Ilford XP2. Where to develop

[GrahamR]

Hi all,

Where do you recommend to develop the Ilford XP2.

I understand that if you get it on colour paper it has a sepia colour cast??
Where/how do you get normal B&W from it????



Many thanks
Graham

[T_Sargeant]

One of the main problems with XP2 is not that it gives an odd cast, it's that lab operators don't know what to do with it. A lot of places (if they'll even do it!) will just run it through as a colour film with no correction, due to the base layer of C-41 films, you end up with oddly tinged prints. Just make sure that the person running the lab knows to convert it to black and white, this is pretty basic and I've yet to find a minilab that can't.

On another not I'm not a huge fan of XP2 as I find it a little soft and grey most of the time. Having said that I'd reccomend getting on good terms with a good lab operator, my lab manager at Jessops knows to boost the contrast a bit for me and I find the results a lot more pleasing because of it.

[John_K]

I develop my own film, but there are the odd times when I have to make prints from XP2 rather than in the darkroom, so I scan it onto a CD as a greyscale image. The image, before being consigned to the CD, is cleaned up, contrast/brightness adjusted, pre-sized, sharpened as necessary and handed to the local lab that works out of the Post Office. The quality of resulting prints are very good indeed.

[Simon E.]

Some labs are able to dial out all or most of the purple cast. Take the roll in locally (preferably to one with a half-decent reputation and see if they know what it is and what to do with it. Ask if they can do neutral prints and whether they are prepared to reprint them if you're not happy.

[NorthernMonkey]

Ilford now have a D&P service where they print onto proper black and white paper, rather than colour paper. Its £11 for 36 prints, but they do a really good job.

[AJUK]

Ask the lab to convert to black and white even though its black and white anyway, that should limit any cast problems.

[PentaxManiac]

Breaking news!

I posted in the Monochrome Photography section on 26 February this year about the supplement AP gave away with news from the big camera fair in Las Vegas. It was announced that Ilford were bringing their processing back in house. I never knew they'd outsourced it in the first place, but hey ho.

Today I recieved my first set of prints since the change, from a roll of XP2. They are superb - well, as superb as can be expected from my photography. So to answer the original question, my answer is a definite Ilford. The process paid envelopes are not cheap, granted, but 7dayshop for one sell them at a discount.

[NorthernMonkey]

What is even better about the Ilford service, is that they will process any black adn white film. So you can shoot HP5, FP4, or TriX instead of XP2

[AJUK]

Why pay for Ilford and use XP2?

[Leyland]

Ilford/Harman Tech themselves now run a commercial b/w lab at thier Mobberly site, I know the chemistry is different but I'm almost sure they run a dev service for xp2 aswell

[PentaxManiac]

The dev/print service for black and white - any brand, not just Ilford - has always been there. Until earlier this year it was contracted out. Ilford have brought it back in-house partly because of concerns over quality: certainly I've had mixed results from them in recent years but a recent roll of XP2 was fine, with very good quality printing.

The service offers printing of any black and white film, including XP2 and. presumably, other chromogenic films. I wonder if they process the XP2 in C41 or in the original XP chemistry?

[Larry Shone]

Whenever i've used XP2 i've used Jessops and been pleased with the results. Wonder if they stil do it-haven't used a b/x film in ages