Ferrania P.30 in Port Dalhousie

Port Dalhousie was a port town on the south shore of Lake Ontario but these days is a suburb of St. Catherines. It was the starting point of the first and second generation Welland Canals and is now a harbour for recreational sailors and powerboaters. One place I can't reccomend enough is the Lock St. Brewery, it's a cool little spot in "downtown" Port Dalhousie and they make great beer. In some ways I was rushed with my visit and I want to go back with more time to wander around.

Camera: Olympus OM-2n, Zuiko 50 f1.8 lens.
Film: Ferrania P30, HC110 B.

Test Roll Ferrania P30

Film Ferrania, a storied Italian film manufacturer back from the dead. They made a big splash a few years back with a Kickstarter campaign with a crazy idea to bring their slide film back. Well, with that old cliche the road to hell was paved with good intentions, Ferrania got a six lane Autostrada for their troubles. The old factory had a ton of environmental issues (asbestos) which distracted the brain trust. Out of the blue they got a coating machine going and produced an Alpha Run of P.30, a black and white motion picture stock rated 80 ISO in daylight beloved by Italian filmmakers like Fellini.

I was gifted a roll of P.30 by Alex Luyckx to shoot and later talk about in an upcoming Classic Camera Revival Podcast. I used a recently overhauled Olympus OM-2n, and processed in HC110 B, yes D76 was the preferred developer but I didn't want to mix up a fresh batch as I'm halfway through some Xtol I mixed up recently. I exposed this film on a less than ideal morning down in Port Dalhousie with overcast skies. Now bear in mind I only had a single roll and would rather shoot a half dozen rolls of a particular film and process in different developing chemicals to come up with a more informed opinion.

Now I got pretty smooth negs filled with information that I could rescue in Lightroom if need be. A great plus is they dry flat as a pancake, great for scanning. I won't be printing from these negs, if Ferrania does another batch, I'll buy some rolls. The big challenge with P.30, it's not cheap, we're looking at $8 USD off the Ferrania website and that's before shipping. You will want to buy ten rolls to make postage costs worthwhile. My guess if Downtown Camera in Toronto were to sell this film it would list for $14.99 CAD per roll retail.

The other challenge P.30 faces is there are a fair number of medium speed black and white films out there that produce great results like Rollei RPX 100, Ilford Delta 100, Ilford FP4 125, Kodak Tmax 100 and if you want to go budget, another motion picture stock ORWO UN 54,  Fomapan and Kosmo Mono 100 in 35mm. Now if Ferrania could get some volume, the cost will go down if they get past their growing pains, that would be great. The truth of the matter Ferrania should have made slide film a stretch goal and focused on P.30 out first as the Kickstarter project, hindsight is 20/20.


Camera: Olympus OM-2n, Zuiko 50 f1.8 lens.
Film: Ferrania P30, HC110 B.

Mono Cliffs Provincial Park Spring 2018 Part Two.

My game plan is to get back up here much more often than in previous Summers.


Camera: Canon F-1N, FDn 28 f2.8 and 50 f1.4 lenses.
Film: Kodak Max 400

Mono Cliffs Provincial Park Spring 2018

I haven't hiked seriously in almost two Summers. Last year was washout and the year before was a scorcher I needed some time in the woods. I got a chance to try out the FDn 50 f3.5 Macro lens with a fern in the cliff and a patch of trillums. I'm quite happy with the results I got.

The park itself was a zoo on Victoria Day Monday, everyone had the same idea I had, get out into the woods for a little while and recalibrate.


Camera: Canon F-1N, FDn lenses.
Film: Kodak Max 400.

Wandering Around Mono Township Back Roads.

I haven't been up to Mono Township in ages. I needed a hike up in Mono Cliffs Provincial Park and half the fun is the drive up early in the morning.

The Canon F-1N hasn't been picked up in a while so it was time to give it a spin. I was smart to only pack FDn lenses, older breach lock FD glass is a lot heavier and you'll feel it when hiking. I love my F-1's, they were a solid competitor to the Nikon F2 and F3 and Canon glass went to toe to toe with Nikkor lenses.

Please note, the white MGA isn't mine.


Camera: Canon F-1N, FDn 50 f1.4 lens.
Film: Kodak Max 400

Cabbagetown, a Return

I led a photowalk with the Toronto Film Shooters Facebook Group two weekends ago and it was a blast. Unlike the dry run, I shot only black and white, now, I started off with Rollei Retro 400s but then switched to Fomapan 400 for the second roll. Up until now,  I've been exposing Fomapan 400 at 250 ISO when processing with HC110 dilution B and Xtol stock solution. The result would be a gritty old school Kodak Tri-X look from the 1960s and '70s. Loved the tonality and grittiness but Classic Camera Revival ringleader Alex Luyckx played around with Fomapan 400 in medium format and discovered how it behaved in different developers.

How to put this, Fomapan 400's true ISO is really dependent on your choice of developer. When you use Tmax at 1+4 dilution, you get box speed and more shadow detail. You know what, Fomapan 400 looks fabulous in Tmax developer.


Camera: Nikon F2a, Nikkor Ai 50 f1.4 lens.
Film: Fomapan 400, Tmax 1+4.