Like last year’s review of ORWO Wolfen NP100, ORWO Wolfen P400 is a version of ORWO N74+ but modified to better suit still-photography by removing the anti-halation layer. I had this film stock on my wish list and was able to find it last year through Freestyle. The one thing I also noticed is that there is a slight difference between the two film stocks to indicate that something else has been done to the film stock in the process of stripping that layer. Thankfully there is already a lot of existing times that are listed directly for P400. The first thing I noticed with the film is that it is all packaged in newer metal cassettes not the plastic ones that I encountered with my review of NP100, the second is how thin the film feels compared to past ORWO motion picture films.
Film Specs
Manufacturer: ORWO
Name: Wolfen P400
Type: Panchromatic Black & White
Film Base: Polyester
Film Speed: ASA-400, Latitude: +/- 2-Stops
Formats Available: 135 (35mm)
Roll 01 – Flic Film B/W Cine Film Developer
While P400 is modified to suit better photography, it is still, at its core, a motion picture film, so I’m starting off the review using the normal motion picture film developer, Kodak D-96, or in this case, the Flic Film produced version. Going with the stock dilution and dropping the time from my listed 6.5 minutes to 6.25 minutes to compensate slightly for exposing the film at ASA-320, the negatives looked thin but had good detail. And they scanned well, and with some adjustments in Photoshop, I’m pleased with these images. There’s a good contrast, thanks mainly to the mixed light. I noticed the most that these images seemed a little soft, and the grain was a bit mushy but still present. That is more thanks to the developer rather than the film itself. I like this combination. It works well in these conditions and gives you a better feel for what the film can do than straight D-76.
Roll 02 – Ilford Ilfotec HC
The only available time for Ilfotec HC was a 1+31 dilution. I always preferred to develop motion picture films in 1+63, so I went ahead and shot the roll at the full box speed of ASA-400 and doubled the available time while knocking it back to compensate for the constant rotation in development. I also shot this roll under bright, challenging conditions and more mixed light under trees. I should have let these develop a bit longer, the negatives were rather thin, but I’d take thin negatives over dense ones. Sadly, these were too thin, but with a bit of work in the post, I was able to pull out some images. I’m not a fan, but they work, and I’m not too happy with them. First, there is a lot of grain and medium contrast, but the images are sharp. Now I understand that P400/N74+ is not a fine-grain film, but all the same, these are mushy and grainy. Two things happened here: under-exposed and under-developed. I should have exposed these at either ASA-320 or ASA-250 and developed normally. As for the under-development, I’m leaning towards my bottle of Ilfotec HC reaching the end of its life. Either way, Ilfotec HC can work as a developer, but you will want to over-expose your film between 1/3 and 2/3 of a stop.
Roll 03 – Rodinal
For my third roll and using Rodinal I decided to over-expose the film by one stop, shooting at ASA-200 then pulling in my development and using a 1+50 dilution with further reduction to compensate for constant rotation. And I thought the previous roll had a lot of grain, this one has even more! But I was prepared for it but on the plus side the images are sharp, the downside is that the contrast feels flat in some scenes but that could be more the lighting than the film. I don’t enjoy high-contrast images and do like a low-contrast image but on cine-films I look for something middle ground, with character. And these images don’t have that. Of course, I could always have played around with the contrast in post-processing and given the frames a bit more character.
Roll 04 – Adox XT-3
For the fourth and final roll I went with Adox XT-3, the Adox clone of Kodak Xtol using a 1+1 dilution. While I wanted to use 510-Pyro here, I went with an officially listed time. After seeing the trouble with the Ilfotec HC roll and the lovely results I got from B/W Cine developer, I went and exposed the roll at ASA-320 and developed normally. Upon pulling the negatives out of the tank, I was pleasantly surprised. The negatives did not look under or over developed and had good visible density on initial inspection. While these were certainly better than the second and third roll they still have problems, there’s the compressed tonal range and despite being a fine-grain developer XT-3 did little to reduce the visible grain to something far more pleasing. Despite having high hopes for this roll I was still a little disappointed.
Final Thoughts
Thankfully, the thinner base did not present any problems loading the film onto the reels, but I noticed that the film appears to be bulk-loaded rather than commercially loaded. I also noticed that the film tends to fog easily, so keeping it out of direct light is best. It could be because of the room’s temperature, but I noticed a slight cupping when the film dried. All four rolls of the negatives came out thin, which made scanning difficult but not impossible. You could increase the development times by fifteen to thirty seconds to get added density and expose the film to your taste at either ASA-320 or ASA-250. It also doesn’t surprise me that the best results from the film came from the roll developed in Flic Film B/W Cine Developer (Kodak D-96), and be ready to play around with the contrast in post-processing to get it where you want it. I’ll be cautious in recommending this film; it isn’t that P400 is a bad film; it takes a bit more effort to get good results, and you have to be willing to play a bit more in post-processing. This review warrants revisiting the film stock for a review (ORWO N74+) to see about getting it to a point where I’m happier with my results. What I think will help this film out the most is lots of good hard light.
Further Reading
Don’t just take my word on P400, you can check out the reviews by other awesome camera reviewers!
Shoot Film Like A Boss – ORWO P400 Review