At what speed do you rate HP5+???

OldManJim

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I've been shooting a lot of HP5+ lately in both 35mm and 120 format. While Ilford rates this film at ISO 400, I seem to have a little better results when using it at 200. Recently, I tried a roll at 800 and got good results. I realize HP5+ has a great deal of exposure latitude & this got me to wondering if there is a consensus on rating this film's speed.

I develop in Sprint (D-76 clone) at 21C on a Jobo processor and scan negs using an Epson scanner.
 
I have not done much film in the last couple years. But when I do shoot film I don't push or pull unless I run into a limitation. I pretty much shoot at what they recommend. With all the product developement and testing they do. I am sure they sell the film at the speed their testing shows that it performs the best at. Now I also realize the films best performance speed is not always on the box. That they will round to the nearest typical speed. With modern cameras you can now set for the films best speed (if you know it, for the slower films anyway). But I would imagine your looking very closely at the film to find a quality difference of 10% in speed.
 
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There is many factors to the film speed. So, there is factory indicated speed and personal film speed. Factory speed is judged according to set of rules same for all manufacturers. In theory, ha ha ! There might be differences between batches of same film.
Personal speed depends on everything you do with film. Storage, your equipment calibration, chemicals (never assume they have always same quality), your method of developing (timing, agitation), calibration of your thermometer (very important !). Even quality of the water used for processing. Setting personal speed requires some experimentation.
 
At box speed; I used a 1950s folder at f8-f11.
 
With BW you could do a film speed test but you have to have a darkroom for that. With C-41 I normally shoot all my Fuji 400 at 320 to give it a bump with saturation.

When in doubt......bracket.
 
My SOP is to start off dividing by 2. Shoot some test images and pull process. Check results. Shoot again and adjust developing.

I usually end up shooting at 1/2 the stated ISO and some level of pull processing.
 
I shoot some HP5+ (but shoot and print with Ilford stuff across the board) I always rate it at 400 and develop in DD-X 1+4 and Ilford Rapid Fixer 1+4 to finish it off as well. I like it and fine it provides suitable contrast and latitude where i need it. Its more forgiving than the Delta stuff for sure.

What I find in the end of the day is that my scanner (V800) is actually one of the more complex parts of the equations. If you are scanning with an Epson I assume you are using some flavor of SilverFast, note that they have 2 HP5 profiles, one for 35mm and one for 6x6 (120). They are a bit different and I often forget to select the right one when scanning. On any note messing with the setting in SilverFast can provide wildly different outcomes on a given scan. You can flatten out or over contrast easily and recover +- 1 stop easily.

If shooting it at 800 works for you than go for it!
 

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