-
Ilford XP1 400, expired
1999
-
Canon EOS 3
-
Home developed using Ilford Perceptol.
Now this film threw me big time! Ilford XP1 400.
There I was all ready to develop it it when I spotted at the very last minute that although it’s a black and white film stock, it’s also C-41 developing process.
Mind f*ck 🤪
At that point I popped it into a jiffy bag and posted it off to Harman Lab because my brain could literally not compute the utter madness. I’m so used to Ilford film being’ the home of black and white’ that C-41 seemed frankly, crazy bananas.
Completely unsure what to expect, one eyebrow raised slightly when the negatives returned ‘pretty green’, then I scanned them in and everything was black and white as expected.
I was left a bit '“who am I?”, “where am I?” Confused.
Yes, it was the only film at the time to be able to be developed C-41 process - but why?
Baffled why you would want to develop black and white film using the C-41 process when it’s a faffier process than traditional b&w developing. I took to Google. And Wikipedia answered: As a chromogenic film, XP2 can scan well because it avoids the limitations of Digital ICE, plus it has a similar exposure latitude to color negative film, so it can be exposed with an exposure index from ISO 50/18° to 800/30° on a single roll and be developed in traditional C-41 processing.
Colour me educated!
