@ilfordphoto – tim dobbs photography

Kentmere 400 in 35mm @ 800 … the whole roll …

I have been shooting ilford Kentmere film stock quite a bit recently and it has really impressed me with how it performs especially as it is a very affordable film in this day and age.

I wanted to see how it looked when pushed compared to HP5 which I really love when pushed one or 2 stops.

I loaded my Minolta XG9 and set the camera to 800 and went for a little walk, it was really overcast so 800 was ideal.

I developed it in ilford DD-X and scanned using my Epson v600.

The images were great, no problem with the exposure and even though the grain was pretty noticeable it didn’t spoil the look and was on a par with my usual HP5.

This has to be the best value, quality B&W film stock on the market as it is less than £5 per roll here in the UK and is so versatile.

Here is the whole roll, nothing special but it gives an idea how this film looks …

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

Also still have a handful of zines over on my etsy store as well as some hand made film canister keychains … https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/timdobbsphoto

Kentmere 100 in 120 format .. the whole roll …

I have not been shooting much recently for various reasons but mainly because I have lost my photography mojo.

I have 4 cameras that have half shot rolls of film still in them that I really need to finish.

I was going through this years lightroom catalog the other day and came across this roll that I shot back in March that I totally forgot to blog.

I have shot quite a few rolls of Kentmere film but mainly 400 iso and 35mm so when I loaded this back in march it was to compare what 100 and 400 look like in medium format.

I do like Kentmere especially as it is very affordable and I have never had any problems when using it as it look great.

I shot the roll in my Mamiya C330 with the 80mm f2.8 lens and developed it in ilfotecHC.

I was really pleased with how it looked, low grain but not quite as fine as FP4 and nice contrast without much tweaking in lightroom.

I probably wouldn’t shoot this as much as 400 only because most of the time here in Wales 100 is not fast enough as I am not really a tripod person.

Here is the whole roll …

Comments most welcomed ….

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 Kentmere 400 in 120 format …. the whole roll

My favorite B&W film stock has got to be ilford HP5 due to how versatile it is.

I have pushed it to 3200 and still got great results, I have also used Kentmere 400 in 35mm on quite a few occasions and was pretty happy with what I got but it never pulled me away from using HP5.

So when all the you tubers I follow suddenly started putting out videos about the new Kentmere in 120 format I was a little taken aback as I was unaware that ilford were releasing a new film.

As I am not one of the ilford chosen few I had to buy my own to try so I got a few rolls of Both 100 and 400 iso from the excellent Analogue Wonderland.

I loaded the 400 in my Yashicamat 124g and popped out to burn a roll and see what it was like.

I developed it using ilfotec DD-X 1+4 dilution for 11.30mins and scanned using my Epson V600.

First look at the negatives and they looked very flat with minimal contrast.

When scanning that is exactly how they turned out but that isn’t a bad thing because once they were in Lightroom the dynamic range was excellent and with just a few tweaks the images looked fine with great tonal range, minimal grain and nicely sharp.

Overall this film is a winner for me as it is only £5 a roll and gives great results .. I will have to try pushing the next roll to 800 or even 1600 to see how it copes, I regularly shoot HP5 pushed and love how that looks.

Anyway here is the whole roll, comments most welcome.

Please click a photo 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

Fomapan 400 in 120 format is a revelation ….

I have shot Fomapan in both 100 and 400 iso in the past on 35mm and have tried different developers but have never been all that impressed with the results I have achieved.

I have seen lovely images shot using this film so I bought some Fomapan 100 and 400 in 120 format to give that a go.

I also bought some ilfotech LC29 developer at the same time so I loaded my Mamiya C330 with a roll of 400 and on a really cloudy overcast afternoon I went out and shot the roll at my local haunts where I have had nice results in this type of weather/lighting before.

Even though it was not the brightest of days I still managed to shoot most of the frames at between f5.6 and f11 hoping to test how sharp Fomapan 400 is.

After development the negatives looked pretty contrasty so I was excited to scan and see what I had.

The initial scans using my Epson v500 and Epson scan were promising and once in Lightroom/Photoshop the images blew me away … really nice contrast, not too punchy and sharpness in spades.

The C330 always gives me contrasty sharp images on most film stocks and didn’t fail here either.

Fomapan in 120 is like chalk and cheese compared to 35mm, I never got anything like this even from Fomapan 100 yet alone 400.

Suffice to say I immediately bought more Fomapan 400 and will be shooting it much more in future.

Here is the whole roll .. comments most welcome

Click on an image to view larger

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

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

I also have some zines over on my Etsy store if anyone wants a look .. or message me to buy direct ..

https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/timdobbsphoto?ref=seller-platform-mcnav

ilford Ortho Plus pushed to 400 by accident but I think it worked … the whole roll

I have shot ilford Ortho plus in 120 format before and really loved how it looks.

