Ilford FP4 Plus Film 35mm B&W ISO 125

If you've never shot FP4+, you really should give it a try. It's very forgiving and will produce good solid negatives with good contrast and tonal veriety, with almost no grain. Perfect for beginners and experienced photographers alike. Give it a try, you won;t regret it!

Really like how this film turned out, loved hp5 (the other Ilford I have tried) love this better, shall buy again.

Although I have used many different films of all descriptions (monochrome, colour negative, slide, monochrome reversal, infrared of various types), many of which I've reviewed on Analogue Wonderland, Ilford FP4 Plus is overall my preferred emulsion of all. This isn't something that I claim lightly.

FP4 Plus is a traditional cubic grain emulsion, meaning that it has slightly more pronounced grain structure than many "modern" tabular grain films, such as T-max, Delta, and Acros. For my taste, faster cubic grain films such as HP5 and Tri-X have just a little too much grain for general purpose photography, while modern tabular grain results are a little lacking in acutance. FP4 Plus, when exposed properly and developed appropriately, occupies a sweet spot to my eye, where the grain is just enough to increase perceived sharpness, while not being intrusive enough to be distracting. Naturally, there are times when heavier grain is desired, but for me these are special cases rather than general purpose. The cubic nature of the grain structure has the added benefit of broadening the exposure latitude; this not only improves the success rate with educated exposure guesses, but more importantly yields greater shadow and highlight detail with carefully exposed negatives (as achieved via the zone system). It is also very versatile in terms of developing styles; pretty much any of your usual preferred developers will work well, but my personal favourite results come from HC-110 dilution B.

FP4 Plus provides moderate contrast, in my experience. This results in easily scanned negatives, as well as negatives that produce wonderful results using traditional darkroom processes. This moderate contrast plays very well with Ilford Multigrade filters when enlarging. Furthermore, the film responds very consistently to the use of yellow/orange/red contrast filters when capturing images, meaning that you can get reliable results easily.

The main downside of FP4 Plus is the speed. While ISO 125 is enough for a lot of general outdoor and studio applications, for genres such as street I usually prefer something faster. Similarly, if the weather isn't cooperating, ISO 125 can be just a little bit too slow to get decent depth of field handheld, shake free. In vaguely decent light, though, ISO 125 is adequate.

These above factors combined are what lead to my overall impression of this film. While I always try and push the boundaries, experimenting with any new emulsion that becomes available, I still haven't found a "day to day" replacement for FP4 Plus. Indeed, there have been times when shooting other films that I have found myself experiencing a subtle feeling of regret that I hadn't just used FP4 Plus, especially when photographing subjects that I won't get the chance to capture again. As such, when results matter most, it's always FP4 Plus that I fall back on.

If you are planning to take photos in a well lit environment or using camera mounted on a tripod, Ilford FP4 Plus is a great choice. It has a really fine grain, amazing sharpness and latitude. It just does its job and serves well for all kind of shooting scenarios, portraits, landscapes, you name it.

I found this a joy to go through after I received them back from being developed. Nice detail and contrast. Does really well for pet portraits as well as urban landscapes, especially 'aged' landscapes.
I'll definitely get it again