ILFORD XP2 Super base colour

[Tom Kershaw]

I'm not sure what the correct forum is for discussing XP2 Super, but I'll post here as its process C-41. Is ILFORD XP2 Super supposed to exhibit a purple base colour? The film is clear in as much as fixed and washed correctly, and the negatives print normally on ILFORD MGIV.

Tom

 

[Ian Grant]

Sounds about right, yes it does have quite a colour to it's base, as did older versions but they all print normally unlike the dog of a film Agfa Vario (long discontinued)

Ian

 

[Tom Kershaw]

Thanks Ian. Care to elaborate on Agfa Vario?

Tom

 

[Ian Grant]

It came out just before XP1, it was Agfa's version but in terms of grain, contrast usability it was awful, it didn't last long before it quietly disappeared. I have some negs still back in the UK.

XP1 was so much better and just what I needed shooting rock concerts etc, XP1 & XP-2 push process very well, fine grain & great tonality, but Ilford took the recommended time of the Datasheet when XP-2 was released because they wanted it fully C41 compatable, XP1 was but needed a longer dev time than colour films.

Ian

 

[AgX]

The "Agfapan Vario XL" was marketed quite differently than its Ilford successors.
Whereas Ilford offered their XP's as monochrome films to be processed as C-41, the Vario XL was offered primarily as a multispeed film, one film for all kind of exposure situations.

 

[Ian Grant]

That's how XP-1 was marketed as well in it's early days, actually Ilford sold a processing kit. Labs didn't like it as it needed uprated processing and only Ro labs knew how to handle it. It was only with the introduction of XP-2 that Ilford really pushed the C41 compatibility.

Ian

 

[AgX]

Seems I forgot about the XP-1 marketing. Have to dive into old broshures...

 

[bob100684]

Seems I forgot about the XP-1 marketing. Have to dive into old broshures...

I thought XP1 was a c-41 film, but the chemistry kits were basically c-41 double diluted?

 

[Ian Grant]

XP-1 was processable in C41 chemistry but it wasn't fully compatible because for optimum results it needed a longer development time, most small labs couldn't handle that.

I've no idea whether the Ilford XP-1 developer was more dilute, I don't think so but it was expensive compared to Photocolor II which I already used, I still have the original datasheets back in the UK, I was reading them about 3 weeks ago.

Ian

 

[Brac]

I used a lot of Agfa's Vario-XL in 120, when it first came out. On the boxes it gave a speed range up to 1600 ASA, but I always used them at 400. The film never struck me as particularly stable. The colour of the actual image on the processed negatives varied a great deal from blue to a purple-ish colour, irrespective of whether I had them developed by a lab or did them myself in C41. Worse still, I found even after just a couple of years the colours were changing, and not particularly evenly. As I never had cause to reprint any, I've no idea whether they were still printable. I ended up with a large quantity of the films which I never used, as I was unsure of the stability. There are probably a few rolls at the bottom of the freezer even now!