New Color Film Negative and Slide Production in 2014

Lamar · Jul 31, 2013

Saw this posted on Thom Hogan's site..... Ferrania is saying they will start ISO 100 negative and reversal film production by early 2014.

Dead Link Removed

I've never heard of them but any news of new film production is encouraging.

Another link:
http://petapixel.com/2013/07/30/shuttered-italian-film-company-ferrania-to-get-back-in-the-game/

Alan W · Jul 31, 2013

220 film again?We'll see.

Nathan Riehl · Jul 31, 2013

They said they're only putting out what the market requests? Well, put me down for all of it! I'm a collector and getting film for some of these things is unimaginably hard in my position. Hah.

faustotesta · Jul 31, 2013

Ferrania is a "old" Italian company. Many of the movies in the fifties have been filmed with ferrania BW rolls.
Here is a sample. http://www.antoniodecurtis.com/piovaro.htm

Jeff Kubach · Jul 31, 2013

Great news!

Jeff

benjiboy · Jul 31, 2013

I don't consider this good news I used Ferrania E6 slide films 20 odd years ago and they were crap almost as bad as ORWO, not in the same ball park as Kodak and Fuji.

Lamar · Jul 31, 2013

I did a search on Flickr and found a dedicated group for Ferrania Solaris film. As expected, lots of poor scans and/or exposures but a few good scans scattered around. Hard to tell much about the film though since most of the images are reduced in size considerably and who knows what kind of post processing was done. The shots seem to be mostly 200 and 400 Solaris film.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/ferrania/pool/with/6949097265/#photo_6949097265

Based on what I've seen on Flickr I will try a few rolls when it comes out just to see. It's nice to have options.

faustotesta · Jul 31, 2013

benjiboy said:
I don't consider this good news I used Ferrania E6 slide films 20 odd years ago and they were crap almost as bad as ORWO, not in the same ball park as Kodak and Fuji.

Twenty years is a long period. Let's try. maybe things have improved

railwayman3 · Jul 31, 2013

benjiboy said:
I don't consider this good news I used Ferrania E6 slide films 20 odd years ago and they were crap almost as bad as ORWO, not in the same ball park as Kodak and Fuji.

A little harsh, considering we're down to one E6 producer (plus the repacked Agfa aerial stuff which, with respect to the company concerned, hasn't yet been established as an ongoing reliable product), we might be glad that someone has enough faith to at least try to reintroduce an option. And it doesn't follow that any new Ferrania product will be the same as 20 odd years ago?

(And, actually, it would be rather nice if the Orwo factory was still in production rather than being a big area of waste ground. )

railwayman3 · Jul 31, 2013

Lamar said:
I did a search on Flickr and found a dedicated group for Ferrania Solaris film. As expected, lots of poor scans and/or exposures but a few good scans scattered around. Hard to tell much about the film though since most of the images are reduced in size considerably and who knows what kind of post processing was done. The shots seem to be mostly 200 and 400 Solaris film.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/ferrania/pool/with/6949097265/#photo_6949097265
.

Within the limits of the scans, etc., there's some nice, and well-seen, shots on there.

Ian Grant · Jul 31, 2013

My late sister used only Italian made C41 film with excellent results.

I remember how poor Kodak E4 films were in comparison to Fuji's a lot can cange in a small space of time, Kodak almost caught up with their E6 films.

Ferrania said in an email (to me) they'd make LF if needed as well. What if they partner with a more technologicall advance company it's not unknown. Ilford worked with Fuji (Fuji using Ilford technology & coating for some films), Fuji work with Foma (they have a joint facility).

Both Foma and Ilford have very good worldwide distribution, Kodak's is poor except for consumer Minilab operations.

Ian

Lamar · Jul 31, 2013

Yeah, The more I look the more I like. The first page I saw did't have too many "good" scans. I have looked through several pages now and I see a higher percentage of "keepers"

railwayman3 said:
Within the limits of the scans, etc., there's some nice, and well-seen, shots on there.

