Kentmere 200

Having used Kentmere 100 and Kentmere 400, when Harman came out with 200 – of course I was going to try it. Analogue Wonderland had a deal and I was sending them a couple rolls of colour for processing, so I added a couple of rolls in!

I exposed this roll in my Nikkormat FT2n with the 28mm F, it’s a lovely combination that I’m enjoying at the moment. I developed the film in my home made FX55, which has become my standard developer these days. 11 mins at 20°c, seemed sensible for a 200 speed film, in the end it was a little too much – next roll I’ll go with 9 mins.

Most reviews I have read of this film say that it’s contrasty – I can’t say I found that. If I consider I slightly overdeveloped the film that should make it even more contrasty and over develop the highlights, in some cases however I found it a little muddy! It can produce contrast. In the three examples above the left and middle are un-touched scans, the right hand, after contrast and a tiny bit of sharpening. That said it did produce some nice “clean” negatives. My first roll dried very flat, and I do mean very flat, perhaps the flattest I’ve know, and so was a joy to load into the scanner. Grain is pretty good. FX55 is a “low grain” developer anyway, images may be sharper with more bite but also more grain in something like Rodinal.

I also wonder if there is a low (or no?) halation layer. In the image above look at that little light inside the van. The sky behind the trees also seems a flare a bit to my eye. Lets not forget that this is a budget/student film. Generally it’s about 50% more, so I guess something has to give! I found it to be a perfectly good film, if I ever can’t afford FP4 then it will be a consideration – until then FP4 remains king!