Back in April Ilford shared the news of the upcoming Kentmere 200 film and we were lucky to receive the 1st shipment early with plenty of time and to shoot and test the film. The decision was made to not put this time to waste and get our cameras ready for some Kentmere 200 action!

Kentmere Who?

Kentmere brand has been around for a while and was acquired by Harman Technology back in 2007 (the company behind Ilford). Since then they have launched Kentmere 100 & Kentmere 400 film stocks in 35mm and Medium format as well as a range of photographic paper. Since then it has become a solid choice for film photographers on the budget providing a very good performance and value for money.

Back to Kentmere 200. 

The idea was to shoot a variety of subjects like landscape, street, macro, portraiture and everything in between. The film was then developed and scanned at our Stuck in Film Lab where we used Kodak HC-110 for B&W development and Noritsu HS-1800 for scanning.

So when the film arrived I loaded my trusty Nikon FM3a with a set of fantastic Voigtlander lenses and got on the train to central London to shoot a roll or 2. The day was hot and sunny which was perfect for shooting some high contrast scenes of London street life.

Gimme contrast!

Ilford describes Kentmere 200 as a high contrast film in comparison to ISO 100 & 400 and it clearly shows. After developing our first rolls we can clearly see the improvements in the contrast department, stronger deeper blacks and brighter whites that still contain a large amount of details.

And since we had a few sunny weeks which allowed for plenty of high dynamic range situations. Here are some examples of that. We think that film can easily capture a wide latitude with good details and tones as long as the scene has been measured correctly.

But what about THE GRAIN???

I am glad you asked! The grain is indeed very pleasing, good texture, a bit more prominent than Kentmere 100 and definitely a lot lighter than the Kentmere 400. 

Difference between 35mm vs Medium Format

The main difference between the two is the grain. 35mm shows it  a bit more and the medium format is almost grainless with a nice texture and feel to the image. I’ve noticed a tiny bit of halation on both 35mm and Medium format shots. It is mild and will show more with "glowy wide open" lenses Pentax 67 105mm f/2.4 Takumar, Voigtlander 35mm f/1.4 Nokton and similar.

With regards to the film speed in our early tests it feels bang on at 200 and as long as your exposure is averaged you should get very pleasing results. As usual with centre weighted meters don’t forget to meter for the ground with scenes with lots of skies in the scene and you should do just fine! 

Development:

Ilford published technical data (link) with development time for most Ilford developers as well as Kodak D76. We decided to do some tests and develop Kentmere 200  with Kodak HC-110 and use Ilfotec HC data as a starting point. And while the Ilfotec HC is essentially Ilford version of HC-110, they are not the same as they have different development time for the same film stocks. However in our experience they provide a similar developer experience. 

In our tests we found 5 minutes to be a good middle point which produced well developed negatives with good details in highlights, shadows & midtones, ready to produce nice flat scans for digital post processing as well as ready for print in the darkroom. 

6 minutes development produced more dense negatives with higher contrast but slightly less details in shadows and highlights. They were still very usable and we think that it may work for some photographers looking to get even more contrast “out of the box”.

Conclusion:

Overall we are very pleased with the Kentmere 200, it is in our opinion a very solid Black & White film stock. With good contrast and speed this is a very user friendly film which will suit beginners and seasoned film photographers alike! 

It is also a great budget alternative to the likes of Foma 200 with both having a unique look and feel. We wouldn’t choose one over the other as they are quite different in the “look” department. Foma feels a bit “moody” and Kentmere a bit “clean”.

It is also the only option of ISO 200 film in the Ilford line up and while Kentmere series is considered budget this film stock, in our opinion it definitely punches above its weight! And with addressed contrast improvement over Kentmere 100 & 400 it will also give a better look “out of the box”.

You can purchase Kentmere 200 in our online store.

More sample images: 35mm

Medium format: