Printing with Ilford XP-2 vs Kodak BW400CN

[gb hill]

I have a couple of photos shot on Ilford XP-2 chromengenic B&W film. The tech sheet states I can print on conventional b&w papers. OTOH Kodak BW400CN fact sheet states it can be printed on color papers but makes no mention of using conventional b&w papers. Can BW400CN be printed on conventional B&W papers? If not I sure am glad I shot them on XP-2. Maybe someone has tried it.

 

[barefoot]

I'm sure someone will come along with a better answer, but (in the meantime) the bw400cn makes a monochrome negative just like any other B&W, but you may have to change the way you expose your paper. I haven't tried it, but I'm assured it will work.

.... and thinking more about it - if you you variable contrast paper, the brownish color of the negative may bias the paper towards the yellow (less) end of the contrast spectrum.

Hope this isn't too confusing - hopefully someone with more experience than me will come along soon.

 

[Chris101]

You will need to use graded paper to print the Kodak chromogenic film. The color makes it such low contrast on variable contrast paper, that it is very difficult to compensate. You can stack 2 or 3 #5 filters, but then the base level is so dense that the printing time is very long. I have done this and it was a 20 minute exposure at f/2.8 for an 8x10 print. Even then I was unhappy with the contrast.

 

[Roger Hicks]

T400CN exposure times are several times as long as for XP2 (2-4x) and grade 4 (Meopta Meograde head) is required to give decent 'grade 2' contrast, but I have to say we've never found it quite as demanding as Chris did.

T400CN is also finer grained than XP2 but less sharp, and we (Frances and I) much prefer the tonality of XP2 as well.

Cheers,

R.