Written by James Baturin
For years my go-to high speed black and white film has been Ilford Delta 3200, shot and developed at 1600.
Pulling it one stop softens the contrast and grain just a touch, and for situations where lighting conditions are low (like indoor portraits), 1600 ISO is still enough to get sharp results without a tripod.
But as much as I’m happy with it, it’s always good to have options. So I decided to do a little comparison to see how another popular black and white film, Ilford HP5+, would hold up shot at the same ISO.
Find Ilford Delta 3200 and Ilford HP5+ 400 on Amazon.
Pushing Ilford HP5
Ilford HP5+ is a 400 ISO film, which means shooting and developing it at 1600 is pushing it 2 full stops.
This means I’m intentionally underexposing my film in camera, and adding more time in development to compensate. (You can learn more about pushing film here!)
Usually pushing your film will increase the grain and contrast, so I was expecting the HP5+ results to be approaching the level of grain and contrast of the Delta 3200.
Method for Comparison
So my method to compare Ilford Delta 3200 to Ilford HP5 was to shoot two rolls of film back to back on my Hasselblad 500CM, shooting a similarly composed shot on each roll for the comparison.
I shot both rolls at ISO 1600 and kept apertures and shutter speeds consistent as well.
Both films were developed in Kodak HC-110 (dilution B), using the Massive Dev Chart times for both rated at 1600.
If you want to learn more about developing your own film, this article has great step-by-step instructions for developing black and white film at home.
The Results
Once the negatives were developed and scanned, the results were more or less as I expected.
For the most part, Delta 3200 showed more tonal range in the shadows and highlights, with the Ilford HP5+ having stronger mid-tone values.
There were some exceptions to this, namely in the portrait shots, and in the indoor shots of the house plant, where HP5+ had more contrast and deeper blacks.
But this could be due to photographer error (especially in the case of the portrait shot on Delta 3200, where after shooting the last frame I forgot to wind the roll before opening the back and ended up with all kinds of light leaks; it looks cool, but it could have affected the overall exposure).
The grain is where I noticed the most difference between the two films.
I expected that after pushing the HP5+ two stops that there would be A LOT of grain. And while the grain was definitely more pronounced than HP5+ shot at box speed, it was nowhere near the amount of grain in the Delta 3200 shots.
This also means that the HP5+ shots are much sharper than the Delta 3200.
So if you like lots of grain, Delta 3200 is still your best bet!
Final Thoughts
Overall, I think I prefer the look of the HP5+ shot at 1600 over Delta 3200 shot at 1600.
While I’m all about contrast and grain in my black and white photos, HP5+ does it with a little more subtlety, and gives you a sharper image.
Nevertheless, I am happy to have both as good options for when I need to shoot a high speed black and white film!
Thank you so much, James! James is a regular contributor here at Shoot It With Film, and you can check out his other articles here, including Understanding Reciprocity Failure in Film Photography and Fujifilm Acros vs Acros II Film Stock Comparison. You can also check out James’s work on Instagram.
Leave your questions about the Ilford Delta 3200 at 1600 and Ilford HP5 at 1600 below in the comments, and you can pick up both of these film stocks for yourself on Amazon here: Ilford Delta 3200 and Ilford HP5+ 400
Check out more film stock reviews and comparisons here!
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Blog Comments
Brittany
April 23, 2021 at 5:44 pm
Thank you for writing this! I have been searching the web for exactly this info – which B&W stock to shoot indoors at a higher ISO 🙂
Michael Moore
April 26, 2021 at 12:18 am
Thanks for this! I’ve been trying HP5+ at 800 and liking it a lot, and also have shot Delta3200 at 400, which is also interesting. But never rigorously tested them side by side. So this is helpful!
Paul
May 24, 2021 at 3:10 am
I would like to try to shoot hp5 @ 800 or @1600 iso with my rollei 35. The shutter speed max is 1/500 and the aperture is f22. With sunny 16 rules this is not possible. How can I make it possible?
Brett Rogers
July 25, 2021 at 3:58 am
Paul—you can’t shoot HP5 Plus at “800 or
Brett Rogers
July 25, 2021 at 4:15 am
Paul,
HP5 Plus is an ISO 400 speed film. “ISO” refers to ISO 6:1993 which is an international standard. See:
https://www.iso.org/standard/3580.html
If you elect to rate the film at an alternative sensitivity, what you are doing is applying a particular *Exposure Index* (“EI”) to the film. James’ use of ISO interchangeably with Exposure Index does nothing to promote a better appreciation of this much misunderstood point.
Getting back to question you’ve asked—because it is obviously impossible for you to use a short enough exposure time and/or stop down a Rollei 35 to get close to a optimum Sunny 16 exposure for Exposure Index 1600, the most practical option is to fit a neutral density filter to the lens, which can block a couple of stops or so of light from actually traversing through the lens to the film. I’d suggest at least a 4 x filter factor, but if available, higher will give you a greater range of aperture (depth of field) options.
Regards,
Brett Rogers
AMJ
July 12, 2021 at 4:37 am
The problem with Delta 3200 is the misleading name. It’s not a real ISO 3200 film and never has been, such film stock never came to be. If you start looking at the film box carefully you’ll see there’s no statement that’s it’s an ISO 3200 film. It’s true speed is around 1000-1250, but it’s supposed to be great for pushing. If you shoot it at 1600, you’re already pushing the film.
SJD
August 15, 2021 at 3:28 pm
Absolutely.
However at 1600 we’re only pushing Delta ‘3200’ by about a third of a stop or less.
HP5 is already giving up 2 stops.
But is still sharper, has tighter grain and a more managable tonality.
it’s a remarkable film.
I like Tri-X at 320.
I love HP5+ at 800 or 1600.
Charles Vernon Watson
February 19, 2022 at 9:40 pm
I have a test I would like you to try. At ISO 1000, compare Delta 3200, Santa 1000, and Tri-X.
Alasdair J Mackintosh
March 12, 2023 at 7:40 pm
Thanks for publishing this – it’s nice to see a side by side comparison, and it does make a good case for HP5+ being a very versatile film. However, I’m not sure I really agree with the assessment that in the shot of the house plans, HP5 is showing ‘deeper blacks’. It seems to me that this is the shot that’s really showing the difference between the two films. Delta 3200 is clearly capturing more details in the deep shadows than HP5 is, and that’s exactly what you’d expect. Pushing HP5 isn’t going to let it bring out quite the same shadow detail as a faster film. But I’m still impressed at how well it does 😉