 Today's episode is sponsored by Squarespace. Well, Monica and I were home for the holidays and we decided to bring our backyard bush hog out to explore the coast of Marine County. Of course, I couldn't pass up the opportunity as Baxter's biological father to embarrass him a little bit. Baxter's got a poo everyone, but it was also time to shoot some new film. Yo, what up welcome back to another episode today. I'm here with Monica Sorry, that's kind of gross. There's Baxter's poo in the shot. Yo, what up welcome back to another episode today. I'm here with Monica Baxter and we're in the beautiful scenic colorful marine headlands So naturally we're gonna be shooting some black and white today. We're shooting the new Kentmere. Kentmere already exists in a 35 millimeter version But they are dropping it for 120 now. So pretty exciting Kentmere is kind of a more Budget film stock, I guess you could say it. Yeah, let's get the camera loaded and start shooting. That's right Kentmere has been around for a minute in 35 millimeter form It's definitely a very budget conscious film and the one roll that I shot many years ago was Pretty grainy. So without a doubt. I was curious to see if the 120 version would be similar I loaded up the Makina with Kentmere 100 in direct bright-ass light and the nuclear furnace in the sky Yet again because following directions is for nerds. That's why I always add an hour to the ETA when I use Google Maps Cool, I can probably just edit that to make it look like I nailed it on the first try. What do you think? It's really hard. I think to review a black and white film stock at the end of the day What can you really say about a black and white film? What sets it apart grain ability to push process? I'd be willing to bet that if you took Ilford's complete lineup and did a blind test Most people wouldn't be able to tell a lot of the stocks apart. I know I would have some trouble So then what makes Kentmere so special? That's what I'm tasked with finding out today as we explored some luxury World War 2 condominiums This is kind of cool This camera is really Not intuitive We lifted Baxter up onto the ledge to show him just how tall he might have been if he had normal legs And I said to pop off a portrait of Monica and the boy Which I think turned out great So first impressions of Kentmere 100. Yep, it's definitely black and white Got to say this Kentmere 100 is pretty smooth overall. You don't really see the grain too much Which might be a result of the huge six by seven negative or maybe 100 ISO is just low enough to keep the grain nominal either way. I dig it Additionally, it's really flat in profile. It'd probably be a great film to push to 400 But it's not really something I'm into if you're super into it. Don't worry I'm not here to kink shame you But if you're not into it just add contrast and post like I did because after all I like my images just like my coffee I don't like coffee if fixing it in post isn't your thing either then fuck it Just leave it flat embrace chaos after all no one cares and life is bull Here's a before and after I added contrast for your reference Anyway amongst the writings of some of the greatest philosophers of our generation I took several photos and I like them well enough You're not gonna go in So what is Kentmere? For starters, it's kind of a sub brand of Ilford. Kentmere is more or less Ilford's Budget line of film stocks as opposed to the premium stuff like FB4 and HP5. It's kind of like what Ultramax is to Porture 400 It's kind of like what the front of a mullet is to the back of a mullet But what is the actual difference at the end of the day when it's all boiled down in Original recipe for loco or whatever's in these developer bottles Apparently silver Kentmere is made in a very similar way to a lot of Ilford's more premium stocks Except that it uses less silver overall to keep the price a little more cost-effective After firing off Baxter's official about the author portrait I headed down to find a few compositions and polish the Kentmere 100 off Anyway after Baxter crop dusted me to the fart I thought it'd be cool to try out some Kentmere 400 which is two stops faster than Kentmere 100 Lovely Baxter. This is a place of Zen actually not really actually kind of a place of Horror change the ISO 400 This image is very busy. I think it would have been better suited for Kentmere 100 The lower ISO allowing me to open up the aperture a little more and separate the subject from the background with de-focus So in my own opinion Kentmere 400 seems to be a wildly different film stock than Kentmere 100 Okay, wildly is a bit dramatic. Lomo purple is wildly different than Porture 400 Kentmere 100 and 400 are Marginally different at box speed 400 is incredibly flat flatter than 100 and there's just a lot of gray And the grain is definitely more visible I guess that's to be expected in a higher ISO film, but the flatness