Ilford Delta 3200 Professional is an ultra-high-speed black-and-white negative film designed for fast-action and extreme low-light conditions. Powered by Ilford’s Core-Shell crystal technology, it offers a nominal ISO speed of 1000/31°, but is specially engineered to be shot at EI 3200 and push-processed seamlessly up to EI 6400 or 12500. This makes it an essential choice for dimly lit gig venues, night photography, candid indoor photojournalism, and high-speed motion capture where available light is minimal. Processing in standard black-and-white developers yields rich, surprisingly usable shadow detail and strong highlights even under severe underexposure.
Delta 3200 Professional
Nominal ISO
3200
B&W negative
B&W
In production
Development times
Development times by developer
12 developers
- Delta 3200 Professional in Fomadon Excel W27 1
- Delta 3200 Professional in Fomadon P 1
- Delta 3200 Professional in Fomadon R09 1
- Delta 3200 Professional in ID-11 12
- Delta 3200 Professional in Ilfosol 3 20
- Delta 3200 Professional in Ilfotec DD 6
- Delta 3200 Professional in Ilfotec DD-X 11
- Delta 3200 Professional in Ilfotec HC 13
- Delta 3200 Professional in Ilfotec LC29 13
- Delta 3200 Professional in Ilfotec RT Rapid 10
- Delta 3200 Professional in Microphen 11
- Delta 3200 Professional in Perceptol 8
Character
Delta 3200 delivers a classic, high-contrast, atmosphere-rich aesthetic with a distinct high-speed signature. It allows handheld shooting in near-dark conditions while generating a sharp, painterly image texture.
Grain Structure: Pronounced, prominent, and gritty, yet surprisingly uniform due to modern tabular grain architecture.
Sharpness & Resolving Power: Moderate resolving power with crisp edge contrast, preserving strong structural silhouettes despite thick grain.
Contrast & Latitude: Moderate native contrast, but contrast increases significantly when pushed to EI 3200+. It boasts extreme latitude, rendering usable detail across several stops of push processing.
Aesthetic Signature: Dramatic, moody, and atmospheric—characterized by deep, charcoal blacks, gritty textures, and expressive contrast.
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Specification
- Base
- Acetate
- Emulsion
- Tabular
- Spectral sensitivity
-
Panchromatic — what this means
Sensitive to the whole visible spectrum, so colours turn into greys roughly the way the eye weighs them. This is what almost every general-purpose black and white film is. It has to be loaded and developed in complete darkness — no safelight is safe for it.
- Grain (RMS)
- —
- Resolving power line pairs / mm
- —
- Maximum density
- —
- Latitude over
- +3.0 stops
- Latitude under
- −1.0 stops
- First released
- 1998
A dash means the figure has not been read off a datasheet. Nothing here is estimated.
Long exposures
Reciprocity
| Metered | Expose |
|---|---|
| 1 s | 1 s |
| 2 s | 2.5 s |
| 5 s | 8.5 s |
| 10 s | 21 s |
| 30 s | 1 min 32 s |
| 1 min 00 s | 3 min 52 s |
| 2 min 00 s | 9 min 43 s |
| 5 min 00 s | 32 min 50 s |
Tc = Tm^P for metered times over 1 s; 1 s or less needs no correction (P = 1.33)
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Notes on how this behaves in practice — what it does in the field is worth as much as what the datasheet says.
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