Ilford XP-2

I've often used it.
It's really good, very fine-grained and sharp and can be used in a scanner
with Digital Ice.

I've often used it.
It's really good, very fine-grained and sharp and can be used in a scanner
with Digital Ice.

[The Wogster wrote in rec.photo.film+labs]
Anybody here tried Ilford XP-2, if so what did you think? Seems to try
to be the best of (almost) all worlds, Black and White, 50-800ASA with
standard C-41 processing....

I've used it - please drop me an email if you would like some example
scans of images I've taken using XP-2.

Images are fine grain, and the ISO-400 rating makes the film excellent
in imperfect light conditions.

You might find the negs a touch contrasty, and the slightly different
colour to the negs might not suit your existing working practice, if
you develop your own prints in a darkroom (pull out that grade 2!).

If you don't have the room/facilities/time to develop black and white
negatives at home, it is convenient to be holding developed negatives,
in a matter of minutes (with the aid of your local laboratory), but
you probably wont think much of any prints you get made through a colour
minilab printer at the same time - theyi may have a dirty sandy colour
cast (which isn't as nice as a properly toned sepia print).

Some 'good' labs with up to date printing kit can print actual black
and white images though (when our lab handles negative print work,
we can tell it to do that on our current model, but the previous
models didn't have a digital scanning stage first, so could not.)



--
Regards, Andy Davidson
http://www.fotoserve.com/ - Better quality printing for your digital photos.

[The Wogster wrote in rec.photo.film+labs]
Anybody here tried Ilford XP-2, if so what did you think? Seems to try
to be the best of (almost) all worlds, Black and White, 50-800ASA with
standard C-41 processing....

I've used it - please drop me an email if you would like some example
scans of images I've taken using XP-2.

Images are fine grain, and the ISO-400 rating makes the film excellent
in imperfect light conditions.

You might find the negs a touch contrasty, and the slightly different
colour to the negs might not suit your existing working practice, if
you develop your own prints in a darkroom (pull out that grade 2!).

If you don't have the room/facilities/time to develop black and white
negatives at home, it is convenient to be holding developed negatives,
in a matter of minutes (with the aid of your local laboratory), but
you probably wont think much of any prints you get made through a colour
minilab printer at the same time - theyi may have a dirty sandy colour
cast (which isn't as nice as a properly toned sepia print).

Some 'good' labs with up to date printing kit can print actual black
and white images though (when our lab handles negative print work,
we can tell it to do that on our current model, but the previous
models didn't have a digital scanning stage first, so could not.)



--
Regards, Andy Davidson
http://www.fotoserve.com/ - Better quality printing for your digital photos.

Andy Davidson wrote:
[The Wogster wrote in rec.photo.film+labs]

Anybody here tried Ilford XP-2, if so what did you think? Seems to try
to be the best of (almost) all worlds, Black and White, 50-800ASA with
standard C-41 processing....


I've used it - please drop me an email if you would like some example
scans of images I've taken using XP-2.

Images are fine grain, and the ISO-400 rating makes the film excellent
in imperfect light conditions.

You might find the negs a touch contrasty, and the slightly different
colour to the negs might not suit your existing working practice, if
you develop your own prints in a darkroom (pull out that grade 2!).

If you don't have the room/facilities/time to develop black and white
negatives at home, it is convenient to be holding developed negatives,
in a matter of minutes (with the aid of your local laboratory), but
you probably wont think much of any prints you get made through a colour
minilab printer at the same time - theyi may have a dirty sandy colour
cast (which isn't as nice as a properly toned sepia print).

I actually don't want prints, I want soup and scan, so if the scanner
makes them all sea green it doesn't matter, I just switch to monochrome
mode then back to RGB and apply any needed toning.

Paul

Andy Davidson wrote:
[The Wogster wrote in rec.photo.film+labs]

Anybody here tried Ilford XP-2, if so what did you think? Seems to try
to be the best of (almost) all worlds, Black and White, 50-800ASA with
standard C-41 processing....


I've used it - please drop me an email if you would like some example
scans of images I've taken using XP-2.

Images are fine grain, and the ISO-400 rating makes the film excellent
in imperfect light conditions.

You might find the negs a touch contrasty, and the slightly different
colour to the negs might not suit your existing working practice, if
you develop your own prints in a darkroom (pull out that grade 2!).

If you don't have the room/facilities/time to develop black and white
negatives at home, it is convenient to be holding developed negatives,
in a matter of minutes (with the aid of your local laboratory), but
you probably wont think much of any prints you get made through a colour
minilab printer at the same time - theyi may have a dirty sandy colour
cast (which isn't as nice as a properly toned sepia print).

I actually don't want prints, I want soup and scan, so if the scanner
makes them all sea green it doesn't matter, I just switch to monochrome
mode then back to RGB and apply any needed toning.

