I am always excited to try any new black and white film that comes on the market, so when I saw ORWO Wolfen P400 on B&H, I decided to try a roll. Like always I will share my results and thoughts about this film. So lets get started.
Developing ORWO Wolfen P400
When I was processing this film last year, I didn’t find much info on different times and developers. I only had HC110 and Kodak D76 on hand, so I developed it as if it was ORWO N74 because I read that it was a version of that film. Now that there are more times available, I see that I over-developed it. I processed it in D76 stock at 9:30min, but it should have been only 8 minutes. So keep that in mind as you see the results.
ORWO Wolfen P400 Results
This panchromatic film is cut from original motion picture rolls, so it has that classic black and white movie look to it. The grey areas almost feel silver to me. You can see that in the sky of the pics below.
The excessive developing time, I think, added some needed contrast. In other examples I’ve seen of this film, it was recommended to add some contrast by pushing it.
However, a frustrating thing I ran into with this film was a line or scratch down the middle of some photos. I thought maybe I scratched the roll somehow without knowing, but then I also noticed some strange vertical, fuzzy lines in other areas. If you look at the photo of the water below, there are strange lines coming into the left side of the sky and across the water onto the grass. It doesn’t look like a scratch. Unfortunately this was on most of the frames of this roll. That was really disappointing.
Final Thoughts
Since this film is cut from rolls of motion picture film, it may be subject to some imperfections and fogging. I think that is what I experienced on this roll. For me, at $9.99 a roll, it’s not worth the risk when I can get results I like from a roll of Ilford HP5 or Kodak Tri-X.
That is, of course, just my opinion and experience. Let me know what you think. Have you tried this film? Do you have a monochrome film you prefer?
Until next time, stay motivated and keep shooting.
Further Reading on Wolfen P400
Alex Luyckx always gives great developing options for any film.
Roger who Shoots Film Like A Boss also wrote about this film here.
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