The Future of Colour and B&W Film with Ilford...

[koraks]

A film like Delta3200 has a relatively short shelf life. This goes counter to the notion of a product that sells only sparingly, which is what 3200 sheet film would definitely be.

 

[Raghu Kuvempunagar]

If Ilford was to modify an extant product for sheet base compatibility, I could see XP2 Super being a more likely candidate, but the key judgement would be how it would interact with sales of extant sheet products.

Incidentally, Ilford Photo is teasing on IG with this cryptic post with a pic of a large format camera:

“You: ‘Will you ever…?’
Us:

It’s been a long wait…
but something BIG is finally on the way.

 

[armadsen]

Incidentally, Ilford Photo is teasing on IG with this cryptic post with a pic of a large format camera:

“You: ‘Will you ever…?’
Us:

It’s been a long wait…
but something BIG is finally on the way.

Unfortunately with an AI “image” of a large format camera. Seems crazy that an analog photography company would resort to AI slop, but here we are.

 

[thinkbrown]

Unfortunately with an AI “image” of a large format camera. Seems crazy that an analog photography company would resort to AI slop, but here we are.

It's incredibly disappointing

 

[blee1996]

The marketing person typically have to live in the digital age, and there are time pressure to engage with the community. So it is not always possible to find a suitable analog photo with permissible license. Anyway I'm not trying to defend use of AI, but from a personal perspective.

 

[DREW WILEY]

Delta 3200 is actually about a 1000 speed film; read the fine print. I shoot it at 800 for PMK pyro development, mostly in 120 roll film, on those rare occasions when I have an itch for a different kind of look . It has its niche, and the accentuated grain can be quite lovely in a funky kind of way for 35mm work too. But I would never spend a dime for D3200 or K400 or XP2 in sheet film. Ilford already has better choices.

 

[armadsen]

Unfortunately with an AI “image” of a large format camera. Seems crazy that an analog photography company would resort to AI slop, but here we are.

They were replying to comments claiming it wasn’t AI (it most certainly was). They’ve deleted the post now.

Anyway, I think Pan F in sheet film is more likely than Kentmere or Delta 3200.

 

[armadsen]

And now they’ve made a new post with a real photo of a large format camera:

 

[DREW WILEY]

Another snowball in hell request. Pan F would be probably be dead on arrival in sheet fashion too. It's whole appeal was to act as a high resolution substitute in smaller format, yet at the penalty of speed and latitude. It has the shortest usable curve of any current film I can think of, whereas LF shooters generally want a far more malleable film for sake of contrast range and development tweaking.

It would be realistic for Ilford to market a true 400 speed sheet film competitive with Kodak TMY400; but would be a really hard act to follow. But the bigger question for me is, when will I no longer be able to even afford 8X10 TMY. I have a limited supply of it still in the freezer, which might last me till I'm 80; but by then, I'll probably be shooting 4x5 a lot more instead anyway, for both price and weight reasons.

 

[Lachlan Young]

Anyway, I think Pan F in sheet film is more likely than Kentmere or Delta 3200.

Replacing Pan-F outright, or launching a Delta 25 have apparently been seriously discussed within Harman over the years. If it was to be modified for a polyester coating package, there would be a very strong case for completely re-doing it. The sales volumes will apparently only support one product in that category however.

Given that the announcement is Ilford, not Harman it probably isn't sheet Phoenix.

 

[thinkbrown]

Replacing Pan-F outright, or launching a Delta 25 have apparently been seriously discussed within Harman over the years.

Honestly, I'd probably shoot a lot of that in my Pentax 17. I have to imagine a 2 stop slower tabular film would be incredibly fine grain.

 

[Lachlan Young]

Honestly, I'd probably shoot a lot of that in my Pentax 17. I have to imagine a 2 stop slower tabular film would be incredibly fine grain.

In many regards, Delta 100 outpaces Pan-F already.

I'd prefer if Delta 25 replaced Pan-F outright. But there are some very noisy individuals for whom it would apparently represent some terrible event, probably in an inverse relationship to the number of rolls of Pan-F they've ever used.

 

[Milpool]

It’s probably an Ilford cable release.

 

[armadsen]

Another snowball in hell request. Pan F would be probably be dead on arrival in sheet fashion too. It's whole appeal was to act as a high resolution substitute in smaller format, yet at the penalty of speed and latitude. It has the shortest usable curve of any current film I can think of, whereas LF shooters generally want a far more malleable film for sake of contrast range and development tweaking.

