Ilford HP5+ 400asa 35mm - 36 exp

Product Information

Ilford’s other famous range is Delta which uses newer (est. 1990) technology with finer grain at the cost of a narrower dynamic range and a smaller margin of error for development times. In 1939, this was replaced by HP2, an ISO 200 offering. This only lasted for two years until being superseded by the imaginatively titled HP3 in 1941, which was rated at different speeds depending on when in its life cycle you bought it. I developed using the same formula I do for other box speed films; two reel tank with 600ml cold water, 8ml rodinal, agitation for the first twenty seconds, stand for half an hour, one inversion and some horizontal “spins”, and then stand again for forty minutes. Stop-rinse with cold water, and then a double bath fix. I usually fix for a while and sort of leave it after the initial inversions, and for expired films I feel like the fix stage cannot be overdone. The longer I leave the fix the better the results feel, although this may be in my mind. We also pushed a roll to 1600 ISO and were very impressed with the results. Have a look at Ilford HP5 At 1600. Then grab yourself a roll of this popular 35mm film. However, while I can’t think of any reason to recommend you don’t use this film for street photography, there is still that one aspect that means you might not want to anyway. And that is that contrast again.

I do take digital on occasion but every time I do, I feel the same sense of guilt and shame as when I sneakily look up a crossword answer on the ‘Net.You said, “I tend to like my photos slightly on the overexposed side, so setting my ISO to 800 helps with that”. Surely if you’re rating 400 ISO film at 800 ISO, you’re *underexposing* it. If you’re then pushing it one stop in development, you end up with a correct exposure. So there is no overexposure here. See part one of my High EI Shootout for examples and thoughts on HP5 PLUS shot at and developed for EI 12800. If you would like to see examples shot and developed for EI 25600, please visit part two of my High EI Shootout. A part three at EI 51200 is coming. CONTRAST CHARACTERISTICS A new bottle of DD-X lasts only 6 months after opening, and it requires much more developer per roll than many of its rival liquid developer solutions. DD-X uses a standard 1+4 dilution (1 part developer: 4 parts water), requiring 100ml for each roll of 120, or 2 rolls of 35mm film. HC-110 is far more economical. Its standard dilution A is 1+15 (31.25ml), and the favorite Dilution B using 1+31 dilution, or 15.625ml of developer. This means a single 1L bottle of DD-X can develop 10 rolls, (with no developer re-use for maximum quality), while HC-110 can develop between 32 and 64 rolls. Developer exposure rolls can help you make your mind up about a film without committing to a full roll of 36 exposures. A full roll of film may take you a while to finish, and this is great for when you have a project or specific idea in mind that you need a lot of images for. However, if you are simply testing a film, or want to experiment by trying a favourite film in a new way, 24 exposure is the faster and more cost effective way to go. I think here you meant to say you told your camera you had *less* light than you really had, causing the photos to be overexposed.

Ilford’s technical data sheet says the best overall image quality and film speed for HP5+ is attained using Ilfotec DD-X. That said, a poll conducted in a large group of film photographers on Facebook suggests most users prefer to push HP5+ using Kodak HC-110 developer. There’s no reason I can think of to tell you why you shouldn’t shoot some street photography with Ilford HP5 Plus. I do have a few why you should, though.Having said that, any film or digital camera will give more contrast in certain light than in others, and I certainly found this with HP5 Plus.