Solaris Film

Today at the local camera store I purchased one roll of 12exp. color 100 and one of 400.
They were on sale for 50 cents each. I use 12 exp. for testing. Both are branded Solaris, however the 100 is simply what it is by Ferrania Imaging. The 400 is FG Plus.

I'm curious if others have used this brand and what they think of it. Should I be buying more? It's available in 24 exp. for the same price.

Since Sunday is the 15th and World Pentax Day, I'll load up the 400 into one of my Pentax cams and go for a walk.

My understanding is that somebody bought the right to the Agfa name for film and is now selling Ferrania under that name. I recently bought a couple rolls of the "Agfa" 400 from Photo Warehouse (aka UltraFine Online). I haven't yet shot any, but it certainly came in the Ferrania-style plastic film cans, not the Agfa-style cans. They've currently got the 100 and 400 in 27- and 36-exposure rolls, and the 800 in 27-exposure rolls.

My own impression of Ferrania film, at least as of about 5 years ago, is that it roughly resembled Kodak products from 10 or 15 years earlier -- it's grainier and has less-saturated colors than equivalent modern Kodak or Fuji products. This can work well for some subjects, and some people like this sort of look more generally; however, most people seem to prefer finer grain and more saturated colors.

It is often sold as store brand film. If you walk into a Kroger, Food Lion, etc and see film with the store name on it look to see where it was made. If it says Italy or EU it is almost for certain Solaris film under another name.

srs5694 said:

My understanding is that somebody bought the right to the Agfa name for film and is now selling Ferrania under that name. I recently bought a couple rolls of the "Agfa" 400 from Photo Warehouse (aka UltraFine Online).

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The Agfa brand belongs to Agfa-Gevaert and no one else.

AgX said:

The Agfa brand belongs to Agfa-Gevaert and no one else.

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It's entirely possible I was misinformed; I just read that most Agfa-branded film now on sale is actually Ferrania stock. I'll try to shoot a roll of what I bought soon; maybe there'll be some clue about its manufacturer on the film.

-) "Agfa" is a brand name hold by Agfa-Gevaert (it's the company's short designation)

-) "AgfaPhoto" is a brand name hold by Agfa-Gevaert too, BUT forced by court decision it has still to be licenced to AgfaPhoto Holding and is not used by Agfa-Gevaert themselves any longer

-) data from current AgfaPhoto colour films hint at Fuji and not at Ferrania

Focus No. 9 said:

Today at the local camera store I purchased one roll of 12exp. color 100 and one of 400.
They were on sale for 50 cents each. I use 12 exp. for testing. Both are branded Solaris, however the 100 is simply what it is by Ferrania Imaging. The 400 is FG Plus.

I'm curious if others have used this brand and what they think of it. Should I be buying more? It's available in 24 exp. for the same price.

Since Sunday is the 15th and World Pentax Day, I'll load up the 400 into one of my Pentax cams and go for a walk.

Click to expand...

was the shittiest hardest stuff in the world to print on an old optical minilab. Easier on a frontier style minilab, but still odd.

The AgfaPhoto branded Vista films were sourced from Ferrania at one point. They may well have subsequently switched suppliers, as that often happens. A company in Germany called Lupus Imaging & Media is responsible for the marketing of these films. In December 2009 they announced they had appointed Ferrannia USA as North American distributor of their AgfaPhoto branded films, cameras & batteries. http://www.imaginginsider.com/?p=104273

The thing I've always found with Ferrania films is that they are quite contrasty, which may or may not be a good thing, depending on circumstances. As far as colour and grain are concerned, I've found them perfectably acceptable. I personally wouldn't label them as being 10-15 years behind anyone else.