Paul

[Paul Schmidt wrote in rec.photo.film+labs]
Andy Davidson wrote:
[The Wogster wrote in rec.photo.film+labs]
Anybody here tried Ilford XP-2, if so what did you think? Seems to try
to be the best of (almost) all worlds, Black and White, 50-800ASA with
standard C-41 processing....
[...]
You might find the negs a touch contrasty, and the slightly different
colour to the negs might not suit your existing working practice, if
you develop your own prints in a darkroom (pull out that grade 2!).
[...]
I actually don't want prints, I want soup and scan, so if the scanner
makes them all sea green it doesn't matter, I just switch to monochrome
mode then back to RGB and apply any needed toning.

Presumably your scanner has a 'capture from monochrome film' mode anyway -
this will cope perfectly will the job of scanning negs made on XP2.

--
Regards, Andy Davidson
http://www.fotoserve.com/ - Better quality printing for your digital photos.

[Paul Schmidt wrote in rec.photo.film+labs]
Andy Davidson wrote:
[The Wogster wrote in rec.photo.film+labs]
Anybody here tried Ilford XP-2, if so what did you think? Seems to try
to be the best of (almost) all worlds, Black and White, 50-800ASA with
standard C-41 processing....
[...]
You might find the negs a touch contrasty, and the slightly different
colour to the negs might not suit your existing working practice, if
you develop your own prints in a darkroom (pull out that grade 2!).
[...]
I actually don't want prints, I want soup and scan, so if the scanner
makes them all sea green it doesn't matter, I just switch to monochrome
mode then back to RGB and apply any needed toning.

Presumably your scanner has a 'capture from monochrome film' mode anyway -
this will cope perfectly will the job of scanning negs made on XP2.

--
Regards, Andy Davidson
http://www.fotoserve.com/ - Better quality printing for your digital photos.

Andy Davidson wrote:
[Paul Schmidt wrote in rec.photo.film+labs]

Andy Davidson wrote:

[The Wogster wrote in rec.photo.film+labs]

Anybody here tried Ilford XP-2, if so what did you think? Seems to try
to be the best of (almost) all worlds, Black and White, 50-800ASA with
standard C-41 processing....

[...]

You might find the negs a touch contrasty, and the slightly different
colour to the negs might not suit your existing working practice, if
you develop your own prints in a darkroom (pull out that grade 2!).

[...]

I actually don't want prints, I want soup and scan, so if the scanner
makes them all sea green it doesn't matter, I just switch to monochrome
mode then back to RGB and apply any needed toning.


Presumably your scanner has a 'capture from monochrome film' mode anyway -
this will cope perfectly will the job of scanning negs made on XP2.


Actually I have a lab that will soup and scan C41 for under $CDN 10.00
and they are on the way to work, so waiting for a couple of rolls, then
I'll go in and let them try, I assume their Fuji Fronteer will have an
XP-2 setting, if it just does a colour scan, that's fine too, like I
said, it doesn't matter the colour, I'll reset it anyway.

Getting regular B&W done, costs about $20, and can take a loooooooong
time, there are few labs set up for it. If XP-2 doesn't work for me,
then I'll use FP4+ or HP5+ and soup them myself.

I understand that XP-2 is friendly towards technologies like Digital
ICE, which has trouble with conventional B&W films.

Paul

Andy Davidson wrote:
[Paul Schmidt wrote in rec.photo.film+labs]

Andy Davidson wrote:

[The Wogster wrote in rec.photo.film+labs]

Anybody here tried Ilford XP-2, if so what did you think? Seems to try
to be the best of (almost) all worlds, Black and White, 50-800ASA with
standard C-41 processing....

[...]

You might find the negs a touch contrasty, and the slightly different
colour to the negs might not suit your existing working practice, if
you develop your own prints in a darkroom (pull out that grade 2!).

[...]

I actually don't want prints, I want soup and scan, so if the scanner
makes them all sea green it doesn't matter, I just switch to monochrome
mode then back to RGB and apply any needed toning.


Presumably your scanner has a 'capture from monochrome film' mode anyway -
this will cope perfectly will the job of scanning negs made on XP2.


Actually I have a lab that will soup and scan C41 for under $CDN 10.00
and they are on the way to work, so waiting for a couple of rolls, then
I'll go in and let them try, I assume their Fuji Fronteer will have an
XP-2 setting, if it just does a colour scan, that's fine too, like I
said, it doesn't matter the colour, I'll reset it anyway.

Getting regular B&W done, costs about $20, and can take a loooooooong
time, there are few labs set up for it. If XP-2 doesn't work for me,
then I'll use FP4+ or HP5+ and soup them myself.

I understand that XP-2 is friendly towards technologies like Digital
ICE, which has trouble with conventional B&W films.

Paul