Hope you will like this film too!Hey Matthew, I am happy that you are using Kentmere as your primary B&W film now. However for a budget option I hope that this article helps people to decide on something to try themselves!The Kentmere almost never dips into pure white, whereas the Fomapan does so very frequently.Fomapan 400, exposed for the sky.Fomapan 400, metered for the goat.So by exposing for the shadows, you’re basically over exposing it 2-3 stops and thus placing the shadows off the toe and onto the linear part of the film curve? Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.All photographs and text appearing on 35mmc.com are the exclusive property of the named author (except where stated otherwise) and are protected by copyright.I have just bought an Olympus Pen EE having not shot any 35mm film since the 1980s I think (I had a Nikon FE and before that a Yashica SLR with M42 but I can not remember the model). Yes, in that case you would be cutting into the film speed a bit, but you could still get more of the look you like while shooting the film you prefer.The detail of well exposed for highlights on Fomapan is less refined, and sometimes seem a little harsh even when I’m certain they were correctly exposed for. You can see the loss of highlight at the top of the frame, but there are more shades of grey that are maintained.I’ll meter Fomapan 400 for the shadows when I think there’s maybe a three-four stop difference between shadow and highlight, any higher and I’ll expose slightly further up.I like the compositions of your sample images a lotThe speed of these films is what I find I have the most issues with, as the disparity between them is quite frustrating, and most informs my conclusions about how I intend to use these films moving forward.
Kind of dreamy. I’ll soon be trying it at box and slightly overdeveloping it at a high temperature to see if I can achieve similar results to overexposing it by one stop. The grain is blocky, but not distracting.Thanks Paul! Hi Carlo, thanks for you comment You are in good company preferring HP5, as you can see in the comments above. I’m not an authority on development – my interest lies in the shooting experience, and for me this ends when the shutter is pressed. Much brighter on the figure, much darker on areas not touched by light.totally agree with the article. You’re working in the profession, and I’m a happily retired photo educator.A thorough article and greatly appreciated.Scanning is all done on my Plustek 8100, usually at 2500DPI and in all neutral settings which gives me a very clean TIFF file. word is it is kentmere 400. the dev times match.
I really disliked Fomapan 400. A lovely aesthetic, but definitely one to be controlled rather than allowed to get out of hand.Glad you like my work, thank you!
Can you talk about what developers you used? Fomapan 400 does well with Fomadon LQN and pretty good with HC-110 in my experience. While the 800 wasn’t bad, the 1600 was grainy to distraction. I’m still not sure about Kentmere 400. Happy shooting! Building a cabin in Texas on Kentmere 400 (EI 400 / 35mm Format / Canon EOS A2) – by Tight5 June 20, 2020. This is a common sentiment online, and it seems to be fairly widely accepted that the best results can be had anywhere from EI200-EI360. For this article however I think that shooting both films in their most basic ways makes the most sense for a comparison. Fomapan features a more severe cut off, with well exposed images showing pure blacks and pure whites with only a very same-y grey in the middle. If you are looking for fine grain black and white film, I would suggest you to use Ilford Delta series. Kentmere seems to be accurately rated at 400, and I’ve never been inclined to shoot it over/under, or even to push or pull it.
I treat it as such.Thank you so much Abel! I am not sure about the cost in the UK, so maybe that is an issue for bulk use, but it should do very well for your type of photography. Noticeable halation.Fomapan gives a high contrast result in most situations, including even/overcast light. I can’t find a “reputable” source to this, and there’s nothing mentioned in Foma’s technical sheets, so I’m really not sure what to think about this. These images show how much information is available in these highlights when metered and exposed dead-on, as well as what detail is retained within the shadows and what is lost.I’ve experimented with Foma quite a bit to get results that I feel represent the best possible look from this film. The high contrast results really lent a wonderful aesthetic to those images, and I’m glad I didn’t choose to take Kentmere. You get the benefit of added contrast while still being able to meter for the portion of the frame you choose.