Ilford FP4+

Don McCullin still loads FP4+ for projects where the light cooperates. So does most of the working print-darkroom crowd in London. There is a reason: at ISO 125 with the modern Plus formulation, FP4+ produces negatives that print easier on graded paper than almost any other film at this speed, and the grain stays out of the way at 16x20.

What changes when you switch from HP5+ down to FP4+ is the negative thickness. FP4+ holds shadow detail without going dense, and highlights take a long, slow time to peak. You can overexpose a stop and the print comes back cleaner. You can underexpose a stop and the shadows still hold something. That cushion is why people in the darkroom keep choosing it.

Develop it in anything reasonable. D-76 1:1, HC-110 Dilution B, Rodinal 1:50, Microphen for the rare push. All of them give predictable times because the emulsion does not punish you for being a little off on temperature or agitation. Pyrocat-HD pulls a slightly warmer print tone out of it that some platinum-palladium workers chase, but for normal silver gelatin work you do not need anything exotic.

Ilford makes it in 35mm, 120, and sheets up to 8x10. The 4x5 is what landscape and portrait shooters tend to keep in stock for tripod work; the 35mm is the bulk-loader's friend because the grain tightens enough at 125 to print large from a small negative.

Reciprocity exponent is 1.26, marginally gentler than HP5+ at 1.31. A 30-second meter reading climbs to about 75 seconds at the film instead of 90. Zone Light Meter handles that math the second you pass one second on the dial, which matters for interior architecture and any low-light tripod scene where the meter says 4 or 5 seconds and your actual exposure will be longer.