Ferrania P30 Panchro 80 asa film review
For those of us still using film, or for you out there who are ready to come to it, Ferrania is again offering its ‘original’ film formula in 135 or 120 film formats.
Ferrania is an Italian film company named after the city where it was born in 1938. Its operations dated from the end of the 19th century but produced photographic material, including cameras and films since the second world war.
It mainly offered ‘Ferraniacolo’ and ‘Pancro 30’ films, and the later was famously used by cinematographers for classic masterpieces (e.g., Fellini, Pasolini, De Sica, …). It stopped making films in 2012, but in 2013 the film making part of the company was bought (thanks to a Kickstarter), and ‘Film Ferrania SRL’ was created, reinstating the famous P30 in 2017.
The P30 has a high silver content, offering very dense blacks and fine grain in a slow speed film, giving it a classic cinematographic look. It has a relatively narrow latitude of exposition, but it offers plenty of room for experimentation. Correctly exposed, it provides very smooth greys and blacks, over or underexposed, it will tend towards abstract black and whites.
My first experiments were with two rolls, one on a Leica M6 (actively metered), the other on a Praktina IIa (passively metered). Here are a few of my experiments with it.
You can always check some other photographic examples on my Instagram page.
