ILFORD Delta 400 - Film Review

I shot Delta 400 pushed to 1600 for a project that required me to be stealthy, so only one camera body, and the film needed to be quite flexible as I needed to shoot in daylight as well as in night conditions without a tripod. I did some bracketting, mostly to be sure to avoid motion blurr and I must say this film handeled thoses conditions very well. I tried two different developpers, first adonal (rodinal) following the massiv dev chart’s recommandations, the result were quite grainy and the transitions a bit harsh to my taste. I aslo tried Ilfortec DDX following Ilford’s recommandations, with far better results, less grain and better overall balance. I respectfully disagree with Russ Gorman, on one point, I find this film pretty easy to scan, even exposed at boxspeed, the density remains manageable.

Great all-around film. I process in Pyro though it doesn’t stain much. smooth tones, tolerable grain. Great for silver printing, doesn’t scan well. I prefer it to HP-5. Finer grain with Delta 400 (though HP-5’s grain is beautiful).