KentmerePan 100

Kentmere Pan 100 is a panchromatic ISO 100 black-and-white negative film made by Harman technology, the maker of Ilford film. Harman presents it as a medium-speed film for good lighting, indoors or outdoors, and for enlargements [1]. Ilford’s own site lists it as Kentmere 100 [2]. Some photographers say the current AgfaPhoto APX 100 is the same film; that is not confirmed.

Look and color

Kentmere Pan 100 is panchromatic, so it turns colors into grays through its own spectral sensitivity. Harman publishes no spectral curve for it [1], and nothing on this page is measured on real film. The Grain Archive style reuses the channel weights of its Kentmere Pan 400 style, an assumption halfway between its Tri-X and HP5 Plus values [11].

• Smooth mid-tones. Parallax saw “a great range of mid tones” and “smooth gradation in the greys” [5]. Ilford’s product page describes a broad tonal range [3].
• Shadows and highlights. Parallax says it held lots of detail in the shadows and handled the highlights well [5]. My Favourite Lens saw the film keep cloud detail on a sunny day [6].
• Less depth than FP4 Plus. Parallax found FP4 gives “a bit more depth” and more contrast [5].
• Filters. Harman gives no filter factors; it says to follow the filter maker’s instructions [1].

Tonality

• Development sets the contrast. With Harman’s listed times, the film gives negatives of “average contrast” for printing in any enlarger; the times are a guide and can be changed [1]. At 20 °C and EI 100: 9 minutes in ID-11 stock or Kodak D-76 stock, 10½ minutes in Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 [1].
• Reviews contradict each other. Parallax finds less contrast than FP4 [5], while My Favourite Lens reports “good contrast” and calls the 400 flat and murky by comparison [6]. PetaPixel puts the 100 slightly above the 400 in contrast [4]. The Grain Archive style settles on medium to soft contrast, close to Harman’s “average” [11].
• Latitude. My Favourite Lens says printable results are possible from ISO 50 to 200 [6]; Harman lists times at EI 50, 100 and 200 [1]. Photo-Analogue found that two stops over, mid-tones and highlights separate less well, though the frames were probably still printable [8].
• Long exposures. No correction from 1 to 1/10,000 s. Beyond 1 s, adjusted time is metered time to the power 1.26 [1].

Grain and sharpness

• Harman says the film can make images with “fine grain and good sharpness” but gives no granularity figure and no resolving power [1]. No table is given here: neither this datasheet nor the Kentmere Pan 400 one publishes an RMS value.
• Parallax calls it “very fine grain” for 35 mm [5]. My Favourite Lens reports minimal grain and sharp fine detail, better than the ISO 400 [6].
• Mr Leica finds a more “obvious classic grain structure” than in Ilford’s Pan 100, and thinks they are different formulas [7].
• Photo-Analogue found the grain sympathetic to the half-frame format, and smooth with sharpness when pulled to ISO 50 in Rodinal [8].
• In our style renders, the grain layer is finer than in the Pan 400 style and slightly coarser than in the FP4 Plus one. That is an estimate from these reviews, not a measurement of film [11].

Names, status and history

• Brand. Kentmere was a UK maker of photographic paper, bought by Harman technology in October 2007 [9]. Harman uses the name for a budget film range below its Ilford brand [4].
• Names. The datasheet says “KENTMERE PAN 100” [1]; Ilford’s product pages say “Kentmere 100” [2] [3].
• Formats. Harman’s datasheet lists 135 cassettes (24 or 36 exposures, DX coded), 35 mm bulk lengths of 30.5 m (100 ft) and 120 roll film, on 0.125 mm acetate base [1]. The 120 version was announced in December 2022 [4].
• Status. In production: Ilford Photo’s site lists the 35 mm and 120 versions, as checked on September 30, 2026 [2] [3]. The datasheet we used is dated July 2022 [1].
• AgfaPhoto APX 100: disputed. Forum posters say the current AgfaPhoto APX 100 is Kentmere 100 under another label, and Camera-wiki notes that Harman has licensed Kentmere films for rebranding [9]. A Leica Forum thread found no definitive proof, and one poster doubted it based on sample photos [10]. Neither company confirms a link. The current AgfaPhoto film is not the original Agfa APX 100.

Also sold as

• AgfaPhoto APX 100 (current) (disputed) [9]