Ilford XP 2

Jordan · Jun 11, 2006

All you XP2 fans (I'm one too) should check out the books by UK photographer and printer Eddie Ephraums. At least one of his books (can't remember which one) is full of landscape photographs shot on 35mm XP2 Super. There's some really nice work there.

Simon R Galley · Jun 12, 2006

Dear All,

I have seen the comments re magenta and green castes, I will speak to our technical
people, as an FYI I have heard that if you are scanning negs XP2 Super produces outstanding results.

Regards

Simon ILFORD Photo / HARMAN technology Limited

jim appleyard · Jun 12, 2006

CraigK said:
... I just wet my finger, raise it to the wind and set the camera accordingly.

QUOTE]

If you're using your middle finger for this, be careful re: what neighborhood you do this in! Is this what digital is all about?

leeturner · Jun 12, 2006

Simon R Galley said:
Dear All,

I have seen the comments re magenta and green castes, I will speak to our technical
people, as an FYI I have heard that if you are scanning negs XP2 Super produces outstanding results.

Regards

Simon ILFORD Photo / HARMAN technology Limited

Simon, I can send you one of the negs with colour shift if you require it.

Cheers

Lee

Stoo Batchelor · Jun 12, 2006

All this talk of colour shifts has made me think twice about using this film now. Having said that, I can't imagine that any neg left in direct sunlight would like it very much, and I can't imagine that anyone would do it on purpose anyway.

Some longivity (didn't want to use the word ARCHIVAL) of a negative is very important to me. Roger spoke of a possible 100 years and I would be happy with half of that, So I will 'watch this space' as they say!

Lee, Has this colour shift made the neg unprintable?

Regards

Stoo

leeturner · Jun 12, 2006

Stoo, I had some HP5+ negs that were out in the same room and there is no discernable effect on them although I don't know if they were in direct sunlight. The XP2 neg has a very strong magenta cast so I would think that printing on multigrade could be quite interesting.
Other than that I really enjoy XP2 and have 7 year old XP2 negs that have been stored in some very hot climates in Southern Africa that are fine.

Stoo Batchelor said:
All this talk of colour shifts has made me think twice about using this film now. Having said that, I can't imagine that any neg left in direct sunlight would like it very much, and I can't imagine that anyone would do it on purpose anyway.

Some longivity (didn't want to use the word ARCHIVAL) of a negative is very important to me. Roger spoke of a possible 100 years and I would be happy with half of that, So I will 'watch this space' as they say!

Lee, Has this colour shift made the neg unprintable?

Regards

Stoo

Simon R Galley · Jun 12, 2006

Dear Lee,

Please send me the neg, marked for my attention at ILFORD Photo Mobberley: I have spoken to our technical people and they tell me it sounds like a breakdown in the cyan coupler, but we have no idea why, best guess is something to do with the processing but not in the fix.

We are also doing a test now to see if we can replicate the effect, XP1 did suffer from 'greening' caused by formaldehyde contamination post processing ( usually from foam in camera bags ) but XP2 Super is much more robust so we need to dig deeper.
we certainly have not seen this before

Regards

Simon.

catem · Jun 12, 2006

Simon R Galley said:
Dear All,

I have seen the comments re magenta and green castes, I will speak to our technical
people, as an FYI I have heard that if you are scanning negs XP2 Super produces outstanding results.

Regards

Simon ILFORD Photo / HARMAN technology Limited

I also use XP2 Super a lot. It does scan well but I do find that when I scan it in the image on screen has a noticeable blue cast, (the neg is light magenta) which I have to remove. As I'm only preparing small web images (and doing my printing in the darkroom) I usually convert to grayscale from RGB without noticeable image loss. If I was printing digitally I would use channel mixer, but as it happens I find the colour shifts too sensitive in this case.
Do other people find this, if so what strategies do you use to remove the cast for viewing on screen? I always scan in on RGB for optimum quality. I hope it's all right to ask this question here, (apologies if it's not) it is a digi question, but seems to fit with the thread.
I've never noticed any colour shifts in the negatives themselves.

nworth · Jun 12, 2006

j-fr said:
Yes, it is an amazing film. Just remember that it is a color film, originally made for printing on color paper. So the contrast is very very low when you print on b&w paper. When printing on Ilford Multigrade you often have to step up to grade 4 or more to get an acceptable print. But the low contrast of the XP2 makes it excellent for high contrast subjects, such as nigth scenes.

j-fr

A correction here. XP-2 was never meant to be printed on color paper, and results on color paper are often inferior. It works very well with Multigrade and also worked well with Polycontrast. This is one of its big advantages over the other chromogenic black and white films which are tailored for color paper. Usually I filter for about grade 2.5 to 3, but 2 is not unusual. The film has unusually large dynamic range, and can accommodate a very wide range of subject contrast. Normal and low contrast images do just fine. I generally expose it at EI 200, although the rated 400 does quite well. The image deteriorates quickly at speeds above 400.

PeterB · Jun 13, 2006

CraigK said:
I've also posted some photos taken with XP2 to my Photo Blog

Craig, I just love that grinning Weimaraner (colour) shot you have on your blog.

cheers
Peter (another dog tragic)

Stoo Batchelor · Jun 13, 2006

leeturner said:
Stoo, I had some HP5+ negs that were out in the same room and there is no discernable effect on them although I don't know if they were in direct sunlight. The XP2 neg has a very strong magenta cast so I would think that printing on multigrade could be quite interesting.
Other than that I really enjoy XP2 and have 7 year old XP2 negs that have been stored in some very hot climates in Southern Africa that are fine.

Thanks for that info Lee.

This XP2 is turning out to be a very versatile film, especially if it can be developed in B+W chemestry as is being said in the other XP2 thread.

I am now looking forward to the package dropping through the letter box.

Regards

Stoo

Black Dog · Jun 13, 2006

I have some XP1 negs from the early 80s and while a little green around the gills, they still print fine.

GraemeMitchell · Jun 13, 2006

XP-2 is a remarkable film. And it has a wonderful tonality and it's so easy to shoot.

I've often wondered if there has ever been talk of XP-2 in 4x5 sheets?

eddym · Jun 13, 2006

GraemeMitchell said:
XP-2 is a remarkable film. And it has a wonderful tonality and it's so easy to shoot.

I've often wondered if there has ever been talk of XP-2 in 4x5 sheets?

Not only was it talked about, it was manufactured. I used it to make the attached photo.

--Eddy

Jose A Martinez · Jun 13, 2006

My last posts on the Critique Gallery all are XP2 and Ilford Multigrade. I like the combination.

Ilford XP 2

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