Film Ferrania, the resurgent film manufacturer based in Italy, have been very busy over the last couple of years. Projects that were put to one side due to the pandemic have been restarted and are now bearing fruit. Film Ferrania have added P33, a 160 speed panchromatic black and white film to their growing roster and I bought a couple of rolls to try it out.
Film Ferrania CEO Silvio says, "P33 is the culmination of our R&D efforts, merging analog tradition
with technological innovation. We've meticulously re-engineered
authentic emulsion recipes, focusing on enhancing versatility with a
higher ISO and simplifying the development process."
This is like going to look at Grandma's recipe book and finding some of the ingredients are no longer available. The R&D dept have had to find modern equivalents, mix it all together and refine it until they got it right. This takes time and a lot of testing. Film Ferrania are in the the perfect place for this as they are based in the old Ferrania R&D lab using the equipment built specifically for small batch testing many years ago.
Film Ferrania also have a dedicated team of Film Photographers, both within their ranks and the wider film photography community, helping them to refine their experimental films to ensure it is ready for the film photography community to enjoy. It has taken Film Ferrania a long time to get to this point. The financial investment needed to refurbish machinery and make film to a consistent high standard has seen a lot of hard work behind the scenes and it's now paying dividends.
Does this mean P33 is a good film? There's only one way to find out. I loaded a roll of P33 into my Nikon F801S and headed out for a wander to see what I could find to photograph.
I haven't used my Nikon F801S for a while and it felt good to be using it again. I spent my exercise days during lockdown using it alongside my Nikon D700 and loved being able to switch lenses between them both with no problems. This time I was out with just my F801S and had fitted my favourite AF Zoom Nikkor 24-120mm f3.5-5.6 D walkabout lens to it. I also shot the film at its box speed of 160 iso. The "Matrix" light metering built in to my F801S is accurate and its aperture priority mode gives me great results.
I shot the first half as I made my way home from shooting my Frugal Film Project film that I spoke of last week. I shot the second half a few days later, just seeing what I could find. I visited a couple of familiar compositions and also tried to find different things to photograph. I have been reinvigorated by the sunshine finally breaking through the rain, spring has arrived and my hayfever is under control.
I wandered around the woodland and the public footpaths across the fields. This year the crop in the fields near my home is back to wheat and I reckon the farmer has rotated his wheat fields of the last couple of years to corn. I will find out soon enough now I can get out more and explore a little further. I also paid a visit to my favourite tree on the wash. It looks great with this year's foliage on.
It always seems like I have been out for only half an hour when I am really enjoying a photo walk, yet a couple of hours had passed, my roll of P33 was finished and I made my way home, thoroughly worn out.
A couple of dates later I developed my roll of Ferrania P33 with Rodinal 1+25 for 5 minutes at 20 celcius as suggested on the manufacturers website and soon had it hanging to dry in my bathroom. I scanned it with my Nikon D700, Tamron Adaptall 2 90mm f/2.5 macro lens, Valoi 35mm film holder, Pixl-Latr and A5 sized led light source. I processed the RAW files with Affinity Photo 2.
As I was editing my RAW files I noticed how the tonal range was very rich and full on P33. I normally do quick edits just to get a feeling for the film and then go back and really dig in and bring out the full dynamic range. Not his time, those quick edits were all I needed to bring the richness of P33 into my photos. There's one or two I would love to print in a darkroom with some deft dodging and burning. Film Ferrania P33 is descended from Ferrania's much loved golden days as the darling of Italian cinema. It really does shine and captures the details in the shadows and the highlights with little effort.
Film Ferrania P33 is definitely grabbing the attention of the community for all the right reasons and, dare I say it, giving people a choice between P33 and the legendary Kodak Double-X. Yes, I'm going there! It also gives Ilford FP4 and Fuji Acros a run for their money and it truly is a genuine contender amongst the slow speed B&W films out there.
I will be doing side by side comparisons in the summer, but until then, here's a few of my favourites from my first roll of Film Ferrania P33 and as always I have placed them and more in an album on my Flickr account you can visit using the link below. I hope you enjoy them. You can buy P33 from stores around the world or via the Film Ferrania website link below. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.
Film Ferrania P33
FilmFerrania.com
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