One Roll Review - Ferrania Orto 50

 

Before modern-day panchromatic b&w film emulsions appeared, film was orthochromatic - sensitive to the blue part of the spectrum, but insensitive to red.    Wet-plate photographers still deal with this, and their images have a special look that while retro, are modern.    Likewise, modern orthochromatic emulsions - and there are a few - are geared towards a special use as in 35mm cine applications, or like the ortho emulsions from Ilford, Rollei, and now Ferrania - offer a special look that panchromatic films cannot.     

Ferrania has been producing their P30 panchromatic film since late 2017, which was a bit of a surprise for the backers hoping for an E-6 film. However, as in my 2018 review of the P30, I liked the black and white film, which said to be an old-school emulsion with rich blacks and wonderful tonality.  The film certainly gained a fan.    Moving to 2023, Ferrania has just announced their Orto 50 orthochromatic black and white film.    I was given a test roll by the Film Photography Project  to see how this film looks.   

From Ferrania’s web site, here is their description of Orto 50: "In the earliest days of silent cinema, film stock was blue-sensitive or orthochromatic. Hollywood relied on cosmetics as a "corrective" for on-screen actors. One hundred years later, the very "flaws" that plagued our predecessors are now the creative features that distinguish orthochromatic films today." This is a true statement - orthochromatic films are definitely for those that want a unique look to their images, as reds turn into dark tones in this film. I don’t usually shoot people in my photography, but if you do, ortho films give an old-time look to portraits. In addition, these low-iso ortho films are fine-grained and great for architecture and many landscapes.    In urban settings, they give a contrasty old-school look to images, and that’s why I love to shoot with them.

Ferrania recommends that you shoot this film at box speed, ISO 50. That holds true for other Ortho films, such as Ilford Ortho Plus (ISO 80), and Rollei Ortho 25.  Shoot at box speed!

I loaded the film into my Pentax Spotmatic SP II with a 55mm f/1.8 Super-Takumar lens, and headed out on a walk along Haywood Road in West Asheville.    It’s a great place to test any film, with colorful murals, store fronts, bars, and many signs.  It was a good test for this film on a wonderfully sunny day.

I developed the film in FPP D-96 for 8 minutes, as recommended by Ferrania. I used constant agitation for the first minute, and then agitated for 15 seconds, stopped for 15 seconds, and repeated that until the 8 minutes was up.    Water stop, and 8 minutes in fixer.   As soon as I hung the film to dry, I knew that I’d be happy with my results.

red is very black with this film, as it is insensitive to it.

Lots of blue tones here, so they are lighter