Ilford Delta 400 Professional is a high-speed, ISO 400 black-and-white negative film created for photographers who need maximum speed without sacrificing fine grain or image sharpness. Powered by Ilford’s modern Core-Shell crystal technology, Delta 400 delivers extraordinary clarity and micro-contrast, making it a powerful choice for handheld street photography, action, low-light documentary work, and environmental portraits. It offers exceptional versatility and exceptional latitude, performing reliably across various lighting conditions. While rated nominally at ISO 400/27°, it features impressive exposure latitude and can easily be pushed to ISO 1600 or 3200 with standard black-and-white chemistry when shooting in difficult lighting.
Delta 400 Professional
Nominal ISO
400
B&W negative
B&W
In production
Development times
Development times by developer
22 developers
- Delta 400 Professional in Acufine 11
- Delta 400 Professional in D-76 20
- Delta 400 Professional in FX-39 Type II 1
- Delta 400 Professional in Fomadon Excel W27 2
- Delta 400 Professional in Fomadon P 2
- Delta 400 Professional in Fomadon R09 1
- Delta 400 Professional in HC-110 15
- Delta 400 Professional in ID-11 20
- Delta 400 Professional in Ilfosol 3 12
- Delta 400 Professional in Ilfotec DD 5
- Delta 400 Professional in Ilfotec DD-X 12
- Delta 400 Professional in Ilfotec HC 15
- Delta 400 Professional in Ilfotec LC29 22
- Delta 400 Professional in Ilfotec RT Rapid 10
- Delta 400 Professional in Microphen 26
- Delta 400 Professional in Perceptol 11
- Delta 400 Professional in Rodinal 9
- Delta 400 Professional in T-Max Developer 12
- Delta 400 Professional in T-Max RS 4
- Delta 400 Professional in Ultrafin Plus 11
- Delta 400 Professional in Ultrafin SF 18
- Delta 400 Professional in XTOL 28
Character
Delta 400 offers a clean, modern aesthetic that sets it apart from traditional cubic-grain films like HP5 Plus. It balances speed and image structure by maintaining tight grain and strong contrast even in challenging lighting.
Grain Structure: Unusually fine and smooth for a fast ISO 400 emulsion, delivering a polished, high-resolution finish.
Sharpness & Resolving Power: High acutance and precise edge definition, preserving fine textures and sharp outlines across complex scenes.
Contrast & Latitude: Medium-high inherent contrast with a wide tonal range. Highlights stay detailed and shadows retain texture when exposed accurately.
Aesthetic Signature: Modern, sharp, and crisp—providing a punchy, contemporary look rather than the gritty, organic feel of classic ISO 400 films.
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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
- 2001
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 | 2.7 s |
| 5 s | 9.7 s |
| 10 s | 26 s |
| 30 s | 2 min 01 s |
| 1 min 00 s | 5 min 22 s |
| 2 min 00 s | 14 min 14 s |
| 5 min 00 s | 51 min 50 s |
Tc = Tm^P for metered times over 1 s; 1 s or less needs no correction (P = 1.41)
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Written by photographers, under their own profile — so you can see what they shoot before you weigh what they say.
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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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