ilfotec HC – tim dobbs photography

Rollei Retro 400s … almost the whole roll

Over the last few months I have shot a few rolls of Rollei’s RPX range which I really liked the look of.

So a few weeks back I was trying to decide what film to shoot that day and came across a roll of Retro 400S which I have shot once before and was not really that happy with how the roll came out developed in Rodinal.

I checked the Massive dev chart app and saw that I could also develop it in ilfotecHC so I thought I would give it a go and compare it to the RPX 400 and the previous roll.

I have been trying to post complete rolls of film recently and this was my plan for this one but whilst out on my walk my Pentax Super A sort of developed a problem.

Nearly every time that I half pressed the shutter to activate the meter nothing happened so I was trying to press the shutter button at different angles with my finger until it worked.

The problem was that on a few occasions I fired the damn shutter giving either totally blurred/black or over exposed frames so this roll only had 31 keeper which you can see here.

I have since used the Super A again and have found that I need to rest my finger towards the front of the shutter button for a second or two and the meter activates every time now.

By using ilfotecHC rather than Rodinal the images were far more like what I have seen on the interwebs … Great Blacks, contrasty and sharp with highlights that didn’t blow out and a really nice grain.

My 1st roll seemed muddy and excessively grainy so if I buy anymore of this stock it will be getting souped in ilfotecHC for sure.

So here are the images … 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 🙂

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 🙂

Eventually trying ilford Ortho Plus 80 …..

When ilford were teasing about something new coming to the film photography market a while back I was eager to find out what it could be …

When they announced Ortho Plus 80 I was excited to try it out as I have never used Orthochromatic film before.

Just incase you don’t know what Ortho film is here is a little snippet from ilford….

“ILFORD ORTHO PLUS is an orthochromatic black and white film. Designed as a high-resolution copy film for negatives, ORTHO PLUS offers superb photographic potential thanks to its fine grain and sharpness.

Ideally suited for landscape photography, the blue and green sensitivity of this emulsion enables the film to be handled in deep red* safelight conditions making processing and inspection easier.

Its lack of red sensitivity also means that reds and oranges in your frame are rendered darker with stronger contrast than standard panchromatic films (all other ILFORD and Kentmere films are panchromatic).”

So over christmas I went out over 2 days trying to shoot a range of subjects to see how it performed … I used my Nikon F100 and 50mm f1.4 and developed it using ilfotecHC 1+31 dilution for 6 minutes.

I was really impressed with the images … lovely fine grain, great tonal range and really sharp.

If this was a bit faster than 80 it would challenge my love for HP5+ as my goto B&W film.

I have a roll of 120 to try next and may put it through my Fuji GW690iii to see how much resolution the lovely film stock will produce.

So here is most of the roll as I have omitted some frames as they were duplicates due to bracketing some images.

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 🙂

Snow Day on some Kodak DoubleX 5222 ……

At the beginning of this month we managed to get a bit of snow here in the South Wales valleys, just enough to get me a day off work so as not to waste the day off I went for quite a long walk with my Nikon F100 loaded with some Kodak DoubleX which I had shot a roll of a while back and was pretty happy with how the film looked, nice grain/contrast while also giving a good tonal range.

When I shot it previously I developed it in Rodinal so this time I went with ilfotecHC at 1+49 dilution for 7 minutes as I rated the film at iso 200.

I was far happier with the result this time as the grain was far smoother while still giving great contrast and tones, only on a few frames did I slightly blow out some highlights as I was over exposing by at least one stop for most of the images due to the snow coverage.

Anyway I have to say that even though this is only the 2nd roll of this I have tried I really, really like it and will be definitely buying some more.

So here is a selection of the images ….

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 🙂

Fuji GW690III and Rollei RPX 400 in the mist ….

During my holiday last week I planned on trying to shoot a roll of film everyday which due to the rubbish weather I didn’t manage but I did shoot some Rollei RPX 400 in the Fuji GW690III.

As I said the weather was pretty grim here in South Wales so I decided to push the film to 800 iso so that I could at least stop down the aperture to attempt to get some decent DOF.

