ILFORD HPS FILM 1958

[Nathanael]

found a bunch of this in some boxes in my parents garage. can anyone tell me much about it?

Ilford HPS roll film (120 size) and 35mm film introduced "the fastest film in the world". Fast panchromatic, 400ASA in daylight, 320ASA in tungsten light. The speed revision of 1960 raised the speed to 800ASA. Price; 127 film 3s/1d (15.5p), 120 & 620 film 3s/5d (17p) & 36exp 35mm cassette 9s/2d (46p). Multiply these costs by 17.3 to get 2005 equivalents, so the 35mm cassette of monochrome HPS would cost £7.93p and a 120 roll film £2.96p

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

It's a B&W film, so I've moved it to the B&W forum.

 

[Nathanael]

ah thank you.

if its been sitting in its boxes, still wrapped in the boxes in a dry dark area, is it still good?

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

Well, it's worth shooting a roll, but it's probably going to be very foggy, low contrast, and grainy, and it will have lost some speed. It was Ilford's highest speed film, meant to compete with films like Kodak Royal-X Pan, and high speed films don't age well. Even if they are stored in the freezer, they become fogged by cosmic rays.

 

[Michel Hardy-Vallée]

Jean-Luc Godard's movie Alphaville was shot on HPS using mostly available light, for the record.

 

[j-fr]

I think the 800 ASA version (post-1960) had a low pre-exposure, just to save a few shadow details.

j-fr

www.j-fr.dk

 

[Brac]

It wasn't very successful, it disappeared off the market decades ago. Probably because Ilford's 400 speed film could easily be uprated to 800, so there wasn't much need for the HPS. Then there was no Ilford high speed film until Delta 3200 was introduced some years back.

 

[Karl K]

I shot that HPS at 1600 ASA in the late 1950's and developed it with Diafine. Grain was the size of a golf ball, but I loved it.