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- Sep 11, 2015
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- 35mm
Nice. Shadow detail looks good.
P30 in Diafine at EI50. It looks ok here and it’s printable at this speed, but the negatives are thin. Prints with split grade only.
I though I'd include a couple of plots to add a bit of detail to the analysis.
The first pair shows the relationships between Contrast Index (CI), developing time, and Effective Film Speed (EFS). Both films respond very nicely to varying development times.
View attachment 325890View attachment 325891
I am sure a lot of you already know this, but perhaps this will be useful to some of you. The term Contrast Index is often used interchangeably with Average Gradient (Ḡ) and Gamma (γ), but they are not strictly the same. Often, Ḡ is calculated as the ratio of DR to LogE, which you can see marked in red in the plot below. Gamma is the slope of the straight-line portion of the curve. Identifying that straight line was often done "by eye" but it can also be derived by statistical analysis, which is what my program does. It is marked with the green dotted line. Finally, CI, is calculated based on Kodak's graphical model, which involves two circle segments, measuring the slope by means of a graphical "calculator," such as this one below. In my program, CI is also derived programmatically, rather than graphically, but it amounts to the same thing. It is marked with blue dotted lines in the plot below. So in this particular curve, the CI is 0.42, Ḡ is 0.4, and γ equals 0.38, so they are all very close. It's not always this way, as some of the more idiosyncratic curves, esp. s-shaped ones, often produce divergent values for these three parameters. Personally, I don't mind using these three parameters interchangeably, but since I calculate them separately, I thought I'd mention it.
This plot also shows one possible way of deriving Zone System information from the characteristic curve. This is just one example of several models that have been used in ZS literature. Here, I am using relative log exposure values so the axis looks reversed. It's a convention used in the Beyond the Zone System model.
View attachment 325892
Kodak's CI graphical calculator:
View attachment 325893
It looks like Ferrania P-30 is a near mondisperse emulsion whilst Pan-F+ is not.
I agree with those who suggest trying it in low contrast developers to give more of a pictorial, but still ortho, result.
Here is another such developer:
Some of the developers for the somewhat more moderate contrast Adox HR-50 might be OK:
And for homebrew Bill Troop's TDLC-103.
characterized by particles of uniform size in a dispersed phase
I think I have found a decent match for the Ferrania P30, namely six minutes in replenished XTOL (XTOL-R) with rotary agitation, exposed at EI25. I would have preferred more shadow detail, but XTOL-R was able to tame some of the high contrast that neither XTOL (stock), nor D96 was able to do. Overall, I found the P30 a frustrating film to work with. The emulsion has had some defects, such as scratches and spots, and it's not a very forgiving film. However, the film is capable of magic, if the conditions are just right.
Here is a photo of a standard color chart, showing Ferrania P30's interesting spectral response.
And here's a neighborhood cat on a dark blue car:
And, finally, I would not use this film for a conventional portrait because skin tones come through looking blotchy and dirty.
I think I have found a decent match for the Ferrania P30, namely six minutes in replenished XTOL (XTOL-R) with rotary agitation, exposed at EI25. I would have preferred more shadow detail, but XTOL-R was able to tame some of the high contrast that neither XTOL (stock), nor D96 was able to do. Overall, I found the P30 a frustrating film to work with. The emulsion has had some defects, such as scratches and spots, and it's not a very forgiving film. However, the film is capable of magic, if the conditions are just right.
Here is a photo of a standard color chart, showing Ferrania P30's interesting spectral response.
And here's a neighborhood cat on a dark blue car:
And, finally, I would not use this film for a conventional portrait because skin tones come through looking blotchy and dirty.
I've had an interesting experience trying to reverse Ferrania P30: first it was a single roll of the Alpha batch and it didn't quite work out for me: overdeveloped + extreme contrast and blacks was the deal I got back then and I loved it!