I developed the roll in ilfotec HC at 1+15 dilution for 5.30 mins and scanned using my Epson v500.

Overall I was impressed with how the film performed especially as I pushed it a stop, the level of detail was excellent and the grain was pretty smooth.

I have done a few prints from this roll and they really look good on paper, so much nicer to have a print in your hands than just on the screen ….. Print your stuff I say.

Anyway here are the images ….

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 🙂

HP5 shines when shot in 6×9 …..

I have probably said loads of times on this blog that ilford HP5 is by far my favourite B&W film stock.

I love the contrast and grain especially when pushed to 1600 iso and beyond.

I mainly shoot it in 35mm with the odd roll in 120 now and again so when I got my Fuji GW690iii I was eager to see how it looks in 6×9 format.

I shot it at box speed and developed it in ilfotecHC at 1+31 dilution and I was not disappointed with the results.

Here are all 8 frames …. click on an image to see 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 🙂

December’s #FP4Party entries all together ….

This month’s entries were taken using my Canon AE1 Program and my YashicaMat 124G … both with ilford FP4 rated at 200 iso and developed in ilfotec HC.

Luckily we had a bit of snow during shoot week so it gave the images a bit of a theme for a change ….

Obviously the square images are with the Yashica …… I think I will probably keep shooting FP4 at 200 are it gives a little bit more versatility without really effecting the images grain/sharpness wise. I don’t have anymore FP4 in 120 format so I need to get some before the next party starts in January.

Anyway thanks for looking ….

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 🙂

Processing C-41 in B&W chemicals……

I have loads of expired C-41 film which I have been shooting in various cameras mainly to test if the cameras I buy are working ok.

I have read on the web about all the different things that can be done when processing both B&W and colour films be it cross processing or caffenol type stuff and came across developing C-41 with standard B&W chemicals.

So I loaded up my T90 with some Boots 200 film that expired back in 2008 and went out for a walk.

I shot the film at box speed and processed it in Ilfotec HC for 10 minutes agitating 4 times every minute and then standard stop/fix/wash as per my normal B&W developing.

When the negs emerged from the tank my 1st thought was that there was nothing on the film as it looked totally black but when unrolled and held up to the light I saw there was something there albeit darker than what I usually see.Once dry the curl was horrendous and the scanning was hard work as the software could not identify the frames so I had to scan them individually but the epson software did a good job.I was very pleased with the scans even though the sharpness was not the best which is typical of most cheap expired films they often look slightly unsharp unlike Ektar.

I did slightly increase the contrast and pull down the highlights in Lightroom as the negs were pretty flat but the look they produced reminded me of Fomapan 100 with the glowing look to the images.

I think I may shoot more C-41 and process it this way maybe varying the exposure and developing times just to see what I get, obviously I am never going to get the quality of genuine B&W film but I like the unpredictability of this experiment.

I think I will try a roll or Ektar next so then at least I know how sharp the negs should be when processed normally.

Thanks for looking…..

I have a film only blog over at https://usingfilm.wordpress.com/

if you are interested in having a peek 🙂

Shooting Ilford HP5+ at 1600 iso……..

My favourite B&W film is ilford HP5 and I rarely shoot any thing else when it comes to B&W.

I love the contrast and grain it produces and depending on which developer I process with I can get plenty of looks from one film stock.

I have been reading quite a few blog posts and watching some youtube videos where various other photographers recommend shooting HP5 at 1600 iso as it don’t seem to loose any sharpness and the increase in contrast/grain doesn’t impact on the image.

I like grain and contrast so I was not all that bothered if they increased but as a test I was interested in how sharp the images were, so I shot a roll with my Nikon F100 and 50mm f1.4 which is a very sharp lens and processed it using ilfotec HC 1+15.

The results were great, the sharpness was impressive and the grain didn’t impair the look at all.

Rating HP5 at 1600 may become my standard from now on as it gives me extra versatility to be able to shoot in more lighting situations while keeping the look I like from using this film stock.

Thanks for looking

Click on an image to view larger……

You can find more lovely film stuff on my film only blog at ……..

https://usingfilm.wordpress.com/