Kentmere 400 – tim dobbs photography

More Kentmere 400@800 with the Nikon FM2n & Flektogon 35mm …

I have not blogged for ages for various reasons, mainly because I have not shot a lot of film recently so I am trying to motivate myself.

Sticking with Kentmere 400@800 theme which I really like the look of I loaded my FM2n and for a change I have an old Carl Zeiss Jena Flektogon 35mm f2.4 which is an M42 screw mount lens that I have a Nikon adapter for and it works great.

It took well over a week to shoot the whole roll so the subject matter is pretty varied ….

I developed the roll in Rodinal this time which gave a far grittier look than I had with the last roll.

So here are the best of the roll as I had a few duplicates …

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 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

Testing a new camera .. Olympus XA with kentmere 400 …

A few weeks ago I bought my first camera this year from a Twitter friend … I have wanted an Olympus XA ever since using my Olympus XA1.

The XA1 is very limiting with very little control over the camera other than point and shoot which is still fun and I am not knocking it but being able to have a pocketable little camera that has full control of all of the variables was very tempting.

As most people who read this blog probably know that film cameras have sky rocketed over the last few years especially the better more sought after models like the XA so I didn’t buy one until I was offered this one for and excellent price.

Anyway once the camera arrived complete with the flash which I was not expecting I was eager to try it out so I loaded it with a roll of Kentmere 400 and went out for a little walk.

The camera was a joy to use even the rangefinder focus was pretty bright and easy.

I developed the roll in ilfotec LC29 1+19 dilution for 8 minutes and the results were just as I hoped, nice sharp and contrasty images , OK nothing special to look at as I just wanted to make sure that the camera was working but as they were all in focus and exposed ok I was well happy.

I have a roll of Agfa Vista loaded as I blog this so I may add them to this post once I have finished them.

So here are the images …

Click on 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

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

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

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