Kentmere 400 – tim dobbs photography

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

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