Kentmere Pan 400 is the black-and-white film we hand to students who want to shoot a lot without spending a lot. Made in Cheshire alongside Ilford’s films, it’s now available in 35mm, bulk rolls and 120 – and in 2026 it’s still one of the best-value ways to learn the darkroom properly.

A short history of Kentmere Pan 400

Kentmere started out as a small UK photographic paper maker. Harman technology, the company behind Ilford Photo, bought Kentmere Photographic in 2007 and moved production to its Mobberley plant in Cheshire, where Kentmere products are now made alongside Ilford’s black-and-white films, papers and chemistry.

Kentmere-branded films arrived in 2009, as Kosmo Foto has reported. For years they were 35mm-only, sold in 24 and 36-exposure cassettes and bulk lengths. That changed on 1 December 2022, when Harman announced Kentmere Pan 100 and Pan 400 in 120, pointing out that 75% of the 8,600-plus respondents to its global film users survey shot 120 and wanted a choice of price points.

Harman has always been clear about where Kentmere sits. Its sales and marketing director Giles Branthwaite said at the 120 launch that “ILFORD will always be our flagship brand” and that the Kentmere films “are not necessarily intended as ‘professional’ films”. That’s a refreshingly honest pitch – and it’s exactly why we like it for teaching.

Why Kentmere Pan 400 still matters

The look: Harman describes Pan 400 as having classic-looking grain, good sharpness and pleasing contrast. In practice that means a traditional, slightly gritty 400-speed look rather than the smoothness of a tabular-grain film – which is what many students want when they first pick up a film camera.

Latitude: Harman stresses its wide exposure latitude and pitches it at beginners and returning film users. That forgiveness matters when a class is still learning to meter, and it copes with the occasional overexposed frame far better than slide film ever would.

Pushing: Harman says Pan 400 handles push processing well, and its data sheet includes times for EI 800 in ID-11, DD-X, Microphen and Kodak D-76 – handy for dark autumn evenings indoors.

Formats: 35mm in 24 and 36 exposures, 30.5m (100ft) bulk rolls for those who load their own cassettes, and 120 for medium format. That makes it easy for a student to move from a 35mm SLR to a medium format camera without changing their working method.

Price: It’s Harman’s lower-cost entry point – at the time of writing a roll of 35mm or 120 costs well under £10 (see price and availability below).

Practical darkroom notes: Because it comes from the same factory as Ilford’s films, it works with familiar chemistry. Ilford’s own Kentmere 400 product page gives a starting time of 9½ minutes in ID-11 stock at 20°C, with times also listed for Microphen, Ilfotec HC, LC29, DD-X and Ilfosol 3.

Our darkroom notes

Ali runs a Tuesday night darkroom evening course, teaching with the college’s Pentax K1000s, Hasselblad 500C, Mamiya RB67s and Sinar cameras, and owns a collection of Canon film bodies including the AE-1, F-1, T90, EOS-1N and A-1. This week’s roll went through the Canon AE-1 – the kind of affordable, widely available SLR many of our students turn up with.

Is Kentmere Pan 400 still worth buying in 2026?

Yes – especially if you’re learning, teaching or simply shooting a lot. It isn’t trying to compete with Ilford HP5 Plus or Delta 400 on outright finesse, and Harman doesn’t pretend otherwise. What it offers is a forgiving, pushable 400-speed film made in the UK, in every format most students need, at a price that encourages you to burn through rolls and actually practise.

For a beginner with a Canon AE-1, Pentax K1000 or similar, that’s worth more than a slightly finer grain structure. Once you’ve nailed metering and development on Kentmere, moving to a premium film will be a choice rather than a necessity.

Kentmere Pan 400 specifications

Kentmere Pan 400 price and availability

Kentmere Pan 400 is widely available from UK film retailers. When we checked on 22 October 2026, First Call Photographic was selling 35mm 36-exposure rolls for £6.37, 24-exposure rolls for £5.63, 120 rolls for £6.37 and 30m bulk rolls for £86.74 (all including a 10% discount), while Analogue Wonderland had 120 rolls at £6.95. Prices and stock change frequently, so it’s worth shopping around.

Full details are on Ilford Photo’s Kentmere 400 product page.