Ilford HP5+ 400asa 35mm - 36 exp

Product Information

I haven’t gone down that rabbit hole myself, but people do report good results from doing so elsewhere. As with Tri-X, HP5+’s grain is present, yet not overwhelming . It neither muddies the image nor takes away from fine detail. As with other films that offer the same base with varying ISO levels ( Kodak Portra films are a good example), the higher the ISO number, the lower the contrast and the greater the film grain. Ilford Delta 100:

HP5 PLUS Sheet Film - Ilford Photo HP5 PLUS Sheet Film - Ilford Photo

A lot of shots did come out on the flatter side as advertised, but when I found myself in environments with good light and shadow too, the HP5 Plus did give me that contrast. It’s said to have very good dynamic range, which means you can trust it whenever you find yourself in a similar spot. Another useful technique is to agitate twice less in the last third of your development time – say, if I develop for 10 minutes, during the last three minutes I would agitate only once a minute. It is a commonly known technique to reduce the grain, and it works extremely well – even for box speed processing. I opened this article with a statement that could loosely be described as “the HP5 PLUS” problem. In my opinion, the film is too often labelled as a response to and subsequently considered inferior to Kodak Tri-X by many photographers. Perhaps this is a geographic bias, with those from North America favouring one and those from Europe the other? It certainly appears that the rest of the world simply get on with the business of making photographs. Ilford HP5 is a film that is simple to use overall. Load it into your camera and what you’re going to get are fairly low contrast images when you rate the film at ISO 400 and use vintage glass. If you’re more inclined to use newer glass with the more advanced coatings, you’re going to get more contrasty images of course because the lenses were designed to do this. Underexpose the film and it’s also going to be contrasty. Overexpose it and you’ll get lower contrast. Of course, all of this is relative to your development of Ilford HP5 at ISO 400. In my usage, I’ve found that I probably wouldn’t want to use it for everyday things. I appreciate it’s look and many other photographers may swear by it, but I think Ilford Delta 400, Kodak Tri-X 400, Lomography Earl Grey 100 pushed to ISO 400, and Japan Camera Hunter Street Pan 400 are better suited to street photography. When pulling film, do you reduce process time? I’ve read ops reduce box rated process time by 25-30% ReplyMy advice is to over expose it a stop if you can, or simply expose for the brightest part of the highlights on the subject, or aspect of the subject you’d like to isolate. Grain 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. Learn or discover a new technique, build on your skills, or be inspired to have a go at a bit of DIY. Read more...

Ilford HP5+ at Adventurous ASAs - By Kieran Newman - 35mmc

We shoot HP5 PLUS because of the one thing it delivers bags of: atmosphere and flexibility to be pulled pushed and generally battered about to fit the needs of the photographer. However, if you push- or pull-process your HP5+, it’ll likely become more sensitive to over- and under-exposures and require finer metering for best results. If you want some details in shadows though, I believe that EI 800 is optimal for push processing. The “true speed” of HP5+ is usually tested around 250 I think (in my case 320) but as I’ve mentioned, when it’s pushed, the film will try to maintain shadow details as much as possible – depending of course on lighting and other factors. As the name implies, it can be shot rated at 3200 ISO (which is how I was able to capture an image of the NEOWISE Comet below without star trails). But most of the time, it’s better suited to be shot at ~1000 ISO.

There are few things to consider while pushing. Contrast increases due to lost detail in shadows, so it’s better to agitate very slowly and carefully. I typically do inversions/rotations initially for 30 seconds and then 1 every half a minute. 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.

Ilford HP5+ Film Review Ilford HP5+ Film Review

After beginning my Ilford acquaintanceship with the relatively obscure Pan 400, HP5 Plus was my first foray into the brand’s better-known films. A side by side comparison and photo examples between the Leica M.P. and Canonet QL17 GIII with the Kodak Tri-X 400 and Ilford HP5 400 film You can shoot Ilford HP5+ as if it’s an ISO 800 film and develop normally. Your results will have more contrast which you may still adjust digitally or in print.This film outperforms much of the competition in every scenario. When you need to capture all of the details in a scene, HP5 will not let you down. Even when pushed in low-light scenarios, the shadow details reproduced on this film are second to none. That’s one of the big reasons why I always store a roll of HP5 in my camera bag. 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.

ILFORD film - Ilford Photo% Choosing your first ILFORD film - Ilford Photo%

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. If you like this film, you can save a bit of money by buying it as a bulk roll . You’ll need a bulk film loader tool to do this and HP5+ in 50’ or 100’ variety .

Ilford XP2 is a rather unique B&W film since it doesn’t fall into either the PLUS or DELTA PROFESSIONAL camps.