Ferrania P30

This week I tried another film I have wanted to shoot to see what the fuss was about, Ferrania P30 from Italy. This film is a tale of a once big player in the film business that fell on hard times and became a casualty of the digital revolution as it tore a huge swathe across the film industry. Ferrania was an Italian film company that supplied film to photographers and cinematographers not just in Europe, but around the world. They also undertook contract coating for other film suppliers and made highly regarded B&W and Colour film for stills and motion pictures. Such was the high regard for Ferrania that 3M bought the company in 1964 and rebranded Ferrania film as Scotch Chrome and Solaris. When the digital revolution happened the collapse of the film market saw the closure of the Ferrania factory in 2010.

That's where the Ferrania story should have ended but for the efforts of some passionate Italian film photographers who thought Ferrania could be brought back from the dead and set about buying the things they needed to rebuild the brand. They also set up a Kickstarter campaign with the aim of bringing one of Ferrania's legendary slide films back to the market.

Sadly that kickstarter has thus far come to nothing as several hurdles caused many setbacks and delays. Give the guys their due, they are building a new film production facility from scratch and have not had an easy time of it. Most folk would have given up and refunded their kickstarter backers, but they wouldn't accept defeat. Each challenge presented was faced with a determination to succeed.

To give their kickstarter backers something rather than nothing, plan B was brought into play. Although there was no colour film, the machinery and raw materials to make a black and white cinema film from Ferrania's past was painstakingly put together in the former Ferrania Research Lab on the vast Ferrania campus. That film is Ferrania P30.

P30 is a B&W film available in 35mm format and is derived from a legendary Ferrania cinema film stock of the same name from Ferrania's golden age. Italian film directors remaind loyal to Ferrania due to this film and the chance to ressurect a legend was too good to pass by. The story of Ferrania is a lot longer than my recap and you can read about the history of Ferrania by visiting the Ferrania website using the link below. It is a great story and worth a read.

So, what is this legend like to shoot? I loaded a roll into my Nikon F801s popped my 50mm f/1.8 D lens on it and headed out. I shot this film at the same time as last weeks roll of Cinestill bwXX, countryside first and town second. P30 is a nominal 80 iso rated film designed for the cinema, but, as I discovered, also excels in 35mm stills cameras.

Ferrania P30 is a high contrast B&W film that, like Cinestill bwXX, excels in an urban landscape. My countryside shots really could have done with a suitable filter to tame the shadows and contrast. Next time I shoot it I will definitely pick a better day and see what filters I have so I can really get into what made this film a favourite of Italian film makers. I have a lot of reading to do....

Here's a few of my photographs from this roll of Ferrania P30 and as always I have placed them and more in an album on my Flickr account that you can access by using the link below.  I hope you enjoy them.

Flickr Ferrania P30
Ferrania.com