I have a habit of picking up rolls of film that I’d like to try, without necessarily having a purpose in mind. Even once I’ve filled my airtight plastic tub, I buy more rolls faster than I can shoot them. I do the same with books: buy the ones that interest me when I see them (in case I don’t see them again), then spend the next 3 months flicking at my phone whilst they pile up. I’m trying to be better; at some point I will shoot only HP5 and FP4, or so I tell myself. In the meantime I have a tub of film to get through.
This brings me to my one roll of Delta 3200. I had never shot with such fast film before and so I wanted to try, though first I needed a purpose. I had missed my opportunity for a grand ’Empty Streets’ COVID project, but had made an observation at various hawker centers (public food courts, integral to life here in Singapore). Through various stages of lockdown and social distancing, a web of plastic netting had spread across the tables and crept up the seats—the form of it kind of reminded me of the spiky coronavirus particles. I decided to shoot these normally busy places at night, hoping that the dark backdrops and grain from the 3200 film would lend a certain mood to the subject.
I selected my Nikon FE for the job. This is my ‘easy’ film camera: I’m comfortable with SLRs, like to shoot aperture-priority, and have a decent range of 70‘s AI lenses with great character (I also have one pre-AI lens, a 50mm f1.4, and the character on that thing wide open is something else).
I shot this set with the 50mm f1.8 and the 20mm f4; I love that both these lenses are almost pancake-tiny and have excellent close focusing ability (0.45m and 0.3m, respectively). I must admit, my personal preference wide is 24mm but having read about the size and quality of the 20, I opted to suck it up and challenge myself a little. This kit gave me all the flexibility I would need: Standard, wide, close-in. Maybe a little bokeh too. Also, it all slipped easily into a small sling bag.
Although most hawker centres across the country had succumbed to the orange plastic crawl, I chose to shoot at Newton Food Centre. Arranged in a perfect circle, open to the weather and surrounded with beautiful trees, it is photogenic as far as food courts go. The patterns of the paving complement the layers of prohibitive webbing, and… Ok it is also near my place and they have a local craft ale stall. Total no-brainer.
I had envisioned a range of images from full scenes, to abstracted shapes and textures. Overall I’m fairly pleased though feel like I could have gone a bit closer for some shots. I could (and should) have gone harder on the abstract.
A question
Despite having developed the film in DDX (in an attempt to calm the results a little), I was ready for some big grain from the Delta 3200 though still felt surprised at just how much I got. I wonder what the benefit of shooting this is over pushing something like HP5 to 3200… Anyone have experience of this? Or maybe I’ve just overlooked something here—either way I’d be grateful to hear about it.
Thanks for reading.
Jamie
Instagram: @j_blinder
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Bob Janes on 5 Frames with Delta 3200 and a Nikon FE – By Jamie Winder
Comment posted: 21/10/2021
Comment posted: 21/10/2021
Nik Stanbridge on 5 Frames with Delta 3200 and a Nikon FE – By Jamie Winder
Comment posted: 21/10/2021
Comment posted: 21/10/2021
Marius on 5 Frames with Delta 3200 and a Nikon FE – By Jamie Winder
Comment posted: 21/10/2021
The main difference will be in the tonality. If you push HP5 to 3200 you will get a very barrow band of tones and that "pushed look" (deep blacks, blown highlights, and not much middle grey). With the delta 3200, you will get much more shades of grey... Depends on what you want really..
Have a good day
Comment posted: 21/10/2021
Lennart on 5 Frames with Delta 3200 and a Nikon FE – By Jamie Winder
Comment posted: 21/10/2021
This was a very nice article to fill my lunch break. Also I do enjoy the photos!
My very first self developed roll was actually Delta 3200 in DDX and the grain was way too present for my taste although I expected lots of it, so I never used this combo again.
Maybe someone here comes up with a better solution :)
Cheers,
Lennart
Comment posted: 21/10/2021
Wouter Willemse on 5 Frames with Delta 3200 and a Nikon FE – By Jamie Winder
Comment posted: 21/10/2021
I know DD-X should be matched to Delta films, I never tried it - but perhaps it's just not that ideal for Delta 3200. According to most tests, ISO3200 is already actually a 1-1,5 stop push, so surely some developers will work better than others.
My main gripe with Delta 3200 is not so much the grain, but the rather flat and dull contrast - honestly, I also feel your photos would have benefitted from a bit punchier contrast - the subject is really well suited to it and a nice original choice of subject!
Comment posted: 21/10/2021
Comment posted: 21/10/2021
Comment posted: 21/10/2021
Comment posted: 21/10/2021
Kevin Ortner on 5 Frames with Delta 3200 and a Nikon FE – By Jamie Winder
Comment posted: 21/10/2021
As for your question, I have shot 3200 and HP5 at 1600 and this is what I noticed:
3200 will give you more grain with more range in the overall tone whereas pushing HP5 (I have only pushed it to 1600) will have less grain but less detail in the shadows and highlights. Essentially you are underexposing by 4-5 stops (little detail in shadows) and then greater overdeveloping (might lose detail in the highlights).
Comment posted: 21/10/2021
Peter Roberts on 5 Frames with Delta 3200 and a Nikon FE – By Jamie Winder
Comment posted: 21/10/2021
Given that the netting is orange perhaps an orange filter would have highlighted it more?
It's been a long time since I pushed good old HP5 to 3200ASA but I seem to recall that it give better contrast. Yes, there was grain but more defined grain if you get what I mean, not so smudgy.
I also think that the more you push a film the more the the resulting images depend on your developing technique and a bit of practice is necessary to achieve what you're happy with.
Comment posted: 21/10/2021
Michael Greene on 5 Frames with Delta 3200 and a Nikon FE – By Jamie Winder
Comment posted: 21/10/2021
https://shootitwithfilm.com/ilford-delta-3200-vs-ilford-hp5/
Comment posted: 21/10/2021
Comment posted: 21/10/2021
Abby Keenan on 5 Frames with Delta 3200 and a Nikon FE – By Jamie Winder
Comment posted: 21/10/2021
Comment posted: 21/10/2021
Troy Johnson on 5 Frames with Delta 3200 and a Nikon FE – By Jamie Winder
Comment posted: 22/10/2021
Recently, I needed a high speed medium format film and tried Delta 3200, HP5 and Tri-X. All developed in Diafine.
None of the them reached 3200 for me. I settled on AI 1250 for all 3 and at that speed in that developer with good exposure there is really no grain in any of them. They each have unique tone though. I settled on HP5. The price was a factor. At the time HP5 was quite a bit cheaper than the others.
Again, Nice work on these. -Troy
Comment posted: 22/10/2021