm testing the moderator waters as I need to learn how to do all this stuff and this seemed like a helpful and innocuous way to begin.

Paul Howell · Jul 5, 2005

I have shoot Ferrania under a couple of off labels from the $1.00 stores in my area. The ASA 100 is not bad, the 400 is not to my liking. For cheap color I use WalMart 200 which I think is Agfa high definition. The worse is Lucky, one the minilabs has an older Fuji printer which codes Lucky as Kodak, looks to me like Koda Color from the 80s.

eatfrog · Jul 5, 2005

I think all ferrania films I've come across are terrible. I work at a smallish photo store with developing and printing, and 95% is the cheapest films around, el-cheapo Agfa and Ferrania stuff.

Earl Dunbar · Jul 5, 2005

Thanks everyone for the replies. I'll go ahead and shoot one roll and see what results. However, I hit a better cache of cheap film tonight when I went out to buy some insect repellant at a nearby drug store. Naturally, I wandered over to the film display, and found Kodachrome and Elitechrome 100 marked down to .... get ready for it ... $1.68US per 24exp roll. Also on sale were 3-packs of Kodak C41 b&w x24 for $2.68. I bought everything on display, and I'll be going to other locations of this chain (Eckerd's) tomorrow.

Oh, the insect repellant? For some strange reason (computer glitch?), it rang up as $0.57! Think I'll go back out and buy some lottery tickets!

Earl

srs5694 · Jul 6, 2005

Paul Howell said:
I thought Ferrania bought out the 3M color division and is now using 3M technology.

It's been a long and convoluted path, but basically yes, at least in terms of the business relationships. From memory, 3M spun off its media division as Imation, which was then bought up by Ferrania. FWIW, I don't believe I've ever seen Ferrania film for sale as such in the US, but it's pretty common as a house brand.

jd callow · Jul 6, 2005

is this film available in 120?

Nick Zentena · Jul 6, 2005

According to the Ferrani website nothing bigger then 35mm. They do have 126-)

Lee L · Jul 6, 2005

mrcallow said:
is this film available in 120?

The only places I've seen the variants of this film are in drug stores, grocery stores, and discount stores. So now I'm trying to remember the last time I saw 120 in that kind of store. I think it was about the last time I was using 620 film and buying locally.

Shorter answer: I'd doubt very much that it's imported in 120, although there may be some mail order or online outlet that uses it as a house brand. I don't think you'll find it where the 35mm versions are available locally.

Lee

Earl Dunbar · Jul 6, 2005

According to the Ferrania website, they make 35mm, 126, APS and 110 sizes, both for private label and under their own Solaris brand. The private label marketing brochure makes no mention of other film sizes that I saw in a quick reading.

Earl

jd callow · Jul 6, 2005

Lee L said:
The only places I've seen the variants of this film are in drug stores, grocery stores, and discount stores. So now I'm trying to remember the last time I saw 120 in that kind of store. I think it was about the last time I was using 620 film and buying locally.

Shorter answer: I'd doubt very much that it's imported in 120, although there may be some mail order or online outlet that uses it as a house brand. I don't think you'll find it where the 35mm versions are available locally.

Lee

heehe
I would love to get my hands on a 120 neg film with crap colour and big grain. From the posts here it sounded perfect.

oh well.

FWIW about 10 years ago in a tourist shop in leelanau michigan i found 120 neg film as well as 25 iso kodak (gold?) 135. It was old dusty and sitting at the checkout not 10 feet from the window, so I bought it.

Paul Howell · Jul 7, 2005

Earlier this year I was on my back to Arizona and I spent the night in Blythe, near the motel was an old ligure/connivance store and they had flash bulbs and bars, Kodacrome 25, Panatomic X, some Plus X in 35 and Vericrome Pan in 120. I made an offer of $20.00 for the lot which the owner took, but all of the film is to badly fogged to be useful. I dont think the store has very good air.

"Finast" private label film.

Earl Dunbar

srs5694

Paul Howell

Earl Dunbar

jimgalli

Paul Howell

eatfrog

Earl Dunbar

srs5694

jd callow

Moderator

Nick Zentena

Lee L

Earl Dunbar

jd callow

Moderator

Paul Howell

"Finast" private label film.

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