At least a couple of years later I tried to reverse anther P30 I got - this time 3 straight production rolls without the "Alpha" and considering the over-development that occurred the last time, I decided to start fresh. To cut the film in 2 strips and start with plain PQ Universal 1+5 with no silver solvent (sodium thiosulfate) added. So I got to loading the film and.. loaded all of it, forgot to split. Ehh.
Well, here it goes: 84ml PQ Universal + water to make 500ml developer to reverse my roll at 20°C for 12 minutes with 3 inversions every 2 minutes to give shadows a chance. And what I got was a massive underdevelopment this time around. I mean - all is kind of visible, but hidden under murky dark veil - no highlights cleared to the base whatsoever regardless the overexposure given, which I find funny. It's as if the "latitude" goes away only with proper development...
So I proceeded to reverse it to completion and after fixing I put the film back into permanganate bleach for 5 minutes. I was guesstimating to take 20ml Part A + 20ml Part B + 240ml water and it turned out great - recovered about 2 stops, extreme highlights cleared to the base. Finished bleaching with Clear + Fix + Rinse Aid. The slides I got have wild, "graphic" contrast that tends to render things on the creepy side or something, - an interesting look for sure. Next time I'll remember to split my film in 4 parts to nail the reversal. Agitation used: 3 inversions every 2 minutes.
Meanwhile let me share some examples from this run:
Interesting idea and Ferrania quotes higher silver content. May I ask where this idea came from?So it seems that Ferrania P30 needs a longer bleaching step and we can speculate that the film exhausts faster the permanganate.
I was somewhat expecting for this to happen, knowing that Permanganate bleach can chew up emulsion if overdone. But no, 2nd bleach after fix did not cause any damage whatsoever, just allowed to recover a massively underdeveloped film.I was wondering if this can cause damage to the sub layer of the film, peeling off the emulsion from the base.
Agreed and I like the lower blue response - renders skies black.It might be argued that it is the best for IR in 35 mm. According to Henning's tests, the Maco IR 400 (and variants) is not that useable over EI 100, and probably less.
Great! I look forward to seeing the 32 compared with the 80. Being a stop and a third more, I'd expect the EI 32's to have more shadow separation.
This took me a while due to weather here in Chattanooga: (P30 Alpha (expired) @ EI 32 Barry Thornton Two-bath 4m+4m
I think I have found a decent match for the Ferrania P30, namely six minutes in replenished XTOL (XTOL-R) with rotary agitation, exposed at EI25. I would have preferred more shadow detail, but XTOL-R was able to tame some of the high contrast that neither XTOL (stock), nor D96 was able to do. Overall, I found the P30 a frustrating film to work with. The emulsion has had some defects, such as scratches and spots, and it's not a very forgiving film. However, the film is capable of magic, if the conditions are just right.
Here is a photo of a standard color chart, showing Ferrania P30's interesting spectral response.
And here's a neighborhood cat on a dark blue car:
And, finally, I would not use this film for a conventional portrait because skin tones come through looking blotchy and dirty.
In my tests, the PAN F PLUS is a versatile film that can handle a broad range of subject luminance range (labelled "SBR" in the plot below). For example, the SBR of 7.3 stops (considered "normal") is illustrated below with the curve labelled "L7 5.01," which means that you can set your light meter's ISO to 25, expose the scene of 7.3 stops (or so) and then processed in XTOL for 5 minutes at 20C in a rotary processor. This is just an example, and there's more nuance to it, such as flare, metering technique, etc., but this gives you a general ideal. You can achieve a similar result with any conventional developer and developing technique. I would just recommend that you run a test first, so you don't waste your film unnecessarily.
P30 in Diafine at EI50. It looks ok here and it’s printable at this speed, but the negatives are thin. Prints with split grade only.
If you have both Diafine and P30 why not give it a go.Do you think that Ferrania P30 would look good @25 in Diafine? I'm thinking of trying this in order to get more midtones from the P30.
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