Developing Adventures – Pushing Kentmere Pan 400 to 800

In continuing my quest with pushing and pulling different black and white films, I have started to explore the more affordable film stocks for this endeavor as Jeremy Zorns on Facebook recommended. I don’t know why I didn’t even think to do that, but that’s why I love this community because I tend to be very absent minded, and you can bet there is always someone that will remind you.

If you would like to take a look at all of the films I have experimented with so far, click here. Be sure to come back though, because this week I tried pushing Kentmere Pan 400. This article is going to show my results with pushing it to 800.

Kentmere 400 film is manufactured by Ilford as a more affordable alternative to their HP5 400 film. Ironically, the price difference today isn’t that much. I don’t know what it was at the beginning of its creation but right now you can buy a 36 exposure roll of Kentmere Pan 400 for $5.19 and a roll of 35mm HP5 400 at $5.99. I’ll take any savings I can get.

I took my Pentax ME Super with me on an outing with Kelsey and shot my usual photos from my car. I didn’t expect much from it because it was sunset and then eventually night time and I didn’t think pushing it to 800 would be enough.

We went to Barnes and Noble for the first time in a long time since Covid hit. I was scared to go in, but it was pretty empty and I had my mask on.

By the time we left, it was dark outside and like I said, I wasn’t sure if any of these photos would come out. I was very surprised when I developed the film.

I processed this roll in Kodak D-76 for 12 minutes and 30 seconds, and agitated for 10 seconds every minute.

Even with the motion blur I really like these pictures considering my fiancé was driving 55 miles per hour and it was dark.

Over all the look of Kentmere 400 pushed to 800 is obviously going to be a lot like pushing HP5.

Although, I do think HP5 has a tiny bit less grain and contrast. For a little money saved though, it’s not a huge difference.

I definitely like these results and I’m going to continue using Kentmere 400 and I am definitely going to try photography from my car at night again. Maybe I will make another zine this time called Riding in Cars With Film at Night. What do you think?

My next article will be about pushing the Kentmere to 1600. I hope you will sign up to get my blog in your email when I post new ones.

If you would like to help me out with the cost of film, developing chemicals, and the upkeep of this website, please consider making a small donation. If you would rather purchase one of my zines, that would also help.

Until next time, stay motivated and keep shooting.