![Ilford PAN F Black & white film](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/11/Ilford_PAN_F_Black_%26_white_film.jpg)
Harman Technology, trading as Ilford Photo, is a UK-based manufacturer of photographic materials known worldwide for its ILFORD branded
black-and-white
Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white in a continuous spectrum, producing a range of shades of grey.
Media
The history of various visual media began with black and white, and as technology improved, altered to color. ...
film
A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...
,
papers and chemicals. Historically it also published the ''
Ilford Manual of Photography'', a comprehensive manual of everything photographic, including the
optics
Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behaviour and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. Optics usually describes the behaviour of visible, ultraviole ...
, physics and chemistry of photography, along with recipes for many developers.
Under the ownership of the industrial conglomerate
ICI in the 1960s, the company produced a range of
Ilfochrome
Ilfochrome (also commonly known as Cibachrome) is a dye destruction positive-to-positive photographic process used for the reproduction of film transparencies on photographic paper. The prints are made on a dimensionally stable polyester base as o ...
(Cibachrome) and Ilfocolor colour printing materials at a new plant in Switzerland developed in partnership with the Swiss company
CIBA-Geigy
Novartis AG is a Swiss-American multinational pharmaceutical corporation based in Basel, Switzerland and
Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States (global research).name="novartis.com">https://www.novartis.com/research-development/research-loca ...
, which later acquired ICIs shares. By the 2000s, as the UK - Swiss company Ilford Imaging, the decline of the film market saw the UK company in receivership by 2004, but rescued by a management buy out; Harman Technology Ltd, which today continues the production of traditional black-and-white photographic materials, under the ILFORD, Kentmere and Harman brands.
The ILFORD brand is also shared with the remnant of the former Swiss arm of the company, Ilford Imaging Europe, which applies it to a range of inkjet papers and a disposable colour film camera, but other than a common heritage there is now no connection between the two companies.
History
Britannia Works Company
![Ilford color](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8a/Ilford_color.jpg)
The company was founded in 1879 by
Alfred Hugh Harman
Alfred Hugh Harman (1841 – 23 May 1913) was a pioneer of photography and founder of Ilford Limited.
He established a photography business in Peckham in 1862 using William Fox Talbot’s Calotype negative/positive printing process. In 1864 ...
as the ''Britannia Works Company''. Initially making
photographic plates, it grew to occupy a large site in the centre of
Ilford.
Ilford Ltd
In 1902, it took the name of the town to become ''Ilford Limited'', despite the objections of the local council. Production of roll films commenced in 1912 and the
Mobberley
Mobberley is a village in Cheshire, England, between Wilmslow and Knutsford, which in 2001 had a population of 2,546, increasing to 3,050 at the 2011 Census.
Mobberley railway station is on the Manchester to Chester line. Manchester Airport lie ...
(
Rajar
Radio Joint Audience Research Limited (RAJAR) was established in 1992 to operate a single audience measurement system for the radio industry in the United Kingdom. RAJAR is jointly owned by the BBC and RadioCentre. RAJAR's predecessor was call ...
) factory was acquired in 1928. In 1903 Ilford Ltd., manufacturers of photographic dry-plates, extended their operations, in Great Warley, Brentwood. The company acquired a 14 acre site, adjacent to Woodman Road and planned to provide employment for 350 people. The works were enlarged in later years, and in the mid 1920s this branch became Selo Ltd , a major new manufacturing site was developed in Woodman Road, Brentwood, Essex, known locally as "Selo Works".
The marketing name Selo, for roll films, first appeared in 1930.
![Ilford35mm1957](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/60/Ilford35mm1957.jpg)
In 1959,
ICI acquired a majority share holding in Ilford. In 1963 Ciba AG, Switzerland, who had bought Lumiere, France, the preceding year, and who already owned Swiss photographic coating company Tellko, began to acquire shares in ILFORD as part of a commercial co-operation between Ciba and ILFORD to develop Ciba's dye-bleach print material (for making prints directly from colour transparencies). Originally called Cilchrome ('Cil' derived from the names Ciba, ILFORD and Lumière) the eventual product name was Cibachrome.
