Minolta SRT-101

Journey To Northern California

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I recently found myself on a trip to North California to visit family and like every time I journey outside the comforts of Portland I brought a camera with me. It was fitting I brought my Minolta SRT-101 with me on this particular trip. The Minolta SRT-101 was the first “professional” camera I ever used as it was gifted to me by my parents on my 16th birthday. Just a few short weeks ago I turned 46, which means the Minolta has been going strong in my life for exactly three decades. That is quite remarkable when you think about it. I can’t recall of many things that stay consistent in one’s life for that long.

Photographed with a Minolta SRT-101 and Ilford HP5 film.

During that time I’ve only sent it in for repair once, a good old fashion CLA, and quite frankly it didn’t even need it. I only did so because a local shop was holding a discount and I figured why not?

Photographed with a Minolta SRT-101 and Ilford HP5 35mm film.

I traveled to an area just outside of Nevada City California. It’s an area of the Golden State that still feels like a bit of a boom town, attracting people who want warm weather and who want to forge their own path with maximum autonomy. It’s a different vibe than I’m used to in the Pacific Northwest, but it’s good to be in a new environment every so often. I can appreciate the fresh air to be found there, the horses that trot around fenced pastures, and the rivers with shallow shores that were once lined with panhandlers searching for gold.

Photographed with a Minolta SRT-101 and Ilford HP5 35mm film.

I only went through a couple rolls of film while on the trip because I had other business to take care of. Still, some pictures are always better than no pictures at all and it was refreshing to just wander about a bit capturing whatever caught my fancy.

Film Review: Film Ferrania P30 In 35mm

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After what seems like an eternity of paused availability (no doubt due to COVID) I recently received the welcome news that Film Ferrania is once again ramping up their production of P30 film stock in 35mm format. I became aware of Film Ferrania a number of years back when a sales rep at my local camera shop recommended it and I liked the film immediately, though I wasn’t totally happy with the images I made with it. That was of no fault to the film but more my skills as a photographer. By the time I got around to picking up some more stock became low and I was forced to go back to my standby films like Ilford and Rollei.

Photographed with a Minolta SRT-101 and Film Ferrania P30 35mm film.

P30 has a box speed of ISO 80. Since these are the first rolls of P30 I’ve worked with in a long time I decided I better not get fancy and just metered everything at ISO 80 with a hand held meter. Often it is best to see what a film stock is capable of at the manufacturer’s recommendation even if your lighting situation is a bit on the tricky side. I would have preferred to put my test rolls through the paces on a more overcast day with even lighting, but alas, summer decided to come out in full force this past week. As such, there was a huge range in light values coming through the studio windows, sometimes as much as four or five stops between light and shadow.

Made in Italy, Film Ferrania markets their film stock as being similar in look to the stock used by Italian film makers such as Roberto Fellini. If you’ve ever seen classics like 8 1/2 or La Dolca Vita you’ll know the look they are talking about. Normally I would consider lines like this from a film manufacturer to be a bit of a gimmick (I’m looking at you Lomography!!) but with Film Ferrania I can see where they are coming from. P30 has a punchy and contrasty look to it but manages to easily keep detail in both the highlights and the shadows. It also has very minimal and very soft grain, especially considering the fact that I developed these images in Rodinal, a developer known to produce sharp and pronounced grain structure.

Photographed with a Minolta SRT-101 and Film Ferrania P30 35mm film.

Speaking of Rodinal, P30 seems to be a perfect candidate for stand development. For the images on this post I metered areas where dark shadow and bright light came together and developed at 1:100 for exactly 60 minutes. Agitation was for fifteen seconds at the beginning and five more agitations at 30 minutes. Normally with stand development I get a lot of highlight effects where dark areas of the final image transition to more neutral gray. Sometimes I like this effect and sometimes I don’t. With P30 I don’t seem to get any of that, which isn’t necessarily good or bad, but is an interesting characteristic of the film. Every single frame on two rolls of film came out well exposed with plenty of gradation from white to black.

Photographed with a Minolta SRT-101 and Film Ferrania P30 35mm film.

Right now Ferrania P30 is only available in 35mm. That’s all well and good and the world needs as many 35mm film stocks as we can get. However, I can’t help but feel excited at the prospect of P30 perhaps being available one day in medium format (120) or heck, even larger formats like 4x5. I also think P30 would look great in a smaller format like 16mm or even 8mm but I know the market for smaller formats like that are limited and a release is unlikely.

Now with all that being said, if you are going to work with a film stock that is slower than ISO 100 I suppose 35mm is the one you want. Why you might ask? Well, the answer is pretty simple. 35mm cameras tend to have faster lenses which means you can open up the aperture and let in more light, keeping your shutter speeds up, and negating the use of a tripod. The 50mm lens on my Minolta SRT-101 opens up to f/1.4 and I did the majority of the images in this review from f/2 to about f/5.6. I’m always thankful when I can avoid a tripod and at ISO 80 that wouldn’t necessarily be the case with slower medium format lenses.

Photographed with a Minolta SRT-101 and Film Ferrania P30 35mm film.

You can read more about Film Ferrania on their website HERE including where to purchase over the coming months. I imagine it will still take some time before they are in full swing, but if you get a chance to pick up some P30 I definitely recommend it.