Prest_400 · Jul 31, 2013

railwayman3 said:
A little harsh, considering we're down to one E6 producer (plus the repacked Agfa aerial stuff which, with respect to the company concerned, hasn't yet been established as an ongoing reliable product), we might be glad that someone has enough faith to at least try to reintroduce an option. And it doesn't follow that any new Ferrania product will be the same as 20 odd years ago?

(And, actually, it would be rather nice if the Orwo factory was still in production rather than being a big area of waste ground. )

Agreed. We should see how will the product be, most probably derived from their old formulas but perhaps they are reformulating heavily in the R&D they mention. I am very curious about their E6 100 intention. The statement from Nicola (he leads the endeavor) is that they will be basing this film on their last iteration of Ferrania Chrome film, which was just Scotchcrome and 3M.
I might agree that if we lose Fujichrome, the alternative(s) will be some generations behind in tech.

As of Orwo, aren't they a company called "Filmotec" and selling MP B&W stock?

OT but a curious topic; Following Links reading Thom's mirrorless site and stumped upon an article about m4/3 and its future. Basically talks about how digital camera sales aren't those expected and might decline. Seems like it's possible for Olympus and Panasonic to quit the market... It is rather amusing, not only film is in danger of discontinuation.

There is another (long) thread about ferrania, mods could merge this one into the other.

RattyMouse · Jul 31, 2013

benjiboy said:
I don't consider this good news I used Ferrania E6 slide films 20 odd years ago and they were crap almost as bad as ORWO, not in the same ball park as Kodak and Fuji.

GM cars sucked 20 years ago. Do they still suck today?

AgX · Jul 31, 2013

There is already a longer thread going on this issue:

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

Roger Cole · Jul 31, 2013

While this is potentially very good news, especially for E6 and if either are available in sheets, I'd like to see a faster E6 film now that Provia 400x is going away. I'm stocking up as I can afford - I really like that film. It's amazingly good for a 400 speed slide film. While I'm sure it would be hard to match, even a film a bit grainier would be ok if we can get just a "pretty good" slide film in 200 or, preferably, 400. 100 is just too slow for shooting outdoors handheld with reasonable F stops in shade or cloudy days. I was faced with that Sunday. I'd shot up the roll of 400X I had loaded, though I had another but didn't. All I had was E100G, which I like a lot but trying to photograph a picnic in deep shade I was getting shutter speeds of 1/30th and less wide open on my Vivitar 28-105 f/2.8-3.5 lens. That's just...not enough. Even one more stop to 200 would be most welcome. 200 is actually a very fine all around speed. I'm surprised there aren't more 200 films.

StoneNYC · Aug 1, 2013

Roger Cole said:
While this is potentially very good news, especially for E6 and if either are available in sheets, I'd like to see a faster E6 film now that Provia 400x is going away. I'm stocking up as I can afford - I really like that film. It's amazingly good for a 400 speed slide film. While I'm sure it would be hard to match, even a film a bit grainier would be ok if we can get just a "pretty good" slide film in 200 or, preferably, 400. 100 is just too slow for shooting outdoors handheld with reasonable F stops in shade or cloudy days. I was faced with that Sunday. I'd shot up the roll of 400X I had loaded, though I had another but didn't. All I had was E100G, which I like a lot but trying to photograph a picnic in deep shade I was getting shutter speeds of 1/30th and less wide open on my Vivitar 28-105 f/2.8-3.5 lens. That's just...not enough. Even one more stop to 200 would be most welcome. 200 is actually a very fine all around speed. I'm surprised there aren't more 200 films.

I agree, I really like 200, but true 200 not the kind that says 200 but is really 125, like some 400's you have to rate at 320 etc.

It's a great compromise between grain and speed.

Sent w/ iPhone using Tapatalk

railwayman3 · Aug 1, 2013

Prest_400 said:
.

As of Orwo, aren't they a company called "Filmotec" and selling MP B&W stock?

