My First Roll of Ilford HP5 Plus

I love F Stop Camera’s Film of The Month Club, because it has pushed me out of my film comfort zone a few times since I’ve joined and also provided me with a bit of a creative nudge when I am in a rut. And so it was a few months ago when I received my monthly roll and discovered a film I have never tried: Ilford HP5 Plus.

With the abundant sunshine where I live, I’m usually shooting much slower black and white film, but I thought I’d give this 400 ISO film a try with a little photo walk around my new town. I loaded my Nikon F3HP, fitted the 50mm Nikkor f/1.4 and headed out.

I wish I could have backed up a bit more to get the entirety of this interesting sign in the shot, but the Napa River was right behind me. Next time, I’ll bring a wider lens.

There are quite a few interesting homes around the downtown area. I am going to devote a blog post to some of the more interesting ones soon.

A downtown tasting room, ready for Sunday wine pours.

You can see the railing behind me that kept me from backing up to get the restaurant sign shot. I think the 50mm worked well enough here though.

There are a number of interesting antique shops scattered around the downtown area. It’s nice to have 400 speed film when you find an interesting subject indoors.

And in the same antique shop, I found a good mirror to get my end of roll selfie.

HP5 Plus is less grainy than Kodak’s Tri-X I think. I like the way it renders the blacks and I need to experiment more to get the whites where I like them. It might be helpful to shoot this film with one of my Leica R bodies that offers spot metering or bring my handheld Pentax Spotmeter to summon up a little Ansel Adams.

Overall, I liked HP5 better than I thought I would and am going to include a roll or two in my next order from B&H.