Back to basics: Kentmere 100 B&W Film

Contax AX 1.4/35, Coolscan 4000ED

Before I moved to Canada, I gave my darkroom equipment to someone and only brought the steel development tank and a bulk film loader with me. Hope I may use them one day.
Ten years passed and digital technology rules the imaging world. B/W FILM photography becomes a niche market.  All Kodak B&W papers were gone.  Still remember the Kodak Elite paper? It is the highest Dmax paper at that time. Luckily B&W films and chemicals are still available widely but with much higher price.  Recently, Adorama had a promotion on Kentmere 100 bulk film so I brought one and try this out.

The Kentmere is a UK company which is under the management of Herman/Ilford. I am very familiar with Kodak films but not much on Kentmere.  So I need to start the test and see how its perform. I use Kodak D76 (stored in foil bag more than 7 years) and Kodak Fixer.  Using stock D76 solution for 9 minutes at 20C, agitating the film 10s per minute.  Fixing time is 6 minutes with fresh fixer.  The result is good and this time/developer dilution rate can be set as standard time. In future, tests can be conducted on pushing and contrast control.  Please be noted that the tank size and the way of agitation will yield different result.  Lesser agitation will cause lower contrast and vise versa.  So the above test is on 36 exposure film in 250cc tank. Please test the film by your own but 9 mins with stock D76 is a good starting point.

The Kentmere is a good contrast,  medium to low grain B/W film when using D76.  With traditional B/W film technology, it is a best value film.  The highlight has some compression (as Kodak Plus X).  If you need more wider and linear B/W film, you may try Tmax 100.
The base is a bit soft and so please take great care when using squeegee or sponge.
 

I have two film scanners. One is Sony UY-s90 for fast film scanning ( 8 min for one roll 36 exp film in 2000x3000pixels ). I use this for general film scan and if I need higher resolution I will use Nikon Coolscan 4000 which can provide 3764x5243pixels scanning.

Kentmere 100 is a good film for anyone want to start shooting film.  Investment is minimal and the films can preserve the images and your memories in the way you can touch with.

  

Secret:  Pierre water bottle is very good for B/W developer storage because of its colour

Highly recommend:  Ansel Adams The Negative