Ilford P4 400 Surveillance Film

[David]

So I followed up my previous P4 and Coffenol experiment with proper D-76 development. The results were substantially better and indicate that this film is, though high contrast, also low in grain and rich in tonal range. This test is, admittedly, not the best since my dogs weren't in the mood to pose and the lens I grabbed was my Pentax-A 28-80. I've defended this lens before -- never again. This performance was intolerable. So off to eBay with it next week.

1

You'll notice my K2 has a bit of a light leak. Off for repairs with it as soon as my K-7 comes back (long story, six days after the warranty period, I'll be in the mood to discuss it after I hear from Pentax about if they're honoring the warranty.)

2

I'm not unhappy with this one. It's the sharpest of the whole day and Cheever's muzzle is not washed out, like it normally is.

3

This is in here because I wanted to test the films' propensity to flaring. I'd say it passes. This lens is flare-prone, so to have almost no flare ion this image is impressive. I suspect its because this film was intended for surveillance cameras back in the day, and cameras were positioned for security, not photographic convenience, so flare prevention would be important.

4

I know it's not a great picture, but if you had ANY inkling the kind of trouble I went through to line this shot up when all Cheever was doing was running around trying to grab the football out of my hand, you'd appreciate the heck outta this shot.

[martinsmith99]

Great results. I'm not sure what you think is wrong with the lens; it seems ok.

[ForenSeil]

[David]

I do not recall the shutter times, but I suspect they were in the 1/500 to 1/1,00 range with 400 ISO. The K2 only goes up to about K2.

These results are okay, yes, but there were 23 shots on the roll that were not of this quality. I should say that when this lens is on, it's great. When this lens is off -- which is about 60% of the time or more -- it's not great. Also, more than any other lens I own, it performs wildly differently on different bodies. On my K-7, for instance, it's an above average performer. On the K2, sub-par. On the K1000, 45th percentile. I'll give it a couple more shots on different bodies, because it's a nice range. But I'm still leaning toward selling it.

As for filtering, this week I'm going to shoot five rolls of the P4. I'll be using the following filters: CPL, red, blue, yellow, and UV. I suspect red may make this film too contrasty. I'm kind of hoping the blue mellows it a bit, but we'll know in a week.