Things have slowed down around here, not because the film industry has slowed down, but because of the day job. There is also the aim of the blog, which was originally discover and cover resources for film photography in one place. There are many sources for news from larger blogs that have full-time journalists covering general photography and film photography topics. A tiny blog run in the spare time of an individual cannot necessarily keep up with the pace. This blogger accepts no advertising, allows none next to the content (thanks Google!) and can report freely on whatever topic is related to film photography.
Apart from Fujifilm, which is cancelling its film production in contrast to other manufacturers that are expanding their markets, the silver halide business is doing well. With the crowd-funded film companies successfully rolling out stock, your blogger received a few rolls over the past few months.
Some Ferrania P30 arrived as did a couple of rolls of Silberra B&W film. This blogger sponsored Silberra in their effort to produce film. A couple of rolls were exposed and processed as time permited. The results were not great, mostly due to out of date or inaccurate development information. The developer used here is one of the more rare options, but is available locally for a fair price. Worked great for Kentmere and Ilford films and even a roll or two of Fomapan.
The P30 ended up over-exposed and over-developed, which is not a good combination. The camera used might have contributed to the over-exposure. The roll of Silberra was grossly under-developed, but likely was exposed properly. The result were thin negatives with little detail. The camera also decided that the roll had ended before it really reached the end. So there is a strip of light grey, completely clear, completely flat Silberra film on the cutting room floor. I doubt this was due to the film, but instead the fancy electronics in the camera having a bad day.
A couple of notes about the development of these two films. First, the P30 left the pre-rinse and developer solutions completely clear and colourless after disposal. This is somewhat unusual, as even Ilford films tend to add a little colour to the solution that comes out of the tank. Second, the Silberra film imposed an inky, black colour to the pre-rinse. Not sure whether that was the anti-halation layer coming off or something else. The rest of the solutions were not so affected.
The Silberra PAN200 film was exposed using the Thingyfy 37mm pinhole lens. Available for film SLRs with the Nikon F mount, Minolta A mount or the Pentax K mount. At roughly f/140, landscapes in the snow came to mind. Unfortunately, the issue with underdevelopment proved to be unrecoverable with the challenging contrast of a snow scene. Will try to get some photos from these films soon.Remember, April 29th is World Pinhole Day this year!
