Does Ilford XP2 contaminate C41 chemistry?

Arjay

Arjay

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I recently shot a test roll of Ilford XP2 chromogenic BW film (shows lovely tonality - I prefer it over BW400 CN) and had problems getting it developed. :eek:

The manager resonsible of the minilab in my photo store told me they won't take XP2 into their machine as it destabilizes and shortens the useful life of the chemical substances in their machine. I had to search for another mnilab to have it processed (I eventually found one).

Has anyone heard of problems that occur if XP2 is processed in C41 chemistry which is otherwise only used for Kodak's BW400 CN and color films? I think this is rather weird.
 
In my, admittedly, somewhat limited experience that is not true. I used to work at a minilab and processed quite a bit of XP2 for both myself and the customers who had primarily bought it from the lab where I worked. I also did a lot of cross-processing of E6 in the C41 machine, and that didn't contaminate anything either. I think a bigger issue of chemical lifetime is properly maintaining and cleaning the machine and at times, stirring the chemical troughs, at least that was part of the maintenance routine I ran on our machine every week.
 
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XP2 has been around long enough that if this were true we would have heard about it long before now and this is the first I have heard such a statement. They may have other things causing their issues but I highly doubt XP2 would be the culprit.

Bob
 
It comes down to this: Either your photo finisher doesn't know what they are doing or Ilford does not. After years of professionally developing and using Ilford's products, I would have to side with Ilford.
 
Well thanks, I already suspected the guy was incompetent. The only thing that still puzzles me is why such a guy got hired in Munich's premier photo store. :eek:
 
Arjay said:
Well thanks, I already suspected the guy was incompetent. The only thing that still puzzles me is why such a guy got hired in Munich's premier photo store. :eek:
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Go and ask the manager :D

P.S.
Is it me only who's developing XP2 and BW400 CN at home as regular B&W film?

Regards,
b.
 
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FWIW... XP2 is C41 processing ONLY... it should be on the cannister or the roll of 120 you provided... I think the man/woman is confused. Some places will not process E6 in C41 and I think he is mixing up XP2 as an E6 film. Show him the processing instructions that came with the film or on the cannister. Good luck.

http://www.ilfordphoto.com/products/product.asp?n=11

BTW I wonder how good they are at processing film if they don't even read the processing instructions for XP2 prior to refusing to process it..... might be worthwhile going elsewhere ...
 
Actually, it will work in ID11 ... don't ask how I found out, but yes the chap at the lab is talking twaddle, he's confusing it with that movie stock
 
Remind me, what is written on box and cassette of XP2? Well, there is C-41. Period.

Sure, it some sense it contaminates chemistry, but it's too hazardous for drinking even straight out of bottle.
 
Sparrow said:
I must be wrong then :rolleyes:
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Yep, me too...

17601010150103866943588.jpg
 
My guess is that he just didn't want to bother with scanning because it lacks the orange correction cast and would likely need to be dealt with manually.
 
jan normandale said:
FWIW... XP2 is C41 processing ONLY... it should be on the cannister or the roll of 120 you provided... I think the man/woman is confused. Some places will not process E6 in C41 and I think he is mixing up XP2 as an E6 film. Show him the processing instructions that came with the film or on the cannister. Good luck.

http://www.ilfordphoto.com/products/product.asp?n=11

BTW I wonder how good they are at processing film if they don't even read the processing instructions for XP2 prior to refusing to process it..... might be worthwhile going elsewhere ...
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I agree - That's what I did and the other minilab operator had no problems with the film. OTOH, that minilab operator had also sold me the film. XP2 is very hard to get in Germany, and I wouldn't be surprised if many haven't even heard of it.

softshock said:
My guess is that he just didn't want to bother with scanning because it lacks the orange correction cast and would likely need to be dealt with manually.
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I only asked for development. I do all my scans at home on my Coolscan V - way better that what you can get from the normal outlets except when going to a professional lab.

So maybe he might have wanted to turn me down without being rude because the job just wasn't interesting for him.
 
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Arjay said:
XP2 is very hard to get in Germany
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I never noticed that - I used the film a lot, and I think just about every dedicated photo store where I ever bought film in Germany stocked XP2. It's about as "hard to get" as a good slide film.
 
I got the same song-and-dance from a Wal-Mart 1-hour lab...I don't process C-41 myself so I usually take any XP2 to a minilab.

It's nonsense, but they can refuse whatever they want, just like I can not give them any of my money!
 
"The only thing that still puzzles me is why such a guy got hired in Munich's premier photo store".

Relative perhaps?
 
The last time I had XP2 processed in a walk-in processing shop the chap running it charged a £1.00 extra for the processing to cover the extra time manually adjusting the machinery so that it would produce nice black-and-white prints rather than some odd coloured monochrome prints. He said he enjoyed the challenge of getting really good prints from the film. He didn't indicate any other problems with the process.

Regards

Andrew More
 
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