Ilford HP5+ 400asa 35mm - 36 exp

Product Information

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 This sequentially numbered HP range has remained at ISO 400 ever since, through the 1970s and 1980s in the form of HP4 and HP5, and on to today with the introduction of HP5 Plus in 1989. This is the flowchart of the best developers for Ilford HP5+ and when to use them. DD-X is the best developer combination I’ve found in my experience. However, it’s not as good for pulling HP5. If you overexpose this film one or two stops, I’d highly recommend pulling with ilfosol to maintain image contrast. How Far can I push or Pull HP5?

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. As with Tri-X, HP5+’s grain is present, yet not overwhelming . It neither muddies the image nor takes away from fine detail.Up to now, this doesn’t sound like the kind of film I’d particularly want to shoot much of. Medium contrast, grain not overbearing but not the cleanest, ISO 400 like so many others… It all sounds a bit middle-of-the-road. To cut a long story short, ILFORD and other film manufacturers no longer needed to hedge their bets with an exposure safety margin and the bottom line was simple, BOOM! Immediate film speed increases across the board. Have a look at the other available Ilford Films. Ilford HP5 400 is also available in 120, 4×5, 35mm bulk rolls and as a disposable camera.

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. I far prefer the grain on HP5 Plus to the overbearing style I got with Ilford Pan 400. I found it to be noticeably sharper than Kentmere 400, although that’s not surprising given Kentmere is the budget brand from Harman, the company behind Ilford. It would be very easy to lift a sentence straight from the horse’s mouth, reword as if we were an e-commerce retailer, and use that to answer that subheading. Something like the following: Fully agree with your statements around the tactile experience in using a real camera. Even more so a fully mechanical one. It’s wide exposure latitude makes it a great choice for beginners, those returning to film as well as the more experienced professional users.

36 Exposures or 24?

Ilford HP5+ with Olympus Stylus Mju I. Bottom-right: contrast curves adjusted in post. Top-left: unedited scan (equalized). How much does Ilford HP5+ cost, and where to buy it.

The original Kentmere 400 film box branding said “Kentmere 400” on the side (white box and cassette label). The new branding reads “Pan 400” on one side and it has a pink-purple box design. (“Kentmere” is written on the other side). If Kentmere 400 becomes known as Pan 400 it is very easy to confuse this film with the Ilford Pan 400. They are different film from my own testing but no wonder people get confused! I thought I would mention it. AGFA Photo APX 400 vs Kentmere 400

That said, they also advise their Delta films display less grain, thanks to their tabular-grain emulsion vs. the traditional grain of the Plus range, so you can’t logically expect your results to be super clean with the HP5. In practice, HP5+’s grain isn’t visible on mobile devices from 35mm scans (unless you zoom). But if you want to avoid it on larger displays and print, it’s best to shoot HP5+ in medium or large format. Ilford HP5 is also very forgiving of exposure, so you will get great results in a variety of difficult light and contrast situations. HP5 PLUS can be processed in a wide range of different developers using spiral tanks, deep tanks and automatic processors."

For me, that’s missing the point. I’m not saying it isn’t average. It is, but in a good way rather than bad. Nothing is outstandingly wrong and the attributes just seem to add up to more than the sum of their parts to give clean, sharp, and just really nice to look at results. Note: All HP5+ scans in this article were shot on 35mm film and developed in Ilfotec DD-X which, according to Ilford, develops the finest grain and “best overall image quality.” Let’s dig a little deeper into how we went from Hypersensitive Panchromatic film and ended up with HP5 PLUS… Sharpness is always important on film, which has a few extra requirements than digital. I made a post recently on t he ingenious ways photographers made their images sharp before photoshop was invented. My own collection of Film Developing chemicals currently on the shelf. The box on the left is for colour, and the rest are B&W chems. Which developers are recommended for pulling HP5?Pulling HP5+ is a little harder to do. Many photographers swear by over-exposing every film by one stop, no matter what speed it’s rated to. This is because over-exposing film is more likely to expose every single grain on the roll, creating a fine, ‘dense’ negative. When negatives are under-exposed, the grains that aren’t developed into metallic silver get washed away by the fixer, leaving holes between large silver clusters that make the film look ‘grainy.’ Overexposure fills in those spaces, and make tones across an image change more gradually, with less grain-to-grain contrast, for a smooth, beautiful appearance. 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. 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.