Autumn sunlight at Wollaton Park, Nottingham, October 2020 (Canon EOS 500n, 50mm f1.4 lens on Ferrania p80, developed in Adox Silvermax)
I’ve not used Ferrania p30 before, but managed to get my hands on a few rolls back at the start of the Covid-19 lockdowns. Because it is rated at 80 ASA it would have been stupid to load it into my Olympus Xa3 because the shutter speed the Olympus would automatically select would be slow and camera shake inevitable. So it has been in an old Canon EOS 500n with a Canon 50mm f1.4 lens for over a month.
A couple of weekends ago I finally finished the film which was then my chance to do some home developing and I thought that was a good opportunity to share how I manage to develop films here at home without a classic darkroom, how I developed this film, and some impressions of using it.
Home Developing
Now, if nothing else, I have tried to use the time during lockdowns (or various lesser levels of restrictions) to improve my capacity to work with film. The principal aim has been to remove the necessity for me to send films away for developing and scanning, which was working out at around £17/US$20+ per film.
There had been a few downsides with the “sending it away for development” strategy. First, whilst at University I had taught myself how to develop black and white films, and I knew it was a really straightforward process once you got the film into the development canister. It was also fun. Sending black and white films off for someone else to develop deprived me of the thrill, and didn’t seem to be making best use of the knowledge and skills I already had. Second, those black and white films often came back looking a bit insipid. Again, my unscientific impressions from those University days many years ago was that if I developed my own films with fresh chemicals I got cleaner more contrasty negatives. Third, a number of times (one is too many frankly) the negatives came back to me in the post bent.
Now the kind of logic that put me off making a change focused upon the total investment cost for setting up home developing and how many rolls of film that would pay for to be sent away and developed by someone else. Furthermore, I was only really confident about doing black and white film development, so assumed that I would be sending my colour films off for C41/E6 development anyway. Overall I therefore estimated that the investment would pay for itself only after around 6-10 years worth of film shooting… and yet pay out for all the equipment I did. So the truth is, I made the investment at the time on a non-economic, treating myself, basis. Nevertheless, since doing so and thereby freeing myself from the psychological bonds of ‘how much is this going to cost me to develop this frame?’ and waiting for someone else to develop my film, I am now using film more than ever. The whole set up will pay for itself much faster. I am also having lots more fun with it - the developing bit at least; does anyone enjoy scanning? Furthermore, I’ve been teaching my son all about it and getting him involved, which means he’s learning some things about chemistry including safety around chemicals, also having fun, and we’re doing something practical together. Finally, I have discovered the amazing Bellini range of colour processing chemicals, so have taught myself how to do C41 development (without a Jobo), so even I have learnt something new. I haven’t sent a film off for scanning once in the last 10 months.
So let’s break down where the investments have come, and how I get from undeveloped film to a scanned file ready for the digital darkroom, using a roll of Ferrania p30 to illustrate.
Camera to Film Tank
To get the used film from the camera to the “prepared for the chemicals” stage you need sturdy scissors, a film developing tank, a light tight space in which to work, and the ability to work with your hands without seeing them or the things they are working on.
For the film development tank I bought the Paterson Universal Film Tank that comes with two reels. This means I can do two 35mm films together, or one 120 film at a time. The Paterson reels are what I learnt developing on all those years ago, and I always found them so easy to load films into once you had fed the start of the film over the ball-bearing grips. These are two really good YouTube videos that show you how to load 35mm and 120 film onto these spools.
As for the light tight space, that is the big challenge. Without the luxury of a darkroom here at home, and with a (probably unmerited) distrust of trying to do a fiddly procedure in the limited space of a film loading bag, I decided to find a different way of getting the film from the canister into my Paterson developing tank. Now what we do have at home is an en suite toilet without a window up in our converted loft. Initially I tried to put some blackout foam tape around the inside of the doorframe to light seal the little room, but found it made the door impossible to close and ineffective at keeping out all of the daylight. However, after sundown, the little bits of tape that remain around the main points of light entry plus a good thick towel along the bottom of the door, are more than enough to leave me unable to see my hands. It’s then just a matter of issuing clear orders to the family not to come into the room and turn the light on until I reappear. After that I put the scissors and all the bits of the developing tank in distinct locations around the sink in the en suite, and memorise where they are so that I can find them in the dark from memory. So far, so good, although there is a downside. In the summer months the sun sets late in the evening so this limits me to loading the film late at night and then developing the film in the morning.
Chemicals and Kit for Developing Ferrania p30
Developing kit
For this stage we need measuring cylinders, a thermometer, chemicals, and some other oddments like something to hang the negatives from whilst they dry. I have Paterson cylinders (x3 600ml plus x1 50ml) and a cheap electronic thermometer I got from Amazon. I also bought some dedicated film hanging clips which have a coat-hanger like hook at the top which means I can suspend them from a string I set up between cupboard handles in our kitchen. The string passes over our stainless steel sink, so it is ideal for hanging the wet negatives at the end of the process. The total cost for all of this was around £50.
