Lomography

The Ilford Delta 3200 Professional black & white negative film is a very reliable companion for gray winter days. If you're not after colors but you've to struggle with bad to no light conditions and yet you don't want to use a tripod nor a flash - you should give this film a try!

December had broken cold and gray. There was no color nor hint of color. There were just these distinctive plain hues of ochre, yellow-brown to brown with very few spots of green that nature was offering.

I had been thinking about getting out and taking pictures once again. Since the world had been appearing so monochromatically to me, I thought about trying a black & white film. Exposing a color film would be a waste. Once this decision was made, the ISO rating was left to consider. December days are very short and I wanted to avoid a tripod. Since I tend to the extreme sometimes, I decided to buy the fastest film available — the Ilford Delta 3200 Professional Black and White film. I hadn’t been having any experiences with that high ISO rating yet. Expected increase of an amplified film grain got worrying me a bit.

So here’s what I have been experiencing with the Ilford Delta 3200:

All pictures were taken freehand, without using a tripod or flash. Exposure time was never below 1/30s with these shots.

Photos by andyresag

This scene was merely lit up by those tungsten lamps, you can see. It was a very weak orange-tinted light, coming from those lamps. But this film still gave me at least 1/125s! The train was still moving fast. There’s a noticeable depth of field in the image. So it could be an aperture of f/4, but I can’t exactly recall it.

Photo by andyresag

This scene is only lit by one row of fluorescent tubes:

Photos by andyresag

In conclusion, I can say that I’ve been being very satisfied with the results. You can use this film in very bad light conditions to shoot freehand without a flash. The higher film grain that comes with highest ISO-rating is distinctive but still pleasant. The way it appears depends on the scene you shoot,I think. If you like more-grainy shots, you can use this film in better light conditions too. This film is able to provide sharp contrasty to very soft-looking images.

Photos by andyresag

Anyway, it’s a perfect choice for gray winter days.

Ilford Deltapro 3200 120 allows for hand-held shooting in low light without a flash. It also features a fat film grain for that authentic old-school “noir” look. Check it out with the rest of our black and white film selection.