Classic Cars found along the roadside shot on Kentmere Black & White film with Mamiya M645 camera

I loaded a roll of Kentmere 100 black and white 120 film, already my favorite brand, into my Mamiya M645 manual camera with the 55-110mm very sharp Mamiya C zoom lens and headed out to specifically shoot an old car on display on a rural property not too far from my home on nice, sunny late afternoon.

The light could not have been better or more suited for photos of the interior of the vehicle through the windows, which always makes a nice image. But a bonus for this day was a second car, an old Biscayne that was sitting along the road with a for sale sign in the window.

Film and grain

I was extremely happy with the way these images came out, despite the unexpected heavy grain. The film is listed as Fine Grain, but typically I feel like I get more than I should with their 100 speed films in both 35mm and 120 format.

However, I always try to inspect to make sure my developing doesn't add too much to the final image being either over or under-developed. Over-developing can cause a fine grain film to still show a lot of it, and in some cases it doesn't work for the image. So I'm always trying to balance the original intent of the film grain vs my developing skills to get it as close as possible to the film's original characteristics.

In the case of this roll, I was still on my first batch of Cinestill DF96 and may have either had the chemicals too warm (80') for the constant agitation it requires. There's a balance of three different agitation methods for the DF96 based on the temperature of the liquid. I've since settled with 76-78' with constant agitation. There is also a requirement with this developer that you start at 3:30, then add :15 per roll with each additional use, as it is reusable for about 16-18 rolls of film. I find it to suit my purposes and feel after one jug and into my next I've found a sweet spot between the time and temperture that works for me.

Sharpness

This film is incredibly sharp, especially the 100 speed variety. As long as your focus and depth of field are achieved successfully this fill will not fail in its crisp quality.

Tones

I also like the greyscale tones I can get out this film, whether it's 100 or 400, 35mm or 120, it handles post-production in Lightroom very well. The 400 is typically more flat than the more contrasty 100, but again, the same results can be achieved with the basic adjustment sliders.