Ciba built a new plant in Marly, Switzerland, to coat Cibachrome (renamed ILFOCHROME in 1992 after Ciba withdrew use of their name). The old Tellko factory nearby in the centre of Fribourg was used as the finishing department.
In 1969 Ciba acquired all ICI shares in ILFORD to become sole owner of ILFORD Limited. A year later Ciba merged with JR Geigy to become
Ciba-Geigy
Novartis AG is a Swiss-American multinational pharmaceutical corporation based in Basel, Switzerland and
Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States (global research).name="novartis.com">https://www.novartis.com/research-development/research-loca ...
. In 1983, their
UK headquarters was moved to
Mobberley
Mobberley is a village in Cheshire, England, between Wilmslow and Knutsford, which in 2001 had a population of 2,546, increasing to 3,050 at the 2011 Census.
Mobberley railway station is on the Manchester to Chester line. Manchester Airport lie ...
,
Cheshire
Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...
.
Ilford Anitec
In 1989, Ciba-Geigy sold Ilford to
USA
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
-based
International Paper
The International Paper Company is an American pulp and paper company, the largest such company in the world. It has approximately 56,000 employees, and is headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee.
History
The company was incorporated January 31 ...
company, also owners of graphic arts materials manufacturer Anitec. The two companies were merged in 1990 to become ''Ilford Anitec''. In 1996, the sales and administration offices were also moved from
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
to Mobberley. In the same year, the Selo Works site, in Brentwood, was closed and sold off for housing development.
Ilford Imaging
In 1997 Ilford Anitec was sold onto
Doughty Hanson & Co
Doughty Hanson & Co is a British private equity fund manager focused on leveraged buyout and recapitalization transactions primarily of upper middle-market companies in Europe. The firm also invests opportunistically in European real estate and ...
a British private equity fund manager and subsequently rebranded ILFORD Imaging. In 2002 plans were announced to redevelop the original part of the factory (former Rajar works) for housing to release funds to re-invest in the business, with the housing subsequently constructed in 2004–07.
On 20 August 2004, after earlier that year celebrating 125 years of photographic manufacture, the UK company (ILFORD Imaging UK Limited) went into
receivership
In law, receivership is a situation in which an institution or enterprise is held by a receiver—a person "placed in the custodial responsibility for the property of others, including tangible and intangible assets and rights"—especially in c ...
with debts of £40m. The Swiss manufacturing site and distribution companies was put up for sale as a going concern.
The Swiss part of the company;
Ilford Imaging Switzerland GmbH, and the plant at Marly was bought by the Oji Paper Company of
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
in July 2005. It produced
inkjet
Inkjet printing is a type of computer printing that recreates a digital image by propelling droplets of ink onto paper and plastic substrates. Inkjet printers were the most commonly used type of printer in 2008, and range from small inexpens ...
products and high quality colour photographic products. It was subsequently sold onto Paradigm Global Partners LLP in May 2010 before being declared bankrupt on 9 December 2013 resulting in the closure of the Marly plant.
The 'Ilford Imaging' and ‘ILFORD’ brand and trademarks (but not the Marly plant) was acquired by a joint venture of Australian firm
CR Kennedy & Company Pty Ltd and the Japan-based Chugai Photo Chemical Company named ILFORD Imaging Europe GmbH now based in Germany. The Galerie range of inkjet papers was relaunched in August 2014. The company holds the rights to the 'ILFORD' trademark for photographic applications but otherwise has no connection to Ilford Photo.
The Marly site is now 'Marly Innovation Centre' with alternate uses found for the original buildings. In 2015, Fotoimpex owners of the
ADOX photographic brand and a small scale photographic factory outside Berlin acquired use of the former Ilford Imaging (Ciba Geigy) machine E, medium scale coating line at Marly, with the intention to begin coating ADOX film there in 2018.
Harman Technology
2004–2015
The UK site was subject to a management buyout by 6 former managers of Ilford Imaging UK Limited, which resulted in the formation of Harman Technology Ltd (named after the founder Alfred Harman) in February 2005. The company, now traded as Ilford Photo, produced high quality monochrome photographic products. The Ilford brand was retained by Ilford Imaging Europe GmbH and used under licence by Ilford Photo for its existing film products. To finance the purchase, the Mobberley factory site was sold to Isola Investments Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Perviaz Naviede Family Trust with Ilford Photo remaining as tenant.