It would be realistic for Ilford to market a true 400 speed sheet film competitive with Kodak TMY400; but would be a really hard act to follow. But the bigger question for me is, when will I no longer be able to even afford 8X10 TMY. I have a limited supply of it still in the freezer, which might last me till I'm 80; but by then, I'll probably be shooting 4x5 a lot more instead anyway, for both price and weight reasons.

Should we place bets? I think you’re going to be surprised at how well the snowball does in hell…

 

[Lachlan Young]

It’s probably an Ilford cable release.

Or Ilford have bought out Walker Cameras.

 

[blee1996]

Or Ilford have bought out Walker Cameras.

That would be great news!

 

[MattKing]

It would of course be Harman Technology Ltd. who did the buying out, not the remnant of the corporation whose name is Ilford but which is based in China (I believe).
But I understand what you meant.
FWIW, I recently received a heads up email from Ilford/Harman about the latest ULF event.

 

[Milpool]

Or Ilford have bought out Walker Cameras.

It would be kind of weird for them to get into that aside from the pinhole stuff Mike was making for Harman. I thought he retired a while ago but who knows.

Maybe all this is just an ad for the annual ULF window rather than a new product.

 

[armadsen]

It would be kind of weird for them to get into that aside from the pinhole stuff Mike was making for Harman. I thought he retired a while ago but who knows.

Maybe all this is just an ad for the annual ULF window rather than a new product.

They already officially announced the 2026 ULF on their website over a week ago. No reason to tease something that’s both expected and already announced.

 

[Lachlan Young]

It would be kind of weird for them to get into that aside from the pinhole stuff Mike was making for Harman. I thought he retired a while ago but who knows.

Maybe all this is just an ad for the annual ULF window rather than a new product.

He officially fully retired about 6 months ago, hopefully the tooling won't go the way of the 4x5 field camera (thrown out by the moulding company).

 

[mshchem]

Based on the color of Pan F packaging that's my bet.

 

[MCB18]

He officially fully retired about 6 months ago, hopefully the tooling won't go the way of the 4x5 field camera (thrown out by the moulding company).

That actually super sucks to hear. From my understanding, a lot of agreements actually involve you buying the tooling and just leasing the machines from the molding company, so they probably shouldn’t have thrown those out.

 

[Milpool]

He officially fully retired about 6 months ago, hopefully the tooling won't go the way of the 4x5 field camera (thrown out by the moulding company).

Sometime around 2012 (?) I bought a 45 SF from him. He was very generous with his time in answering my many questions. Interesting designs.

Why anyone would want to used Pan F rather than Delta 100 particularly for large format is a mystery to me.

Ilford sheet film holders or a properly functioning quick/readyload-type system might be nice. Not going to happen but anyway.

 

[Ian Grant]

Based on the color of Pan F packaging that's my bet.

FP4 and Delta 100 use blue in their packaging, HP5 and Delta 400 Green, so logically a new Delta 25 (or 50) could be the same yellow/orange packaging as Pan F.

I agree with @Lachlan Young I would much prefer a completely new slow UFG (Ultra Fine Grain). Pan F has its issues, latent image stability for instance, I preferred Agfa AP25 then APX25 in 120 when shooting it in a 6x9 roll film back, alongside 5x4 APX100 or Kodak's Tmax100 @ 50 EI.

Someone says why do we need a IFG film as sheet film. I remember EFKE films being marketed in the UK 1978 after the plant and rights had been transferred from DuPont, in Germany, to Zagreb. LF quality from KB14 (20 ASA Tungsten), well almost in terms of fine grain, excellent sharpness with the best lenses, horribly poor emulsion hardening. I would add hardener to the developer.

Then Kodak introduced Technical Pan, in 35mm people claimed LF quality in POTA or Technidol. But hey Tech Pan was available as sheet film. EFKE improved their film hardening, a game changer, emulsions were renamed with their ASA Tungsten light speeds, instead of DIN. KB14 became KB25, the KB just means "cine" 35mm format R was roll film and PL sheet film.

I still use 5x4 EFKE PL25 occasionally at its 50 ISO Daylight speed, it us such a sharp, grain-less film. I still have a couple of boxes of 10x8, but just a few sheets of 5x4 left.

For photographers like Clyde Butcher shooting LF and printing up to 52"x76" a sheet film like Pan F or a slow Delta film would be of interest.

Ian

 

[Agulliver]

A new slow film from Ilford would be welcome. The background colour suggests it could possibly be PanF but a new 25 or 50 ISO film instead would make some commercial sense.

It's either a new B&W LF film in regular circulation (not related to the ULF which has already been announced) or it's a LF camera.