Ilford XP2 at 800 ISO?

[kshapero]

Has anyone tried this? I accidentally shot a roll at 800 ISO. What can I expect when I pickup the film? Also should I have told the Costco guy (the developer) any special instruction? Remember this is C41 monochrome film.

 

[kmerenkov]

Probably you should have told him to do +1 push processing, though not every lab can do it.

Actually XP2 is pretty "flexible" film, you can use it from 200 to 800 without worrying (as nearly any other 400 film I came across)

 

[mich8261]

my understanding of this "magical" film is that you can shoot it from 50 to 800 (or maybe it's 1600), process as usual, but if you didn't expose it at 400, you want it printed on B&W photo paper, not monochrome on regular colour paper. If you are scanning, obviously it's not an issue. Let us know how it turns out.

 

[mich8261]

see the fact sheet here (warning, this will open a pdf file)

 

[kshapero]

see the fact sheet here (warning, this will open a pdf file)

excellent read

 

[raid]

The conrast will be lower at overexposure, but the images will come out well exposed.

 

[mcgrattan]

I shot a roll of 120 @ 800 at a martial arts competition a few weeks back. I wasn't sure what to expect, but the results were fine. I could have pushed more out of it in the scan, too. I was very impressed.

In fact, I'm pretty sure that those are better than shots I've taken using 35mm film at much higher ISOs [Delta 3200 and Neopan 1600].

 

[kshapero]

I shot a roll of 120 @ 800 at a martial arts competition a few weeks back. I wasn't sure what to expect, but the results were fine. I could have pushed more out of it in the scan, too. I was very impressed.

In fact, I'm pretty sure that those are better than shots I've taken using 35mm film at much higher ISOs [Delta 3200 and Neopan 1600].

wow, excellent shot.

 

[peterm1]

This film is remarkably flexible and is able to be shot over a wide range of speeds. My preference is to shoot it a lower speeds - 200 ASA is about optimal as I find at this setting it produces lovely tones - better than at 400 which is its official rating. 100 ASA is fine too but 200 ASA just gives that little extra flexibility without much noticeable change in image quality from the 100 ASA setting.

 

[dfoo]

I find shooting at 400 lacks a bit of shadow detail... for example, black hair in shadow (or black pants in shadow) has little or no detail.

 

[Doug]

I've found that asking for a 1-stop push in processing increases contrast as one might expect, and tends to blow out highlights that are otherwise pretty bulletproof. I have also asked for a half-stop push, a bit more manageable. But I much prefer shooting it at EI 250.

 

[mfogiel]

XP2 is a 200 ISO film, really, and at 800 EI you will have empty shadows with ugly grain, so the critical point is how contrasty were your subjects. For a flat scene EI 800 will be perfectly ok, for a wide brightness range scene, your best bet will be to turn the shadows solid black, to hide the grain. This is a Kodak 400 CN (finer grained than XP2) 6x6 shot exposed at EI 1600: