Harman Kentmere 200 officially released 2025/05/08

[Cerebum]

I absolutely love it, but, I do feel they are ripping us off with the pricing of bulk rolls. I love Fomapan 200 (in Pyro) and often but bulk rolls. Single rolls of Fomapan and Kentmere 200 are pretty much the same price. That being the case, why is Kentmere 200 in 100ft rolls a full 30% more expensive than Fomapan.

I would still buy bulk rolls, but I would grumble

 

[agentlossing]

I would still buy bulk rolls, but I would grumble

That's what I'm pondering. I like the results in Rodinal at box speed and pushed a stop. I might give a two-stop push a try, just to know if I could do that. Currently pondering between this, Kentmere 400 or Fomapan 100 or 400 for a bulk roll.

 

[albireo]

Bumping this thread for any further conclusions people may have reached about this film. I have a couple of rolls developed so far, trying to decide whether to buy a 100' roll of this or another relatively inexpensive(ish) film stock.

I bought my customary initial two bricks of 10x rolls. I went through the first brick and I'm not a fan. Halation is extreme (for my taste): areas in strong sun and direct light and high-key photographs in general, suffer from 'diffuse' highlights and noticeable loss of sharpness. The grain is pretty evident, much bigger (in my workflow) than what I get with competing products (Ferrania P33, Foma 200).

For reference, I really like Kentmere 100 and Kentmere 400. Their halation is much less extreme, and they're perfectly good replacements of, respectively, FP4+ and HP5+ in 80% of the situations I photograph in. Kentmere 100 has much finer grain than Kentmere 200, whose grain is not too far off the one in K400, in the developers I use.

The pricing doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Kentmere 100 and 400 are generally cheaper. Foma 100 and 200, two fantastic, flawless films in 35mm (as opposed to 120 where they can be problematic) are much cheaper than Kentmere 200. A few cents more than what I pay for Kentmere 200 here in Europe gets me some FP4+ or HP5+ which are more versatile, mature and reliable products with great halation control and sharpness.

Anyhow, I've now sold my second brick of K200 and I don't think I will experiment further.

 

[agentlossing]

I bought my customary initial two bricks of 10x rolls. I went through the first brick and I'm not a fan. Halation is extreme, for my taste, which means that areas in strong sun and direct light and high-key photographs in general suffer from 'diffuse' highlights and loss of sharpness. The grain is pretty noticeable, much bigger (in my workflow) than what I get with competing products (Ferrania P33, Foma 200).

For reference, I really like Kentmere 100 and Kentmere 400. Their halation is much less extreme, and they're perfectly good replacements of, respectively, FP4+ and HP5+ in 80% of the situations I photograph in. Kentmere 100 has a much finer grain than Kentmere 200, whose grain is not too far off the one in K400, in the developers I use.

The pricing doesn't make a lot of sense to me. A few cents more than what I pay for K200 here in Europe gets me some FP4+ or HP5+ which are more versatile, mature products.

Anyhow, I've now sold my second brick of K200 and I don't think I will experiment further.

Here, Kentmere 200 is $7.99 a roll, and 400 can be found for $7.49 per roll, while HP5 is around $11. Bulk is $108 for 200, $99 for 400, $155 for HP5. The latter is still my film of choice for pushing, or for situations where I need a great negative, but I do need to save money where I can with this hobby.

The halation was apparent in one roll I pushed to 400, though I also overdeveloped that roll due to not having published times for Rodinal. You're right that K400 is probably better (though I haven't found it to like Rodinal). It's just a little flat, but nothing some light editing can't fix.

 

[dkirby]

You can usually find 100' rolls of Kentmere for ~$80 somewhere (for example link, though currently out of stock) which comes out to ~$4.55/36 exp roll, compared to the $7.99 price for 36 exp rolls currently on b&h.

Additionally, B&H should be having their BILD expo soon. Last year they were selling 100' of Kentmere for $61 iirc ($3.39/36 exp) during BILD. I don't expect prices to be that low this year, but what I'm driving at is that it's possible to make significant savings when bulk rolling Kentmere by targeting sale prices or shopping around. I buy a couple hundred feet when I see a good price and then that holds me until the next time I see a good price.

Regarding K200, I must say that I didn't like it either. I found it to handle skin tones poorly; its tendency to lose definition in its highlights ime leads to a poor rendition of caucasian faces in sunlight, and it will also sort of mush "lighter" non-caucasian skin into a single inaccurate tone, making it broadly ill-suited for photos of people as I'm interested in them. I also found that it lacks the tonality and definition I look for in landscape work, so no real fit there for me either. I gave away half my testing batch to someone who enjoys it and don't plan to buy more.

FWIW I love K100 and K400, and find them to be the best bang for your buck out there. Not suitable for every application, but great for most.

 

[albireo]

I found it to handle skin tones poorly; its tendency to lose definition in its highlights ime leads to a poor rendition of caucasian faces in sunlight

You are - in my experience - absolutely spot on with this observation.

 

[agentlossing]

Thank you all for the insight, taking it all into consideration.

 

[BobDavid]

I love 120 Kentmere 200. It's not as nice as HP5, but the price is right.