itself kind of boggles me a bit Here's a reference of the original scan versus how much contrast I added myself in post I also noted that the density of the physical negatives on 100 seemed significantly better than 400 did overall Both stocks do not seem to curl too badly either Kentmere 400 actually seems like it'd be a good film stock to push to stops to 1600 our fearless film shaman Trev Actually pushed it to 3200 with pretty good results. So go check that out if you're insane and actually considering doing that This shot of I guess basically a garage is kind of cool I like the little sailboat in the background and honestly Kentmere was able to hold on to those highlight details pretty well So what is the pan in Kentmere pan 400 stand for it stands for pancake Okay, one day, I'll stop blatantly lying to you But today isn't that day pan actually stands for panchromatic, which is the counter to orthochromatic if a black and white film is orthochromatic It means it's not sensitive to red light if a black and white film is panchromatic It means that it's sensitive to the entire range of visible light most black and white film stocks are panchromatic unless otherwise noted Yep, this shot is blurry because I was using a low shutter speed for some reason I cannot fathom anyway as we forced Baxter to climb what was basically Mount Kilimanjaro to him with his tiny legs I started thinking maybe there is something to Kentmere after all since it's pretty grainy Maybe 120 is the superior format for Kentmere With substantially more image definition the grain kind of falls to the wayside a little bit and the image returned is quite pleasant overall It's the last one Did you hear that kid? Kid is like why does it smell like old people here? Furthermore, could this be a hit film stock if it was available in even bigger sizes like large format sheets I asked the Ilford representative who reached out to me and he said they wouldn't rule it out in the future But only if it could be at a better price point than HP5 and FP4 which makes sense Ultimately, I'm not too sure how I feel about this trend of companies introducing new film That's actually just a film stock already available, but in a different format. I like having options I'm sure you do too, but it's kind of like when Kodak reintroduced gold for 120 cool I'm sure we all have a long list of other Kodak stocks We'd like to see them bring back instead in the case of gold. It's kind of a gut punch to someone like me Who's been drinking? Basically rat poison in a campaign to get Kodak to bring back Aerochrome. What do I have to do raise the stakes? Butt chug it Maybe to be fair though, that's entirely different. That's Kodak if Ilford wants to stick to black and white film. That's fine They're great at it HP5 is God tier and Ketmir 400 is not far behind But to me in a way it kind of feels like a ceiling has been hit It's hard to imagine where Ilford could potentially go with new black and white film stocks So I guess what I'm saying is Maybe it's time to do color Ilford. I understand. It's a whole different beast entirely You can't just add food coloring and I don't know crowned royal or something to a black and white film stock and get a color Negative mean you guys even have a color film page on your website sitting around ready for action And I think we all know building a website is the hardest part of the process But you know what it doesn't have to be with today's sponsor Squarespace. 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You can start a free trial today at squarespace.com slash grainy days And if you use the code grainy days that check out you can get 10% off your first purchase Smells like fish else. Yeah, it smells like fish by the ocean. That's crazy All right any closing thoughts The moon is really tiny tonight. I wouldn't say tiny. I would say adequately size. It's enough for most people It's barely there But it is there. I I was satisfied by how much it's there. So will I ever shoot can't mirror in 120 ever again? Yeah, of course, it's cheap and I'm not really too picky about black and white film stocks Will this be the last time I ever use this camera? We'll see It is kind of a pain in the ass according to a representative for Ilford at the MSRP in the US for this film It's gonna be $5.80 which is pretty budget friendly to be honest I don't think most consumers will be able to tell the difference between this and HP 5 So shoot some can't mirror and save some pennies Go hog wild entropy is real and we don't know when this is all gonna come crashing down anyway So might as well live it up both can't mirror 100 and 400 are solid 10 out of 10 Or whatever you want me to say if you want something with a little bit more contrast or too afraid of the raw power Available at your fingertips in lightroom, then I guess shoot something else or push process it Just don't say that Ilford never did nothing for you