Harman Technology, manufacturers of Ilford and Kentmere Black & White film and Harman Phoenix colour film have been busy over the last couple of years. They brought us Phoenix, their first colour film manufactured totally in house at their factory here in the north west of England. Now they have announced a new B&W film with the recent release of Kentmere 200, a medium speed B&W film that rounds out and compliments their Kentmere range of B&W film.
Regular readers will know I enjoy using budget films and they don't come much more budget friendly than Kentmere. Those of us with very little disposable income need to find ways to enhance versatility and have been pushing Kentmere 100 and pulling Kentmere 400 to 200 iso for years. We don't need to do that anymore now that Harman have brought Kentmere 200 onto the market. I had to try some and purchased a few rolls around 3 milliseconds after it went live on the Analogue Wonderland website. (yeah I was slacking, it should have been 1 picosecond....)
Using any film for the first time can be a crap shoot, but I mitigated any chances of my ineptitude getting in the way of well exposed photos by choosing my camera wisely. I loading my first roll of Kentmere 200 into my Minolta X-700 and took advantage of it's excellent aperture priority mode.I also used my MD 50mm f/1.7 lens and a MD 2x teleconverter for long shots, and my Vivitar 28mm MC close focus wide angle lens to give me a decent range of focal lengths to play with. I headed out into my local countryside on a sunny afternoon to explore.
The Film Photography market has been steadily rising over the last decade and Harman have put a lot of effort into ensuring they are at the forefront of it. In recent years they have secured investment to expand their facilities at Mobberley to enable them to make more film. A statement of intent they are already acting upon.
Kentmere 200 slots into a niche in the market once inhabited by Fomapan 200. Sadly, production problems with Fomapan 200, particuarly in 120 medium format had B&W film photographers like myself looking elsewhere to scratch that particular creative itch. I like Fomapan 200 in 35mm and this first roll of Kentmere 200 would give me something to compare directly to it rather than pushing or pulling other films. Kentmere 200 is also available in 120 and that itch will be scratched later in the year.
I was having fun on my walk and totally forgot I had bought 24 shot rolls of film instead of the usual 36 shot rolls I normally buy. It turned out ok though as my last couple of shots coincided with the half way mark of my walk and I finished my very first roll of Kentmere 200 at the stile to the footpath across the corn field. At least I think the farmer is growing corn this year, wheat isn't spaced out as much as this years crop. With my last shot taken, I switched cameras to start my Frugal Film Project 2025 obligation with my Kodak Retina 1a and headed off towards home.
A few days later I developed my roll of Kentmere 200 in Bellini Euro HC 1+31 dilution B for 6 minutes at 20 celcius and soon had it hanging to dry in my bathroom. I digitised it with my Nikon D700, Tamron Adaptall 2 90mm f/2.5 macro lens, Valoi 35mm film holder, Pixl-Latr and A5 sized LED light pad. I processed the RAW files with Affinity Photo 2.
With any new film, the manufacturer rightly uses their own proprietary developers to test their new product and the Film Community goes right ahead and starts experimenting with the developers and times their experience lead them towards. I went for 6 minutes based upon the time given by Harman for Ilfotec HC at 1+31, which, as far as I am aware, is near as darn it the same developer as Kodak HC110 and Bellini Euro HC.
As more photographers get to experiment with this film using any of the healthy number of developers on the market, the knowledge base will grow, but for now I am happy to use Bellini Euro HC 1+31 dilution B to develop Kentmere 200. I could see straight away I had made a good choice as the film looked decently exposed and as I digitised it and began editing the RAW files, I didn't have to do much to it at all, despite shooting the roll in the harshest light on the hottest day in May 2025, a harsh baptism of fire! I have three more rolls to play with and will be having a lot of fun with filters as I go along.
Here's a few favourites from my walk in my local countryside with my very first roll of Kentmere 200. They are compositions I have done to death, but familiar was the way to go with this brand new film. I have placed them and more in an album on Flickr you can visit using the link below. I hope you enjoy them
Kentmere 200
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