In terms of chemicals we are very fortunate that people share their trials of different developing approaches on the internet, and I came across Scott Micciche’s reviews and his recommendation to use Adox Silvermax developer with Ferrania, the link to which is here. This developer is available from various outlets - I got mine from Nik & Trick for just under £8. I also used the recommended distilled water for diluting the Silvermax concentrate, which I had to get from Amazon. I then followed Scott’s advice to do a water stop bath, and then relied on my Kodak T-Max fixer and Kodak Photo-flo thereafter. The thing about black and white chemicals is that you can reuse them a few times, so having chemical storage bottles is also worth the investment and I just write on their labels with a sharpie to say how many times the chemicals have done.
Then the fun and excitement begins. My son and I mix things up, and start taking temperature readings (which is a pretty quick process for B&W because they’re at close to room temperature anyway). And then it’s chemicals in the tank (in the right order!). One of us calls out the agitation times as the stop watch on the iPhone counts down. And before you know it you’re prizing off the lid, giving everything a wash and unravelling a strip of film giving you exciting glimpses of negative images. Here are the details of each step, though I need to give full credit to Scott Micciche for coming up with this:
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Developer: 1 part Adox Silvermax to 29 parts distilled water at 20 oC for 11 minutes (first minute continuous agitation, single agitation every 30 seconds thereafter)
Stop: Running water stop bath plus general swilling with water etc though of course all with light tight cover still on for a couple of minutes.
Fix: 1 part Kodak T-Max Fixer to 4 parts tap water at 24 oC for 5 minutes (agitation every 30 seconds).
Wash: wash in running cold water for about 4 minutes in the developing tank but you can now remove the light tight parts.
Wetting Agent: 1 part Kodak Photo-flo to 200 parts tap water, just tipped in, lid put back on the developing tank and gentle agitation.
Remove from the tank and reel and hang up to dry.
Hanging up to dry amid general relief and excitement because there are images looking vaguely well exposed on the film!
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In the case of Ferrania p30, only the water stop bath was slightly nerve-racking as I had always used a chemical stop bath before so didn’t trust the idea that just water can stop the development process. But it did work, so have faith.
From Film to the Digital Darkroom
Eventually, and it always seems to take too long, the film is dry and ready to be cut into 6 frame strips for the tissue negative storage pages. Now the next big investment as part of avoiding having to send negatives away to someone else to be processed and digitised is a good scanner. I found a second hand Epson V850 scanner on eBay for £425, and downloaded the Vuescan software into my Mac. I opted for the Epson because I needed to have an affordable way of scanning medium format negatives as well as 35mm. The Epson negative holders include one for 120 roll film.
Now the Epson produces some lovely scans but it is a laborious process. First of all, the negative carriers with their acetate windows attract dust like anything. When added to the dust that can appear on the negative and the dust on the glass scanning beds, it is a nightmare. I have a big soft make-up brush that my wife had to spare and use this multiple times on all surfaces before I close the lid, and there will still be dust in black and white scans. Colour negatives are not such a problem because the scanner can detect dust on colour negatives and remove it during processing of the file. This feature doesn’t work for black and white though. It adds a large amount of time to post-processing in the digital darkroom. However, as I said, the scans are really lovely once you get it all set up nicely, and the files are a dream to work with. I have long been a fan of Exposure X, not least because the customer service is awesome if you need advice.
So impressions of Ferrania p30?
So what are my first impressions of Ferrania p30. Well, I’m a little disappointed with the results to be honest BUT that could also be due to the camera and lens I was using. The images are rather grainy and lack sharpness. The latter could be my lack of practice focusing with the old Canon; it has just three focusing points - oh the horror! (We really are spoiled by the likes of a Sony A7iii which can focus-track the eyes of my kitten these days!)
Our kitten Whisper, not benefiting from a camera with eye tracking autofocus, plus too much scanner dust!
But the grain I don’t get for an 80 iso film. There were moments, however, where you catch glimpses of the range of luscious and rich grey tones it can produce, and that impressed me a lot. The photos of the leaves below have not been adjusted in Exposure X5, so are the straight scans (but with the laborious dust removal having taken place) and I think illustrate this.
Autumn in Lady Bay, Nottingham
Autumn Leaf, Lady Bay, Nottingham
So inevitably given this was a first go with a new film, I need to keep using the film and learning about it. I also need to practice more with the Canon! Maybe I will then be wowed a little more the second time through.
Thanks for reading the blog and don’t feel you have to rush off. Feel free to look at my other blogs and to relax a while browsing the galleries.