What an exciting roll! First, this is a new camera body, the Pentax KM. A step up from the ever popular K1000 but paradoxically less expensive, the KM has a fully mechanical shutter ranging from 1/1000s to 1s. Remembering the disappointment of the failing electronics of the K2, this means that even if the light meter fails one can still use the KM as a camera! That’s good, however the light meter does work (although it’s off by about a stop and a half, which I compensate for by adjusting the ISO). The KM was a delight to shoot, slightly annoying to load, and seems robust.

Second, this is a new filmstock! And not just for me, I mean a new filmstock, not even just respooled film being sold under a new name. Harman, the producers of Ilford black and white films such as HP5+ and FP4+, also produces a cheaper line of films under the Kentmere brand. These films include less silver than the Ilford line, meaning lower cost but potentially lower contrast or sharpness. Kentmere 100 and 400 have been produced for years, but Kentmere 200 released in May of 2025 — a new filmstock, in 2025, How exciting!!

The roll itself was fine enough, although I had a LOT of trouble drying it correctly to remove water spots. In the process I managed to scratch the film in several places, which show up as artifacts in the photographs.

One Specific Tree

At my desk, where I should have been doing work, I often stare out the window at a tree. It’s losing its leaves at the moment as winter rolls in, but that has revealed the many, many birds that stop by over the day. The tree itself is nice, and I’ve taken a few frames of the leaves and branches that seemed interesting to stare at. However, I’ve really wanted to photograph the birds. That’s not an easy task! First, it would be preferable to have much more light than we tend to get at the moment. Second, that light would really be better coming from behind the camera rather than backlighting the birds. Third, my longest lens is 200mm, which is relatively short for wildlife photography. Still, life is for living, so here’s a days work spent photographing a tree.

Clouds and Landscapes

I had to pull the heck out of the shadows to get detail in the foreground flora, which has caused the clouds to suffer in contrast a little. However, I think the composition is still nice.
It was luck that a seagull decided to grace my viewfinder as I finalized the shot! I like the steam rising against the clouds, there’s something this photograph has to say about industry and nature.
The ever-classic balcony shot to load in a new roll, now at 135mm. Here we see some of the scratches I mentioned, as well as the detail achieved by Kentmere 200. I would say it’s pretty good! Certainly good enough for my needs. The grain is also fantastic, a little better than the grain seen in ISO 400 films. This could well be a contender for a good, standard film.
Moody cloud composition. It seems all we’ve had for the last week are clouds. Oh, how I miss the sun.

University

A familiar hall, for me, just outside my lab at university. The composition came out a little soft; I think I forgot to refocus when taking this, and I used f/2 just to get enough light to shoot handheld. I would like to revisit a composition down this hallway. It’s mundane, but it’s one I’ve walked most days for several years now.

A Night Walk

I’ve spent so long photographing at ISO 50, or even lower with some of the expired films, that I really didn’t have the ability to shoot anything at night. There simply isn’t enough light! ISO 200 is still pushing it, but I gave it a shot (no pun intended). Call it experimentation.