Anita makes shadows on the headstones at Upwell. Trying out cheap Chinese 120 roll film, Shanghai GP3, in the Bronica yesterday. Bronica SQ-A. Zenzanon PS 150mm f/4. Shanghai GP3 120 film ID11 at 1:1.
How did I miss Shanghai GP3 for so long? The cheapest 120 medium format b/w negative film on the market. Somehow, my frail old brain must have filtered it out as “Chinese”, perhaps associating it with those ‘orrible Chinese toy cameras. My attention was finally brought to Shanghai early in the winter. I bought a pack of ten on Ebay – which appears to be where they are being marketed. I shopped for minimum price, and bought this ten pack with free p&p, working out at a cost of £2.10 per film. Crikey, that is cheap. When you think that I have to shop around normally to find Foma Fomapan or Ilford HP5+ for around £3.50-£4.20 a film with p&p. Heck, if I was to pop in a local shop and try buying Ilford Delta Pro, then I’d expect to shell out at least seven quid a film or more. So you see that Shanghai is incredibly cheap at £2.10 per film.
Taken from outside of the church. Couldn’t resist the beautiful light. Testing a roll of Shanghai GP3 budget medium format film. Specs as top image.
So what is it like? Well, I mainly use faster film, especially at this time of year – mainly around ISO 400. A couple of stops saved on the camera are essential when trying to capture street or candid. Shanghai is rated at an optimum ISO 100, although I hear rumours that it might be nearer to ISO 80. Still, we’ve been having some mid-day January sun of recent, so a couple of days ago, I thought that I’d have some fun with a test roll, and promptly loaded an SQ film back with Shanghai GP3 film.
Photograph taken yesterday in Upwell church yard, of a headstone leaning against a tree.Trying out the Chinese budget film. Specs as top image.
One characteristic of GP3 that is worthy of note – there is no sticky tape at the end of the roll. If I was to shoot more than one roll, then I’d need a roll of sticky tape in my pocket. After a quick shoot at Upwell church, and along a drove, I took the film home, and later that day, developed it in a dilution of 1:1 Ilford ID11 at 20C for 14 minutes. (By the way, I recently calculated that such a dilution costs me £0.71p per 120 film. I have been told that I could save money by switching to Kodak D76.).
After processing and drying – the second characteristic – this stuff dries out really curly. Not a good characteristic if you are to digitally scan the negative in a mask on a flatbed film scanner. I’ve heard people complain about Foma being curly – but I never had a problem with it. Shanghai IS curly.
The results. I never pretend to be much of an authority nor an expert. However, to my eyes – much better than expected. Very smooth, fine grained (although having recently shot a lot of Fomapan Action 400 – anything else looks smooth). Good tones and contrast. A real surprise – a budget film that looks good.
Although slower than the film that I like for my kind of photography, Shanghai GP3 is definitely going to feature as a medium in my photography in the future. I’ll keep a film back loaded.
The Tight Fisted Photographer 