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| Kettfest 2026, Kettering Town Centre |
Film photography is an expensive business, we all know that. But those of us who're relatively knew to the current revival (and it is a revival, my
extremely busy preferred developer keeps telling me so) will have noticed that we're at something of a tipping point with regard to
Cameras, and to a lesser extent old
Film Stock.
If you're prepared to put in a bit of legwork (and most likely some CLA benchwork too), interesting and/or excellent vintage cameras can be found for a fraction of their true value. Antique Centres, Charity Shops, Car Boots, and Online Auction Sites are littered with them, albeit in varying states of repair. There's also enough abandoned film stock from the popular 'first age' of film photography to indulge in the risky business of shooting cheap expired film, probably the most expensive aspect of film photography right now.
If you're really lucky you'll have an 'early-adopter' friend, tired of all that tedious winding-on and postal developing, who's recently reverted to the old-fangled
Digital format and is therefore happy to give you the last of his old (non-expired) film stock. Cheers Pete...
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| Spotted on walk in Burton Latimer |
So here it is, the results from a roll of
Ilford HP5 Plus 400 film. Now I can't say that I'm particularly enthused about shooting Black & White film. I much prefer a good accurate colour film, and I'm not so hardcore that I won't gratuitously 'monochrome' a shot in the edit if it works for a particular image. However, if I did feel the need to shoot B&W I'd be more than happy with this film. Much more 'Contrasty', and a fair bit less 'Grainy' than I was expecting, and quite forgiving of a slight overexposure from the
Baldessa's slowish shutter (which I'm now compensating for by a half stop on the light meter). All of these were taken on bright sunny days and I really wasn't expecting to see any detail of clouds, which is nice!
Next up is another roll of this Ilford film as a test roll in the recently repaired FED, and it'll be really interesting to compare the results from the two cameras. As for the two rolls of Infrared I've also been gifted...
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| Horses and Railway Furniture on a walk from Isham to Burton Latimer |
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| The Engine Repair Workshop at Rocks By Rail, Whissendine |
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Riding in the Brake Van at Rocks By Rail, Cottesmore
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So here it is, the results from a roll of Ilford HP5 Plus 400 film. Now I can't say that I'm particularly enthused about shooting Black & White film. I much prefer a good accurate colour film, and I'm not so hardcore that I won't gratuitously 'monochrome' a shot in the edit if it works for a particular image. However, if I did feel the need to shoot B&W I'd be more than happy with this film. Much more 'Contrasty', and a fair bit less 'Grainy' than I was expecting, and quite forgiving of a slight overexposure from the Baldessa's slowish shutter (which I'm now compensating for by a half stop on the light meter). All of these were taken on bright sunny days and I really wasn't expecting to see any detail of clouds, which is nice!
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