XP2 and what BW developer??

I know that the default is D76 at 14 min at 22c (I'm shooting 120).
I also heard of DDX at 20c for 9min stock and 14min, 1:4 dilution.

But I'm interested in trying out other developers.
Specifically Microdol and Perceptol.
Any thoughts?

Is there a rule of thumb I should use any BW developer with XP2 seeing as that its made for C41 process?

Thanks in advance.

It's not worth it because it's such a good film in C41 and quite poor in a B&W dev.

Ian

Ian Grant said:

It's not worth it because it's such a good film in C41 and quite poor in a B&W dev.

Ian

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I appreciate the heads up but I'm aware of the disadvantages of the film.
But over exposed and more time in the soup can get really interesting results according to what you're going for.

Perfection is not a goal of mine with this film.
I'm looking for something a bit interesting.

Just trying to figure out what other combinations I could use and what the rule of thumb is.

Then play with it in C41 dev, Ilford's data sheet says it can't be push processed like XP1, but it can. You can also loop it, that's dev in C41, wash, fix (NOT bleach fix) wash, then bleach in a rehalogenating bleach (ferricyanide/bromide) wash then re-expose to light & re-develop in C41.

Or try it in D76/ID-11 for about 12 minutes.

Ian

What the heck---but I've always thought that "interesting" should happen when you press the shutter, whereas "predictable" and "consistent" are what you want when you plunk it into the developer.

But I'm old-school and boring....

Try adding CD-4 and using a bleach before the fix.

If you are going to develop the film in a black and white developer, you will be hard pressed to pick one that you would be able to distinguish from any other one. You can't tell much difference with real black and white films, and you sure as heck won't be able to tell with a c-41 film. Just use whatever black and white developer you already have on hand.

Sagelike said:

I know that the default is D76 at 14 min at 22c (I'm shooting 120).
I also heard of DDX at 20c for 9min stock and 14min, 1:4 dilution.

But I'm interested in trying out other developers.
Specifically Microdol and Perceptol.
Any thoughts?

Is there a rule of thumb I should use any BW developer with XP2 seeing as that its made for C41 process?

Thanks in advance.

Click to expand...

That's kinda like wanting to install screws with a hammer, you can do it, but it will not work nearly as well as using the proper screwdriver. According to Ilford XP2 should only be processed in C41 chemistries, which it's designed for. If you want to process your film then use HP5+ or Delta 400 if you want the same speed, I haven't used the Delta 400, but have used Delta 100 and HP5+ a number of times over the years and quite liked it.

Regular black and white processing has no big advantages and many disadvantages for XP-2. The image would of be much higher quality with C-41 processing. I don't know of any good recommendations for using black and white processing, but I would note that C-41 developer is a very low contrast brew. It was a favorite of some for Technical Pan and document films. I suspect you would need a similarly low contrast developer, like Technidol, to develop XP-2 as a black and white film. Certainly a lot of testing would be needed to find the best developer and developing time.

MikeSeb said:

What the heck---but I've always thought that "interesting" should happen when you press the shutter, whereas "predictable" and "consistent" are what you want when you plunk it into the developer.

But I'm old-school and boring....

Click to expand...

I think intersting can be achived at every stage and there is no reason it can't be predictable and consistent once you understand what it is you are doing.

I've got an article in a book up in the loft somewhere about playing with XP2. Who was it written by.... Hmmm, the name Micheal Maunder springs to mind, but I'm not sure. Was he the Celler Steller guy? He may be here on APUG somewhere...

Anyway. Point is that in C41 processing you have a very, very weak silver BW developer to give a matrix for the coloured dyes to form on. This is got rid of later in the bleach fix.

So... use a conventional BW developer and you get a strong silver image, perhaps not so far from HP5+. Except, the colour couplers are still intact. So, say you push the film as hard as you can in really hot print developer or D-19 or something. A C-41 film will stand a bit of heat & extremes of pH if you want to stew it in something really alkaline and so you already have a film that can be abusively pushed really well - but then, you can activate the colour dye as well by dunking in C41 to add even more to the density (but don't blix it, obviously). You can loop it too, to squeeze out even more. The idea is you can get really over the top film speeds ('speeds', if you prefer ;-) - really over the top grain, too. I think the author was talking about effective EI of 100,000 or something silly? I think the intended application was for astro photography, so the contrast may have gone beyond the very useable for more conventional photography.

I really must go and find the article, I haven't read it for years and I wouldn't trust my memory too much

Anyway, there did seem to be much fun to be had with this film for those wishing to break the rules.

I would not develop C-41 film in B&W chemicals.

Jason Mekeel

Out of curiosity, for this question I talked to my bosses here at the lab and they told me at one time or another they had someone come in to cross process XP2 to get a positive B&W. Any one here have experience with that and/or opinions. Sounds like a fun thing, but I'm not sure of the practical purpose.

if you search pnet using the terms "xp2 +d76"
you can read about processing your film in b/w chemicals.
the negatives end up a little thin, but they are quite good.

roger hicks wrote at one time ( here ) about processing xp2 in d76 ..
... sorry i wasn't able to find it here ( or his website ) ...

good luck!

Sagelike said:

I know that the default is D76 at 14 min at 22c

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Not sure what you mean by "default" here but I've tried XP2 in D76 1+0 for about that time, it gave very poor negatives, low contrast, lots of non-image density (fog) impossible to get even close to a good print from it. As others have stated I doubt if other conventional devs would be different.