{"id":5130,"date":"2019-06-07T19:39:59","date_gmt":"2019-06-07T18:39:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/?p=5130"},"modified":"2025-10-16T14:13:18","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T13:13:18","slug":"testing-kentmere-400-film","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/?p=5130","title":{"rendered":"Testing Kentmere 400 Film"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>I&#8217;m not sure why I&#8217;ve never really heard of this film &#8211; most online discussion refers to it as a &#8220;cheaper&#8221; film  produced by Ilford Photo, but I was quite impressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<a data-flickr-embed=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/tazmpictures\/48020537788\/in\/dateposted-public\/\" title=\"Paying Attention in Class\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/48020537788_cc6cf5812a_z.jpg?resize=640%2C407&#038;ssl=1\" width=\"640\" height=\"407\" alt=\"Paying Attention in Class\"><\/a><script async=\"\" src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n\n\n\n<p>I found the tones and the grain very pleasant, and found the results nicely balanced despite having shot both day and night, indoor, outdoor, and with and without flash.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I received a roll of this in the 2017 Emulsive Santa gift exchange, and it&#8217;s sat in my freezer for nearly a year.  In December 2018 I took it along in my Nikon F100 on a trip to New Orleans and carried it along well after dark in the French Quarter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<a data-flickr-embed=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/tazmpictures\/48020641292\/in\/dateposted-public\/\" title=\"Entertainer\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/48020641292_2ce251a254_z.jpg?resize=640%2C407&#038;ssl=1\" width=\"640\" height=\"407\" alt=\"Entertainer\"><\/a><script async=\"\" src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n\n\n\n<a data-flickr-embed=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/tazmpictures\/48020531921\/in\/dateposted-public\/\" title=\"Double Portrait\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/48020531921_b5132fec99_z.jpg?resize=640%2C410&#038;ssl=1\" width=\"640\" height=\"410\" alt=\"Double Portrait\"><\/a><script async=\"\" src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n\n\n\n<a data-flickr-embed=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/tazmpictures\/48020636022\/in\/dateposted-public\/\" title=\"Singer\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/48020636022_bb9ee47b24_z.jpg?resize=640%2C411&#038;ssl=1\" width=\"640\" height=\"411\" alt=\"Singer\"><\/a><script async=\"\" src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n\n\n\n<p>About half the night shots came out blurry.  I didn&#8217;t use the flash a whole lot, and I simply wasn&#8217;t holding the camera still enough.  But I like the balanced results &#8211; you can tell it&#8217;s night, but you don&#8217;t see a lot of noise or crushed blacks like I&#8217;ve seen in other films.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At the other extreme, daytime shots in sunlight were equally balanced.  I tend to prefer a bit more contrast, but I think that&#8217;s something I&#8217;ve subconsciously absorbed from looking at too many post-Lightroom digital shots where people have slid the &#8216;clarity&#8217; and &#8216;detail&#8217; sliders too far to the right.  Once I successfuly fought the urge to push the contrast slider to the right, I found the grays grew on me &#8211; and this is how black and white exposures should look, I think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<a data-flickr-embed=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/tazmpictures\/48020611467\/in\/dateposted-public\/\" title=\"Motorcycle Gang\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/48020611467_4ef6a1b713_z.jpg?resize=640%2C406&#038;ssl=1\" width=\"640\" height=\"406\" alt=\"Motorcycle Gang\"><\/a><script async=\"\" src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n\n\n\n<a data-flickr-embed=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/tazmpictures\/48020608792\/in\/dateposted-public\/\" title=\"Royal Enfield\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/48020608792_45121aeabd_z.jpg?resize=640%2C414&#038;ssl=1\" width=\"640\" height=\"414\" alt=\"Royal Enfield\"><\/a><script async=\"\" src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n\n\n\n<a data-flickr-embed=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/tazmpictures\/48020630662\/in\/dateposted-public\/\" title=\"Family Photo\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/48020630662_b6dfe53941_z.jpg?resize=640%2C411&#038;ssl=1\" width=\"640\" height=\"411\" alt=\"Family Photo\"><\/a><script async=\"\" src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n\n\n\n<p>A little online research reveals that Kentmere 400 (and 100) are indeed among the cheapest films available &#8211; less even than the Arista EDU I like to use when I&#8217;m testing a camera&#8217;s functionality.  And aside from a bit less sharpness than I&#8217;ve seen in some other black and white films (I actually find the fuzziness pleasant) I don&#8217;t really see why I should be paying double for higher end films, as a hobbyist &#8211; and even as a professional, depending on the effect I&#8217;m looking for.  Will definitely check this out again!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-flickr aligncenter wp-block-embed is-type-photo is-provider-flickr\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<a href=\"https:\/\/flic.kr\/p\/2gapKs8\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48020526271_717e80d6fe_z.jpg?resize=411%2C640&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Taking a Load Off\" width=\"411\" height=\"640\" \/><\/a>\n<\/div><figcaption>Grandmother takes a load off and soaks her feet in the cool laundry while holding her grandchild.  Antananarivo, Madagascar.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m not sure why I&#8217;ve never really heard of this film &#8211; most online discussion refers to it as a &#8220;cheaper&#8221; film produced by Ilford Photo, but I was quite impressed. I found the tones and the grain very pleasant, and found the results nicely balanced despite having shot both day and night, indoor, outdoor, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2003],"tags":[239,1791],"class_list":["post-5130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-film-tests","tag-film","tag-photography"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5130"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5130\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6127,"href":"https:\/\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5130\/revisions\/6127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}