Ilford Delta 3200

Delta 3200 is not actually a 3200-speed film. Its true sensitivity sits closer to ISO 1000, and Ilford designs it to be pushed in development to the marketed speed. Most photographers who shoot it expose at 1600 and push one stop, getting cleaner shadows than a pure 3200 rating delivers. The grain pattern is unmistakable: large, soft, almost photogravure in texture, with mid-tones that look painted rather than recorded.

Trent Parke shot most of Minutes to Midnight on Ilford FP4 across the Australian outback at dusk, but for the late and after-dark frames where FP4 could not hold detail he pushed Delta 3200. Antoine d'Agata uses it for the lit-only-by-streetlight Magnum work that has made him notorious. The combination of speed and forgiveness is what these projects need; nothing else gets close.

The stock holds shadow detail when rated at 1600 and pushed one stop in DD-X or Microphen. Rated at the box 3200 it works but shadow noise gets blocky. Rated at 6400 with a two-stop push it still produces printable negatives, just with the grain crank turned all the way up.

Available in 35mm and 120 only; no sheet sizes. The 120 negative is the one Delta 3200 photographers prize: the grain is smaller relative to the frame and the tonal range opens up.

Reciprocity exponent is 1.31, the same as the rest of the Ilford traditional silver line. For night work past one second, Zone Light Meter applies the correction so a thirty-second meter reading climbs to about ninety seconds at the negative.