Back in May the fine folks at Harman Technologies, the parent company of Ilford Photo and Harman Photo announced their newest film stock, Kentmere 200. The Kentmere line of film is designed to be a more budget friendly film stock, lower silver content than the main line of film stocks. Now I did not like this film when I first ran them through reviews, I did like Kentmere 100 more than Kentmere 400. But now I like both, so I was notably excited when Kentmere 200 was released. This puts the Kentmere line in the same range of the other budget friendly films, Fomapan. Now I also have a hard time with 200-speed films, but I’m getting better at getting to like 200-Speed black & white films. I ended up shooting four rolls through May, June, and August, three in 35mm and one in 120. I ended up going with my Nikon F5, Canon EOS Elan 7, Minolta Maxxum 9 and Rolleiflex 2.8F, developing the rolls in Kodak D-76, Ilford Perceptol, Adox FX-39 II and Rollei Supergrain. I’m also including two additional developers, Ilford Microphen and Flic Film Black/White & Green as bonus options at the end.
The village of Kentmere sits in the north of England in the historic Westmorland part of the district of Cumbria. However, this story starts in a different village, that of Staverly. Two chemists, George Minnikin and Robert Barker, had entered into a partnership at the start of the 20th Century. They began to dabble in photographic processes for their customers. This included film developing and the creation of photographic media. Together, the pair formed the Commercial Photo Limited firm and purchased an old paper mill in the village to manufacture photographic paper on a large scale in 1906. In 1908, the company was renamed Kentmere Limited. A year later, due to difficulties in sourcing packaging materials, the company began producing packaging in-house. While history gets a bit fuzzy here, they began to produce photographic films in 1919. The company grew through the early 20th Century and became known for the quality of the photographic papers and films. Kentmere films were used during World War Two for aerial surveillance and post-combat reporting. Again, history gets fuzzy, but if I’m reading online sources right, in the 1950s, the packaging and photographic product split into two separate companies. And while the world moved towards colour films, Kentmere remained firmly entrenched in the black & white medium and continued to serve the more budget-minded photographers with quality products. The company continued until 2003 when Harman Technologies purchased it, while the packaging firm continues today as Kentmere Packaging, still operating out of Staverly. The first roll of Kentmere film that I shot was in 2011. After the buyout by Ilford, I began using it more in 2018, and it left a lot to be desired, especially Kentmere 400. But then Harman did a refresh of the film, and it suddenly became a staple in my film collection, so when Kentmere 200 was released, I was excited. Note: A special thanks to Yvonne Hanson for her video review of Kentmere 200 which included a detailed section on Kentmere’s history, which is a bit flimsy.
Honestly, I shot two rolls which I developed in D-76, one in the F5 (seen above) and a second in a Pentax Zoom 280-P, in both cases the results were stunning! For the roll in the F5 I also added a yellow filter and shot these on a bright day. In Kodak D-76 even at the stock dilution this film shines through on a bright day. The contrast and tonality is right where I like it, right in the middle of the field with good blacks and bright whites, and plenty of grey in between. The film is sharp, excellent grain structure, and some visible grain but nothing too serious. As first impressions go, Kentmere 200 has hit the mark. I cannot wait to see what else this film has to offer!
So for the second roll I went with the Supergrain times for Ilford HP5+ and used the 1+15 dilutions. I shot these on a bright hazy day in near overhead light and added a green filter for fun and as I was photographing people. The negatives looked amazing out of the developing cycle, good density and plenty of detail. Similar in look to the first roll in D-76 but with a touch more density. Once I got the images into the scanner I was stunned at how easily they scanned in, I only had to make minor tweaks to the images in post-processing. But again I got a lovely contrast, excellent sharpness and a touch less grain than with the first roll in D-76! This is a winning combination, if anything I would cut the time back a bit or drop the EI a third stop to like 160.
For this third roll I went with the listed times for Ilford Perceptol, but unlike the previous two rolls I decided to give the film a slight over-exposure rating it at ASA-160 and did not adjust the development times. I also put a yellow filter on the lens and these were shot in mixed light. I also dropped the development time by fifteen seconds. But even then the negatives came out denser than I would have liked. Thankfully they scanned well and I did get a majority of the frames after some adjustments in post-production. I think another fifteen second reduction would be better. Even with that I love these results, sharp, smooth tones, and a bit of a glow (probably because the sun was bright). The 1+1 dilution works great it gives it a bit more visible grain but not much as it adds to that edge sharpness. I think anything more dilute would be a bit too much.
After the third roll, I went back to shooting at the box speed of ASA-200 and developed in Adox FX-39 II. The times I lifted directed from Ilford HP5+ and you know these work! Tonal range and edge sharpness are both on point. The day I was out, I had good early morning light, with nothing too harsh, and mixed cloud and overhead cover from foliage. The negatives came out from the tank with good density, with plenty of detail, and they did not look over-exposed or overdeveloped. The images also scanned easily and required only a slight adjustment in post-processing. My one complaint is that the contrast is too low; using this combination again, I would probably add a pale yellow filter to give it a slight boost or add a bit of time to development.
For a 200-Speed film, Kentmere 200 caught my attention right from the start, that first roll impressed me to no end. And it just got better further along. Now for the non-Ilford developers here I ended up using Ilford HP5+ times and those worked perfectly with little adjustment needed during the scanner and editing process. I’m looking forward to starting up the official review later this month for publishing in the new year! Now the one thing that I did this time around is that I made sure to get enough film to complete a full review next year of Kentmere 200 (Out in January), so I didn’t make the same mistake I did with Ferrania P33 and then had to live with having to wait for production to get back up to speed.