Silberra Color 160 - 120
Silberra Color 160 is a color negative film produced by Silberra, based in St. Petersburg, Russia. As of 2021, Silberra Color 160 was one of three color negative emulsions produced by the company, along with Color 100 and Color 50. Silberra Color 160 was released first in 35mm only and then introduced a few months later in 120 format. Relatively little is known about where or how the film is manufactured and finished but it has qualities, that while similar to other color negative films in some aspects also differ and set it apart as its own "flavor" of film stock.
If you would like a color film to compare it to, at least to get a general feeling for it, Silberra Color 160 could be compared favorably with Kodak's Pro Image 100 film. It has relatively normal contrast, if a touch on the higher than average side. It also has a fairly moderate color palette. It does seem to favor greens and they pop a bit more than other colors with this film. Meanwhile yellows can be a bit drab with higher levels of blue or magenta working to subdue the saturation of yellow. The film has decent skin tones and can be used for portraiture as well. It is grainier than Kodak Pro Image 100 (which isn't exactly a fine-grained film itself). We would not say it is grainy per se, but it is above average when it comes to its film grain. This is, of course, a lesser issue when working with medium format film as opposed to the smaller 35mm format. All in all, Silberra Color 160 adds a nice dash of variety to color film options on the market, especially given the loss of Fuji Pro 400H in medium format in 2021.
Apart from its appearance, it is worth noting that Silberra Color 160 has a lighter orange base than Kodak or Fuji color negative films. Its paler base causes the calibration of minilab printers, or film scanners, to balance this film with a reddish orange color cast. It should be noted that if you are seeing a heavy color cast to your Silberra images this is likely due to better color balancing needing to be done at the scanning or printing stage and not because of any inherit qualities to the film's color palette. It has also been noted that the base of the film is more prone to light piping and light leaking. While this film can be loaded in daylight conditions, it is best for it to be loaded in as subdued of lighting as possible and to be handled during processing under subdued light too.
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