May 2020 – tim dobbs photography

First time shooting Kentmere 400 ..the whole roll ….

I have been meaning to try Kentmere film for absolutely ages.

I have read blogs and reviews where people have sung it’s praises comparing it to my beloved ilford HP5 at a bargain price.

I have had some 100 iso in the fridge for ages but recently I picked up some of the 400 so for the first roll I decided to rate it at box speed just to get a feel of the film.

My goto camera for testing 35mm is my Nikon F100 which meters very consistently so I can sort of compare film stocks, well at least to my eye anyway.

I processed it in ilfotecHC 1+15 dilution for 4 minutes 30 seconds as per massive dev app times and scanned with my old Epson v500.

The results were great I was very happy with how the film performed.

There was plenty of detail with pretty nice grain and the tonal range was very pleasing.

Considering it only costs £3.80 per roll from the most excellent Analogue Wonderland (link here : kentmere-400-film-35mm-b-w-iso-400)

Its extremely good value especially if it pushes well like I nearly always do with HP5.

I will try my next roll at 1600 to see it it holds up …

So here are all the frames … comments most welcome

All images on my blog are available as prints just drop me an email

I also have a film only blog over at usingfilm.wordpress.com if you want a peek 🙂

Forgotten roll of Lomo CN400 from the summer ….

I have been getting really behind with my blogging … I have loads of rolls that I have shot over the last few months that I have scanned but have only edited one or two frames that I have then posted to social media but not done anything with the rest.

This roll is a case in point … last August there was an event in Bridgend town centre with stalls, street entertainers and live music.

The weather was pretty good and I took my Olympus OM2s which was already loaded with my favorite colour negative film stock Lomography CN400 which I had shot 2 frames already from a trip to Cardiff.

I only shot about half of the roll during the event as I somehow found myself in the pub so I finished the rest the following day which is why there is a strange juxtaposition of images here 🙂

The Lomo film worked great as usual I love the colours it produces especially if you slightly over expose it 1/2 to 1 stop but process as normal.

Here is a selection from the roll

Click any image to view larger ……

All images on my blog are available as prints just drop me an email

I also have a film only blog over at usingfilm.wordpress.com if you want a peek 🙂

Trying out a new lens on the Mamiya RB67 with some ilford SFX 200…

I picked up my RB67 a few months back complete with the 65mm f4.5 & 150mm f4 SF C from a fellow twitter film shooter and have only shot 2 rolls just playing around getting used to the beast and I realised that I needed a lens that would work as a standard/portrait lens and managed to get the 127mm f3.8 at a good price so I went out for one of my usual walks a few weeks back and gave it a runout with some ilford SFX.

The lens performed great giving really sharp results at various apertures and the focal length suited how I like to shoot, the only thing I didn’t shoot was a portrait which will be the next roll I hope.

I think I am getting used to the 6×7 format slowly and it’s great being able to rotate the back rather than the camera 🙂

I didn’t use any filters and developed it in ilfotecHC 1+15 dilution for 5 minutes … scanned on the Epson v500

Anyway this 3rd roll had 10 keepers so here they all are …

Comments welcome, click on an image to view larger …