Yes, the Orwo name is carried on in a small way....I'm sure that I've seen some examples of the MP stock used for still work around the web.

I have some 1980's catalogues and leaflets from the old Orwo ("VEB Filmfabrik Wolfen")...remarkable how many different products, including obscure sizes, which they manufactured, and it could never have been profitable in the long term. It was probably a case of communist thinking "we've always done it this way, why rock the boat".

Ricardo Miranda · Aug 1, 2013

Orwo (ORiginal WOlfen) is still made at Wolfen, Germany, by Filmotec GmbH. They will happily sell you Orwo UN54 (100 ISO) or N74+ (400 ISO) in 35mm or 16mm in 100ft, 400ft or 1000ft cans.
The website: http://www.filmotec.de/?page_id=353&lang=en
For the USA, Orwona sells directly from their website: http://www.orwona.com/b-w-motion-picture-camera-films/

Samples of N74+ on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=orwo+N74+

Paul Howell · Aug 1, 2013

Ricardo Miranda said:
Orwo (ORiginal WOlfen) is still made at Wolfen, Germany, by Filmotec GmbH. They will happily sell you Orwo UN54 (100 ISO) or N74+ (400 ISO) in 35mm or 16mm in 100ft, 400ft or 1000ft cans.
The website: http://www.filmotec.de/?page_id=353&lang=en
For the USA, Orwona sells directly from their website: http://www.orwona.com/b-w-motion-picture-camera-films/

Samples of N74+ on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=orwo+N74+

All sold out, dont know if in production.

wblynch · Aug 1, 2013

ANY E-6 film is better than Kodak E-6.

Simply because there is no such thing as Kodak E-6 film anymore.

Don't complain comparing a live film to a ghost of the past.

lxdude · Aug 1, 2013

Ian Grant said:
I remember how poor Kodak E4 films were in comparison to Fuji's a lot can cange in a small space of time, Kodak almost caught up with their E6 films.

I remember E-4 Ektachrome being bluish and E-4 Fujichrome having overdone colors. I preferred Fuji over Ekta. But I thought the class act in E-4 was Agfachrome. Natural colors, well balanced. Creamy whites.
I've recently mistaken some of my Agfachrome slides for Kodachrome-- their color has held up very well. My E-4 Fujichrome has been fading- mainly yellow, making the famous Fuji greens look muddy. I only bought E-4 films when I was too broke to afford Kodachrome, (around half the cost, with processing) and for that used Agfachrome after I 'discovered' it. The only thing I didn't like was its graininess, but back then nothing compared to Kodachrome in that regard, especially K25.

I'l try the Ferrania if it comes out. I don't know how the last E-6 films were from them as I never tried them.

AgX · Aug 1, 2013

railwayman3 said:
Yes, the Orwo name is carried on in a small way....I'm sure that I've seen some examples of the MP stock used for still work around the web.

I have some 1980's catalogues and leaflets from the old Orwo ("VEB Filmfabrik Wolfen")...remarkable how many different products, including obscure sizes, which they manufactured, and it could never have been profitable in the long term. It was probably a case of communist thinking "we've always done it this way, why rock the boat".

Back in those days all major manufacturers had a wide gamma of film products. I doubt whether back then all products of the western manufacturers were profitable either. Their idea was to be able to serve all wishes by one source.

railwayman3 · Aug 1, 2013

AgX said:
Back in those days all major manufacturers had a wide gamma of film products. I doubt whether back then all products of the western manufacturers were profitable either. Their idea was to be able to serve all wishes by one source.

I'm sure that you're correct. I still have a stock of Orwo B&W in my freezer and use a roll from time-to-time. I even have a few of their 35mm B&W reversal films, just waiting for the right subject.

Thomas Bertilsson · Aug 1, 2013

RattyMouse said:
GM cars sucked 20 years ago. Do they still suck today?

Ford was the same way, and today they notch up better build quality than even Lexus.

New Color Film Negative and Slide Production in 2014

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