![Kentmere 100 135 film cartridge 01](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/eb/Kentmere_100_135_film_cartridge_01.jpg)
In 2007, Harman Technology acquired Kentmere Photographic Limited, a manufacturer of photographic paper in
Kentmere
Kentmere is a valley, village and civil parish in the Lake District National Park, a few miles from Kendal in the South Lakeland district of Cumbria, England. Historically in Westmorland, at the 2011 census Kentmere had a population of 1 ...
, Lake District. Production is moved to Mobberley and in 2009 two new classic grain B&W films are added under the Kentmere brand. Originally designed as a lower priced brand to their Ilford offer to compete in the US market they are now available worldwide with the Kentmere brand particularly aimed at the student market and those new to black and white photography. Harman also contract manufacture similar black and white films for other brands including
AgfaPhoto
AgfaPhoto GmbH is a European photographic company, formed in 2004 when Agfa-Gevaert sold their Consumer Imaging division. Agfa (the former parent company, which merged with film manufacturer Gevaert in 1964) had for many years been well known ...
(APX),
Rollei
Rollei () was a German manufacturer of optical instruments founded in 1920 by and in Braunschweig, Lower Saxony, and maker of the Rolleiflex and Rolleicord series of cameras. Later products included specialty and nostalgic type films for the ...
(RPX), Oriental (Seagull).
In 2012, the company invested £350,000 in a 35mm film cassette making plant, bringing production back in house after relying on external suppliers for 50 years to provide long term surety of supply. The company was also noted as having an 80% share of the black and white photographic market.
In 2014, land owners of the 40 acre Mobberley site submitted a planning application to Cheshire East Council to construct 375 homes on the majority of the site including investment to consolidate Ilford Photo operations onto a smaller 7.5 acre campus within the site. The application was refused and an appeal was made to the planning inspectorate in July 2015. Following a public inquiry in 2016, the appeal was rejected.
2015 – present
On 14 September 2015, ten years on from the original management buy out, Ilford Photo announced that Harman Technology Limited had been acquired by Pemberstone Ventures Limited for an 'undisclosed amount'.
In 2017 the Ilford Lab Direct service, operating from the factory site in the UK was re-name
HARMAN Lab
In May 2018, the company announced a refresh of their existing Ilford film packaging, with Kentmere film packaging refreshed in September 2018.
Both sets of packaging now feature a contrasting Harman Technology sub branding. In December 2018, they launched 'Simplicity' a new range of B&W development chemicals packed in small sachets designed to process 2x135 or 1x120 format films to improve convenience for new or low volume users.
In 2019 Ilford celebrated its 140th year with a 'Silver Ticket Competition' one winning ticket for a factory tour and photographic course being hidden in a 140th anniversary film box and in October the announcement of a number of new products following a teaser campaign on social media. This included Ilford Multigrade V RC Deluxe photographic paper available in Glossy, Pearl and Satin finishes, ORTHO PLUS film in 135 and 120 formats, an Ilford and Paterson film processing starter kit and a Harman reusable camera supplied with 2x 35mm Kentmere Pan 400 films. In 2021 Harman introduced the EZ-35 35mm motorized film camera with a fixed focus 31mm, f/11 lens packaged with a roll of HP5 plus.
Ilford products
Film
*
Pan F Plus 50 (extremely fine grain)
*
FP4 Plus 125
*
HP5 Plus 400
*
Delta
Delta commonly refers to:
* Delta (letter) (Δ or δ), a letter of the Greek alphabet
* River delta, at a river mouth
* D ( NATO phonetic alphabet: "Delta")
* Delta Air Lines, US
* Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19
Delta may also ...
