Truprint FG+ : Expired vividness

Truprint FG+
Truprint FG+

You’ve probably never heard of Truprint FG+ film. This once freebie given away in the UK by the postal photolab company Truprint is an absolute corker and in my opinion produces a vividness bordering on what you tend to get with Cross processing slide film.

Green bike red door
Dumfries, 2014. LC-A with Truprint FG+

The few who do remember this might recall that Truprint used to give a way a freebie roll of film everytime you used their  service. Whilst Truprint still survives and will do postal C41 lab processing they stopped giving out film some years ago. The film pops up on Ebay pretty regularly however.

13 to 'Beattie
Dumfries 2014, Chinon 35 with Truprint FG+ at 100asa

The film came wrapped in a green logo’d plastic foil wrapper. Neither the wrapper or the film cannister offered any clues beyond the fact it was made in the EU and was 200asa.  It is assumed to have been made by Ferrania, the once mighty Italian film manufacturer and before it closed part of the 3M empire. Ferrania closed in….. (but recently it has been resurrected  by some former employees). The rolls carry no expiry data just a comment to use quickly.

Two Wheel Green
Keswick, March 2014. LC-A with Truprint FG+

This means you’ll be shooting expired film, as Truprint probably stopped handing it out last decade and could be even longer expired (DX coding was introduced in 1983 and I’m guessing was only commonplace later in the decade so film with DX coding probably wouldn’t expire much before 1990. DXn was an addition for printing only and started use around 1999 so again this may guide your film’s age) .

My advice is buy a number of rolls from the same seller as they’ll likely date from around the same time. For each 10 years after a film hits expiry most folk suggest dropping the speed by one stop so 200 ASA film that expired in 2004 usually shoots at 100asa. This ten year rule is affected by other factors such as how the film was stored and speed (faster the film the quicker the deterioration in film speed). However here it is a good guide as any film is likely to have been stored in a fairly cool drawer in the UK.

Windy Flare up I
Winscale Windfarm, March 2014. Taken on LC-A with Truprint FG+

I’d shoot your first roll at 100asa and use it to guide exposure on the subsequent rolls.  On that basis don’t use the first roll for anything critical like your sister’s wedding  and use a camera with accurate metering (not a FED 50).

Modern lights
Dumfries, 2014. Halina 1000 with Truprint FG+

The film sometimes is a bit more naturalistic like this and can be a bit of fun trying to guess

Relics of yesterday written
Keswick, March 2014. LC-A with Truprint FG+

Widely available on Ebay and you can usually pick up for £2-3 GBP per roll. Had thought was only 24 exp but recently came across 36 exp rolls.  All has the same markings.

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11 thoughts on “Truprint FG+ : Expired vividness”

  1. Ive just found a roll of this in my box of old films. who knows the UB, by the sound of it, it may be 10 years old, especially considering the other films that I bought at the same time from a charty shop expired in 2007. Exciting times ahead; ive just dusted off my Praktica SLR and have already shot 2 rolls in the past 2 weeks.

    1. Enjoy. As I stated in the post if you’ve a few rolls do bracketed one first. Otherwise I’d shoot at 100 ISO. Watch out for the rated 400 ASA rolls

  2. Do you have any rolls currently? If you look at the numbers along the underside of the lip of the canister near the felt, and enter them on http://dexter.pcode.nl/, it will tell you the original film.

    This resource has come in handy, and led to me realising that three out of four of my favourite colour negative films were the same – AfgaPhoto Vista Plus 200 and TudorColor XLX200 are both rebranded Fuji C200! After that I just bought the Vista Plus at £1 a roll from Poundland instead of paying £3 a roll or more for the others!

    Talking of Poundland, a year or more back they also stocked Ferrania Solaris 200 film, in TWIN PACKS of 24exp for £1. Amazing! It’s arguably even better than the Vista Plus, and certainly more vivid in colour. I’m wondering if the Truprint is the same film, especially as the full name is Ferrania Solaris 200 FG Plus!

    I was lucky enough to be able to stock up with 60 or 70 rolls of the Ferrania and still have maybe 25 rolls in my freezer I’m working through. I’m keen to get hold of some Truprint too though to compare.

      1. Definitely Ferrania film given red dot in edge strips. Ferrania made a lot of budget film for other folks (I had a pack of 2009 expired Super HD200 which felt like in date FG+). I note all the boxes of Solaris I’ve seen online were marked FG plus on the box so you’re both right !!

  3. It IS rebranded ferrania, I put it into Dexter code. There is an APS version too but as APS has no DX code it is impossible to tell who made that one. Another thing, if you don’t have a camera where you can adjust the ISO manually, most 80s and up to mid-90s compacts will automatically register a 200iso to 100iso, and 400iso or anything above, to 400iso. Consequently I have put my first roll of truprint in a mid-90s Nikon AF210.

  4. Just got some expired ‘fotomax’ branded film from eBay. It is also ferrania, but just FG colour, not colour plus. I wonder just how many other companies had their film manufactured by Ferrania?

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