Ilford

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Still going through my Dad's collection of Model Engineer magazines - tonight came across the above advert on the back cover of an issue from February 1960. Ilford film has been a mainstay of traditional photography since the company was founded in 1879 by Alfred Hugh Harman. In particular, in my and so many other people's cases, their medium-speed 125 ASA (ISO) film, FP4 or it's predecessors; it depends on your age, but I'm sixty-six and it was FP4 from the earliest days of taking photographs for me - my Dad used FP3.

Now, I never got on with their 400 ASA (ISO) high-speed HP4 (for me, and HP3 for my old man) and latterly HP5; much preferring that old staple of the press photographer: Kodak Tri-X; a film you could argue was technically inferior to its Ilford counterpart, being coarser-grained among other attributes: but Tri-X always had a special quality that just 'was'. I've no idea what the post-revival Kodak films are like, so I can't comment - and probably won't, as ten quid for a roll of the stuff is a little steep in my book. I'm starting back into the world of grain with much cheaper, former-Eastern-Bloc film, so when I actually get around to producing something worthy of attention, I'll probably post five frames on the estimable Emulsive-Dot-Org.

It's gratifying to know that Ilford Film is still being produced, albeit in Cheshire, these days; under the Harman name, and supplies are available from various sources, including my small online supplier of choice, Analogue Wonderland; whose name has been mentioned before in dispatches, blogs passim. I've also got several rolls of 120 format FP4 whose life-of-shelf expired before my twenty-nine-year-old son was born: experiments with these will follow, methinks!

Comments

  1. Joe Stoner24 July 2021 at 18:40

    Reminds me of one of my "duties" when, working at a kiosk under Palace Pier, I was "increasing" the shelf life of some Ektachrome stock: I had to change the 3 in 63 to an 8 with a very fine pen! Joe the Happy Snapper (always liked that!) :)

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