100, 400, and 3200
*
XP2 Super 400
*
SFX 200
*
Ortho Plus 80
Consumer grade, selected markets
* Ilford PAN 100
* Ilford PAN 400
Film developers
* Ilford ID-11
* Ilfosol 3
* Ilfotec DD, DD-X, HC, LC 29, and RT Rapid
* Microphen
* Perceptol
* Phenisol
* Simplicity Developer
Fixers, toners and other chemicals
* Hypam fixer
* Ilford 2000 RT Fixer and Rapid Fixer
* Ilfostop
* Ilfotol wetting agent
* Ilford Washaid
* Harman Selenium Toner
* Simplicity Stop
* Simplicity Fix
Other
* Ilford + Paterson film processing starter kit
Paper
Graded
* Ilfospeed RC Deluxe
* Ilfobrom Galerie FB Grade 3
Variable contrast
* Multigrade V RC Deluxe (2019)
* Multigrade V RC Portfolio (2021)
* Multigrade RC Cooltone
* Multigrade RC Warmtone
* Multigrade RC Express
* Multigrade FB Art 300 (Rag base)
* Multigrade FB Classic (Replaces Multigrade IV FB, Dec 2013)
* Multigrade FB Cooltone (new, Dec 2013)
* Multigrade FB Warmtone
Digital Panchromatic
* Ilfospeed RC Digital
* Galerie FB Digital (special order)
Direct Positive
* HARMAN Direct Positive – FB Glossy
* HARMAN Direct Positive – RC Glossy & Luster
Paper developers
* Bromophen
* Harman Warmtone Developer
* Ilford 2150 XL and 2000 RT
* Multigrade developer
* PQ Universal
Specialist products
*
Nuclear emulsion A nuclear emulsion plate is a type of particle detector first used in nuclear and particle physics experiments in the early decades of the 20th century. https://cds.cern.ch/record/1728791/files/vol6-issue5-p083-e.pdf''The Study of Elementary Partic ...
s
* L4 Plates
* Q plates
* Process control
Kentmere products
Film
![Kentmere 400 135 film cartridge 02](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a9/Kentmere_400_135_film_cartridge_02.jpg)
* Kentmere PAN 100 (named ''Kentmere 100'' until late 2018
)
* Kentmere PAN 400 (named ''Kentmere 400'' until late 2018
)
Paper
Variable contrast
* Kentmere VC Select Lustre
* Kentmere VC Select Glossy
Harman products
Cameras
* Obscura Pinhole Camera
* Harman Titan Pinhole Camera
* Harman HP5+ Single Use Camera
* Harman XP2 Single Use Camera
* Harman reusable Camera with 2 Kentmere Pan 400 films (from 2019)
* Harman EZ 35 motorised film camera with HP5 plus (from 2021)
Inkjet Papers
* Harman Crystal Jet Elite
Discontinued Products
Cameras
Ilford sold a number of
camera
A camera is an Optics, optical instrument that can capture an image. Most cameras can capture 2D images, with some more advanced models being able to capture 3D images. At a basic level, most cameras consist of sealed boxes (the camera body), ...
s under its own name but made for it by other manufacturers, starting with a
'box' camera in 1902, but most were made in the 1940s and 50s. The Ilford ''Witness'' was a
rangefinder camera
A rangefinder camera is a camera fitted with a rangefinder, typically a split-image rangefinder: a range-finding focusing mechanism allowing the photographer to measure the subject distance and take photographs that are in sharp focus. Most va ...
with interchangeable lenses announced in 1947, but not released until 1953 because of manufacturing difficulties (example shown in
Science Museum
A science museum is a museum devoted primarily to science. Older science museums tended to concentrate on static displays of objects related to natural history, paleontology, geology, industry and industrial machinery, etc. Modern trends in mu ...
Collections ) . In the meantime, the simpler ''Advocate'' series 1 was released in 1949 and series 2 in 1952. A pre-release ''Advocate'' series 1 camera was given to
Princess Elizabeth in 1948 ( was unique in having an ivory enamel finish, example in
Science Museum
A science museum is a museum devoted primarily to science. Older science museums tended to concentrate on static displays of objects related to natural history, paleontology, geology, industry and industrial machinery, etc. Modern trends in mu ...
Collections ) It was stolen, but later recovered when it was sent to be repaired. Also released in 1949 was the ''Craftsman'', a
twin-lens reflex
A twin-lens reflex camera (TLR) is a type of camera with two objective lenses of the same focal length. One of the lenses is the photographic objective or "taking lens" (the lens that takes the picture), while the other is used for the viewfind ...
