We all love Black and White film, but with the resurgence of the digital age, less and lesser labs provide traditional black and white developing. But no need to worry, the Kodak BW400CN and the Ilford XP2 400 are here to save you from your miserable uhm... misery. For a price
Browsing through Lomography and Flickr’s sample shots of the two rival films, I was skeptical if it really would give me pure black and white. Some photos turned out sepia while others turned muddy brown. But I was itching to try these out since the only lab that develops traditional black and white is really far away. So I bought it, It wasn’t cheap I’ll tell you that. One roll costs around 275 PHP, which is roughly around 6 or 7 American Dollars. I sure hope it was worth it.
And it was! The sepia and poop I mean, muddy brown images i feared so much weren’t present on my roll. (I bought one that was expired for over a year.) Here are some sample images from the Kodak BW400CN 35mm.
Ilford XP2 400 medium format
Pros
- C41 processing so it can be developed at any lab
- Just as good as any traditional Black and White film out there
Cons
- Rather hard to find (Well, here in the Philippines it is.)
- Expensive
Verdict
If you love the look and feel of Black and White film but don’t have the means to develop it I recommend to grab a couple of these. You know, if you have the money (but if you do can you give me some please.)
5 comments
herbert-4
Good Article!! Here's the results from a very heat damaged, outdated roll of 35mm Ilford XP2. It colour shifted fetchingly. Look at this: http://www.lomograph(…)tos/1288160 Read the story with the photos. I think the roll was >5 years outdated. Enjoy.
herbert-4
Above was wrong link... here's the right one for the album of abused XP2... http://www.lomograph(…)-amp-w_film sorry.
lokified
Ah, dangit, I was planning a review of Kodak bw400 myself in the coming weeks. I too had a muddy washed-out experience, but was pleasantly surprised by a new roll.
noe_arteaga
@lokified you should still do your review! it's great to get others' perspectives, too!
tanip