Enter Ferrania P30. In the same vein as Kodak 5222 aka XX there is Ferrania P30. An 80 ISO panchromatic motion picture film for still photographs, P30 is an extremely fine grain film with a very high silver content. Ferrania has reintroduced it's famous cinematic film from the 1960's.
FLIM Ferrania got it's start in 1882 as the Societa Italiana Prodotti Esplodenti manufacturing nitrocellulose-based explosive powders. After the Soviet revolution they were left with stockpiles of nitrocellulose so they decided to produce celluloid (nitrocellulose plus camphor). Theuy renamed themselves FILM (Fabbrica Italiano Lamine Milano) and teamed up with Pathe, who were at that time Europe's largest producers of photosensitive material. They began testing cinamatic film in the 1920's but unable to make an economically viable product Pathe bailed and surrendered to Credito Italiano. In 1923 engineer Franci Marmont took control of the company, renamed FILM Ferrania and turned the company around, at a loss at first. With the introduction of the Leica by Ernst Leitz glass plate photography died and celluloid based films became a mass commodity.By 1938 the comapny had a huge factory and employed over 500 workers.
After WWII, Ferrania took off and P30 was pretty much to go to film for Italian cinema, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Vittoria De Sica, Roberto Rosselini and Federico Fellini were all linked to Ferrania. It was widely marketed in the US when Sophia Loren won the Oscar for Vittorio De Sica's Two Women. I
In 1964 3M acquired Ferrania S.p.A and for the most part made film branded under other companies, heck they even made solar panels. Operations were finally ceased in 2010 and the factory remained dormant, destined to become just another monument to the past. Then one fall day filmaker Nicola Baldini and his partner Marco Pagni knocked on the gates to see if anyone was home.
In 2012 they finally got the factory up and running to produce small film formats of 16mm and 8mm.
I guess the rest is history.
It's an absolutely lovely film, it can be very contrasty and does require some different techniques for development. Ferrania reccommends using D96 which is the staple for developing the cinematic film, Cinestill has a new Monobath product Df96 which is said to work very well. Some folks have had good success with D76 and s stand development with Rodinal is always a good option. Keeping the highlights from blowing is key.
Me, I'm just sorry I only picked up 3 rolls when I was in Rome.
