Down the Road

Photographs and stories by Jim Grey

Since 2007

Ilford HP5 Plus at EI 1600

Jim Grey
12 comments on Ilford HP5 Plus at EI 1600
1 minute
,

My kids came over for my birthday in August, so I loaded some Ilford HP5 Plus into the Nikon N90s and mounted my 50mm f/1.8D AF Nikkor lens. So I could shoot comfortably indoors, I set the camera’s ISO to 1600. I developed the film in HC-110, Dilution B, at the time for 1600. I scanned them on the Minolta ScanDual II. The images needed next to no post-processing, which was nice.

Here’s my son Damion, VRing.

Damion VRing

Here’s our granddaughter having her lunch.

Arya lunching

I didn’t upload most of the family photos to Flickr because I generally consider family photos to be private. I finished the roll around the house, though, and got some nice images. Our rosebush survived the late-summer drought okay and kept flowering.

Rose
Rose

I just love this ceramic pot and photograph it often.

Thing

Who needs T-Max P3200 or Delta 3200 when you can shoot much-less-expensive HP5 this fast, and get results this good?

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Comments

12 responses to “Ilford HP5 Plus at EI 1600”

  1. The Leica Shootist Avatar
    The Leica Shootist

    Jim, you mention flickr. I have a flickr group called “Nikon 35mm FILM AUTOFOCUS Cameras” if your ever interested in posting your Nikon N90 images. Link bellow.

    https://www.flickr.com/groups/2861297@N22/

    Reply
    1. Jim Grey Avatar
      Jim Grey

      Thanks – I joined. I have a handful of Nikon AF SLRs an they get consistent use.

      Reply
  2. arhphotographic Avatar
    arhphotographic

    What a nice combination of film, camera and lens. I have the non auto focus variety of the 50mm 1.8. I wonder how they compare in terms of image quality? Andrew

    Reply
    1. Jim Grey Avatar
      Jim Grey

      I would not be surprised if they are the same design optically.

      Reply
  3. Andy Umbo Avatar
    Andy Umbo

    Pretty good look! Usually push-processing in standard developers leads to a drop off of scale, especially in the darker tones, facilitating a developer like Acufine to end up with faster speeds and full tonal scale. But these look pretty “zippy” and well balanced!

    Reply
    1. Jim Grey Avatar
      Jim Grey

      HP5 was born to push!

      Reply
  4. Doug Anderson Avatar
    Doug Anderson

    I am not surprised by your excellent results with HP-5 Plus at IE1600. It is my go-to film for anything faster than IE400. Despite the 3200 label of the T-Max and Delta films a closer look at the manufacturers data sheets shows that their actual ISO ratings are 800 and 1000 respectively. They do indeed respond well to push processing, but so does HP5 Plus which actually is ISO400. Double the price for about one stop doesn’t strike me as much of a bargain.

    Reply
    1. Jim Grey Avatar
      Jim Grey

      I love to take a camera to Chicago and shoot fast film at night. I’ve been using TMax P3200, but next time I’ll do HP5 at 1600. I’ll bet I like the results better.

      Reply
  5. Jerome Avatar
    Jerome

    This is the second time I have seen great results from HP5 pushed to 1600 or higher. Now I have to try it!

    Reply
    1. Jim Grey Avatar
      Jim Grey

      Dooo eeeet!

      Reply
  6. Rick Avatar
    Rick

    Your last sentence sums it up nicely. To me, HP5+ shines at 800 and 1600. And 3200 in MF if you get the development right. While I’m glad that 3200 speed b/w films are available, for me the versatility of HP5+ is just too good to not shoot all the time. Nice images here, especially the flowers.

    Reply
    1. Jim Grey Avatar
      Jim Grey

      It’s nice to know HP5 is so “elastic” in speed. It might just have become my go-to b/w because I can shoot it under so many conditions.

      Reply

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