Sharp as a tack and very little grain with great dynamic range.

This roll that I shot in my Mamiya RB67 over Christmas was a total accident.

I received a few rolls of film from my better half as a present as usual namely a few different Lomography films in 35mm and 120 format one of which I have never shot before … Lady Grey 400

My plan was to take out the RB67 and for some reason I thought the Lady Grey was in 120 format so when I went to get it out of the fridge I realised it was 35mm so a little disappointed and not wanting to take out an SLR I grabbed the roll next to it which was the Ortho.

Problem was it was in my mind I was going to shoot 400 iso film so I set my meter to 400 before getting the film so obviously when I swapped to the Ortho I forgot to change the light meter and went out on our little walk happily shooting away thinking I had 400 loaded.

When I got home and unloaded the roll I immediately realised my mistake and promptly jumped on the interwebs looking for any info I could find about developing times for Ortho plus when pushed to 400.

I could not seem to find out much as obviously there was no one as dull as me and made this error so after a few twitter chats I decided to process in Rodinal 1+100 dilution Stand development for 1 1/2 hours with 2 inversions( I rotated with stick actually) at start then every 30 minutes and crossed my fingers that something was salvageable.

To my surprise then I opened the tank the negatives looked perfect so I hung them ups and waited to dry.

After scanning the only slight problem that I noticed was some of the highlights had blown just a little bit which must have been down to the stand development most probably (this was my 1st time trying this method).

The highlights blowing didn’t really bother me and the sharpness and reasonable grain surprised me.

I would not recommend doing this everyday as I feel I was pretty lucky this time but it was an interesting experiment (accident) and shows just how good ilford Ortho Plus is.

Anyway here is the whole roll .. click 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

20 minute walk with some ilford HP5 and my Yashicamat 124G …..

I have had my iMac for about 6 months and it has been great for everything especially photo editing in Adobe Lightroom in 4k but since the Big Sur update it has been running like a snail in treacle with all the Adobe products.

I used to edit using a PC which was starting to slow down a bit which is why I upgraded to a new 6 core, 4k iMac so in a fit of extreme recklessness I went and bought a new PC 2 weeks ago (gave my PC to my son so I don’t feel that guilty) and I wanted to test it out so loaded my Yashicamat with some trusty HP5 and went out to bang off 12 frames just to test my workflow from scanning to editing.

Considering I shot the roll in only 10 minutes I was pleased to get 12 keepers albeit very similar shots.

The PC performed brilliantly without a hitch very fast and smooth and a little easier on the eye as my PC monitor is a 28inch 4k compared with my iMac 21.5inch 4k.

Apple has since given an update to Big Sur which still has done nothing to speed up Adobe stuff so I feel a complete wipe and clean install coming over Christmas.

Anyway here are the 12 frames sorry there is not a lot of variety other than slightly different framing and apertures.

As per usual HP5 looked lovely and the Yashicamat gave excellent sharp images.

Click and 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

Expired film day 2020 …… ilford XP1 … the whole roll

Back in March this year just before all this Covid 19 lockdown stuff I entered the Expired film day competition like I have done on previous years.

The whole point is to get out and shoot as much old expired film over a 3 day weekend then submit 3 of you best images with the chance to win some lovely film prizes.

I was luck to win a prize last year so I was very surprised to win again this year considering the really high standard of the other entries.

I have loads of expired film but I came across some old ilford XP1 on eBay so I was excited to give it a go and with fingers crossed manage to capture something worthwhile.

Somehow I messed up and shot 1st frame on my Mamiya 645 while getting it out of my bag with the lens cap on so only ended up with 14 final images.

I rated the roll at 100 iso and it was developed/Scanned by filmdev

I asked them to push it one stop in development as well if poss and explained what I was trying to do with the images.

Here is a link to the Expired film day website … Click here

And here is the image that I was lucky to have selected for a prize … Click here

So here is the complete roll ….

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 🙂

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 🙂

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 …

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 🙂

My #FP4Party 2020 images all together .. plus those that didn’t make the cut ….

I suspect that most of the people who choose to view my blog probably know what #FP4Party 2020 is all about but for those who don’t … well … it’s a twitter thing where like minded film photographers participate in a sort of competition (no prizes just for fun) where we shoot some ilford FP4 during shoot week then the following week process and scan the film and then post the images over the next week.

I have taken part in this on previous occasions and enjoy the whole process.

As the posting week is over I am now blogging all the images shot over the said week all together here on my blog.

I didn’t enter all of these in the Party so if you have been following me on twitter then there are some new ones here.

I shot 2 rolls … 1 – 35mm in my Pentax Super A and 1 – 120 in my Fuji GW690iii

So here they are ….

Click on an image to view larger ….