My first blog of 2024 was all about Ferrania P30 from Italy. I spoke of it's history and how I felt about using it in my Ukrainian. FED 2 rangefinder and using my Gossen Trisix selenium cell light meter. It was a "no batteries required" walk around town and I really enjoyed myself. I also mentioned I had another roll and wanted to shoot that one in a more modern camera to see how it fared. I loaded it into my Minolta X-700 with MD 50mm f/1.7 lens and took it with me on my walk in my local woodland testing my Zeiss Ikon Maximar 207/3 from last weeks blog.
I have spoken fondly of my Minolta X-700 in previous blogs and it still makes me smile to this day. It is a well balanced camera with enough features to keep enthusiasts like myself entertained. I have a thing for Aperture Priority at the moment, I have been using my OM-10 and OM-2 a lot and I decided to see how Ferrania P30 fared in my Minolta using all its auto features as well as manual settings.
Full Program mode is where you just need to point the camera at your subject, focus and release the shutter. The electronics in the camera select both aperture and shutter speed based on a reading from the built in light meter. The MD 50mm f/1.7 is built for this feature and it's a formidable combination. The only variable is your Mk 1 eyeballs and your ability to use the horizontal split prism screen in the viewfinder.
Aperture Priority is where you select the aperture on the lens and the camera chooses the shutter speed based on a reading from the built in light meter. Again, the lens I used is built for this feature too and it's a match made in photography heaven. There's just enough auto mixed with my own skills to produce a great exposure and the 50mm lens is superb.
The Minolta X-700 also gives you the ability to shoot manually. You choose the settings, the electronic shutter fires for precisely the time you select on the speed dial, the aperture stops precisely where you set it. There are led lights in the viewfinder that tell you what your shutter speed is. It's is a simple to use system that works.
I wasn't photographing anything I haven't photographed before, I just wanted to see how P30 fared in my Minolta X-700. Winter blessed me with bright sunshine and a few clouds on my wander, perfect conditions for a slow speed, high contrast black and white film. I was hoping for a few silhouette photos as I made my way around my local countryside.
I took a few shots at the same place as my Maximar shots, just for a comparison of frame sizes. There's no way I could compare either of my cameras on this walk, they're two different animals separated by around 7 or 8 decades in time. It was nice just to be out and not having to think too much when switching between cameras. I was having a lot of fun and it seemed like I had not been out for long when I shot my last photo with my Minolta and headed home.
I developed my P30 a couple of days later. I had just enough of James Lane's rather excellent Zone Imaging 510 Pyro left to develop my Ferrania P30 diluted at 1+100 for 13 1/2 minutes at 20 celcius. I used plain old water to stop the development and fixed my film with Fotospeed FX30 for 8 minutes and I hung it to dry in my bathroom overnight. Digitising was done with my Nikon D700, Tamron 90mm f/2.5 macro lens, Valoi 35mm film holder, Pixl-Latr and A5 led light source. I processed the RAW files with Affinity Photo 2.
I'm quite happy with how Ferrania P30 fared in my Minolta X-700 and MD 50mm f/1.7 lens. It's easy to see why the X-700 stayed in production for 20 years, it's a great camera. I'm glad I put Ferrania P30 into it and went hunting for contrast and silhouettes as winter is ideal for it. Winter sunlight mixed with bare trees really strikes a major chord and inspires me and it's my favourite black and white season. I have managed to capture two extremes already this year, one snowy day and one bright sunny day. It shows the variation winter brings to black and white film photography.
Here's a few of my favourite photos from my roll of Ferrania P30 shot with my Minolta X-700. As always I have placed them and more in an album on Flickr you can visit using the link below. I hope you enjoy them.
Ferrania P30 - Minolta X-700
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