We're often asked what the differences are between our PLUS films and our DELTA Professional range and have given a brief reply in our post about Choosing your first ILFORD film.

If you're interested in a more detailed explanation, the read on...

HP5 PLUS 

HP5+ black and white film sample print

Conventional Film Crystal

 

  • Uses our more traditional emulsion making methods.
  • HP5+ has evolved over many years to become an extremely flexible and robust film.
  • Has extremely good exposure latitude and is very tolerant of under/over exposure.
  • Images have a excellent sharpness and with a traditional look and feel.
  • Flexible choice of developers, robust to over/under development.
  • Good push characteristics EI 400 - 3200

DELTA 400 PROFESSIONAL

Delta 400 black and white film sample print

Delta 400 Professional Crystal

  • More contemporary emulsion design.
  • Uses ILFORD Photo proprietary controlled Core-Shell™ crystal growth technology. (Not the same as Kodak T-Grain)
  • Core shell crystals have carefully tailored sensitometric properties to ensure maximum details captured in highlight and shadows.
  • More uniform grain structure with finer grain compared to HP5. Grain size is closer to medium speed film like FP4+
  • Images have exceptional sharpness and a "cleaner" look.  
  • Choice of developer is more important and processing needs to be more precise than HP5+
  • Longer fixing times than HP5+
  • Correct exposure more important than HP5+ (Less latitude for exposure errors and processing accuracy)
  • Good Push/Pull characteristics EI 200 - 3200
  • Negatives are easy to print. When exposed and processed correctly, negatives have good tonal range and are slightly easier to print than conventional films.