(TLR) which took
120 or 620 film. Then 1951 saw the ''Prentice''
folding camera
A folding camera is a camera type. Folding cameras fold into a compact and rugged package for storage. The lens and shutter are attached to a lens-board which is connected to the body of the camera by a light-tight folding bellows. When the c ...
which also took 120 film.
In 1957, Ilford released the ''Sportsman'', a relabelled West German Dacora Dignette, as a lightly built and cheap 35 mm camera to compete with the better made and more expensive
Kodak Retinette
Kodak Retinette is the name of a classic series of cameras manufactured by the Eastman Kodak company. They were introduced in 1939 as a less expensive alternative to the Kodak Retina series. The first models were of the folding type using bellows ...
. In Germany, a comparative Dignette was about half the price of a Retinette, both coming from the Stuttgart – Black Forest area. The ''Sportsman'' became a series of camera models produced over the following 10 years, including the Super Sporti Camera, in 1960 . In 1958, Ilford released the ''Monobar'', a
monorail camera
Monorail cameras are view cameras with lens mount, bellows, and interchangeable viewing and film backs all fitted along a rigid rail along which they can slide until locked into position.
They can take sheet film in large sizes, and since the ad ...
manufactured by ''Kennedy Instruments'' with a 35 mm back that resembled the earlier ''Advocate'' camera (which KI had also manufactured). The ''Monobar'' allowed the front (lens) and rear (film plane) of the camera to be
moved and rotated, bringing the
scheimpflug principle
The Scheimpflug principle is a description of the geometric relationship between the orientation of the plane of focus, the lens plane, and the image plane of an optical system (such as a camera) when the lens plane is not parallel to the imag ...
to the
35mm 35 mm may refer to:
* 135 film, a type of still photography format commonly referred to as 35 mm film
* 35 mm movie film, a type of motion picture film stock
* 35MM 35 mm may refer to:
* 135 film, a type of still photography format ...
world.
Film
* Surveillance film
* Traffic surveillance film
XP2 Super Development
Unlike most other black and white films,
XP2 Super can be processed in the same chemicals as colour print film (
colour C41 Process). It produces a monochrome (black & white) negative, despite the development process.
Custom film sizing
Whilst Ilford offers its film products in a wide range of common film formats; including 135, 120 and sheet film sizes, there are many more historic sizes that are no longer produced. To assist photographers and artists requiring these and other sizes, since 2005 Ilford Photo has organised via select retailers an annual ultra large, custom and specialist format ordering scheme, similar to a group buying scheme. Customers orders are placed in advance and if there is sufficient demand for a film product to justify conversion to that size the orders are fulfilled.
Lab services
In January 2008, the Ilford Process and Print Service (formerly Ilford Premium Direct) was brought in-house to the manufacturing site in Mobberley, Cheshire, UK. the following year Ilford Photo re-launched the in-house black-and-white lab service as "Ilford Lab Direct". The mail order service offers black-and-white film processing and silver gelatin printing from film or from digital files. The launch saw the introduction of a dedicated website
The service has continued to expand offering Medium and Large format processing and Digital Black and white Lightjet prints.
In 2009, Ilford Lab Direct was awarded a Gold Award by Digital Photo magazine "Best online Black and White Printer".
In August 2013 Ilford Lab Direct US was launched, operating from California, US and offering a similar service to the UK operation.
In 2017 the Service was renamed HARMAN Lab and now trades under this name.
HARMAN Lab (UK Service) www.harmanlab.com
HARMAN Lab (US Service) www.harmanlab-us.com
See also
*
Photographic film
Photographic film is a strip or sheet of transparent film base coated on one side with a gelatin photographic emulsion, emulsion containing microscopically small light-sensitive silver halide crystals. The sizes and other characteristics of th ...
*
List of photographic films
*
List of discontinued photographic films
*
Photographic paper
*
Darkroom
References
External links
ILFORD photoHARMAN TechnologyHARMAN LabHARMAN Lab USCR Kennedy & Company Pty Ltd{{Authority control
Photography companies of the United Kingdom
Photographic film makers
Chemical industry in London
Photography in the United Kingdom
Companies established in 1876