Does Ilford XP2 contaminate C41 chemistry?

[Colin Corneau]

You got hosed a pound, then. These machines, IIRC, have "channels" that are programmed in for various film types...there should be one for B&W films and if not, then it's not hard to colour correct to get 'close enough'.

 

[raid]

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

Exactly; it is the "movie film" by DALE and SEATTLE and similar that has a coating that messes up regular still film during developing.

 

[raid]

Our local Sam's Club film developing unit does a great job in always returning to be B&W looking C-41 XP2 film.

 

[Tompas]

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

No, of course not.

I develop my BW400CNs with the Tetenal C41 kit -- works great. My favourite film, fast, nice contrast, little grain, scans very well. And the fact that it's C41 means I can just develop it together with any colour film: very convenient.

Recently I bought some XP2 in 120 format (apparently there is no BW400CN in 120?), but I have not exposed it yet.

 

[kzphoto]

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.

Cross processing E6 in a c-41 film processor leaves behind residue that can attatch itself to negatives. I've had this happen to my own negatives in the past.

If the machine is cleaned regularly (weekly / bi-weekly) then there shouldn't be an issue, however most labs clean their equipment bi-monthly which is unacceptable for critical film development.

 

[kzphoto]

As an aside, most mini-lab machines from 2000 onward have channels for the BW C-41 films, to produce either Sepia or Monochrome images. The prints, however may not look monochrome due to chemical / calibration variations.

It is really hard to get a decent monochrome print out of a mini-lab machine which has only a linearization process to deal with chemistry / temperature variations.