EXPIRED ILFORD XP 2 ANY GOOD?

[Scrulooose]

Hello all,

I have been given a bargain of 8 x Ilford XP2 35mm for £15 but it expired in September 2012.. Will this create much of a negative (excuse the pun) effect on the film? I have shot with expired colour film in the past but not black and white.


Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[freecom2]

It'll be fine. XP2 is quite tolerant to these sorts of things.

Bear in mind that XP2 is not a true B&W film, it's developed in a colour process.

 

[skysh4rk]

Hello all,

I have been given a bargain of 8 x Ilford XP2 35mm for £15 but it expired in September 2012.. Will this create much of a negative (excuse the pun) effect on the film? I have shot with expired colour film in the past but not black and white.


Thanks in advance for any help!

It depends on how it was stored. As long as it was stored in reasonably normal to cool conditions, I would imagine that it's fine. I would probably shoot one test roll just to see how it fares before using the remaining rolls for shooting anything important.

I would personally start by shooting the first roll at ISO 200, which gives a bit of cushion for any lost light sensitivity, which I doubt you'll see, and I think that XP2 looks good one stop overexposed anyway.

 

[Scrulooose]

It'll be fine. XP2 is quite tolerant to these sorts of things.

Bear in mind that XP2 is not a true B&W film, it's developed in a colour process.

I know aye but C-41 process means i can get it develop only locally which i prefer rather than Snappy Snaps..

 

[Scrulooose]

It depends on how it was stored. As long as it was stored in reasonably normal to cool conditions, I would imagine that it's fine. I would probably shoot one test roll just to see how it fares before using the remaining rolls for shooting anything important.

I would personally start by shooting the first roll at ISO 200, which gives a bit of cushion for any lost light sensitivity, which I doubt you'll see, and I think that XP2 looks good one stop overexposed anyway.

thank you for your help! unfortunately i dont think im gonna have the opportunity to shoot a roll as he offered me it in the bulk deal... you think 8 rolls for £15 is a good price?

 

[skysh4rk]

thank you for your help! unfortunately i dont think im gonna have the opportunity to shoot a roll as he offered me it in the bulk deal... you think 8 rolls for £15 is a good price?

Oh, I just meant that after you've bought the film, shoot one roll and get it developed to see how it fares before shooting the rest. This way you can see if you need to make any adjustments (e.g., if the film had lost any light sensitivity, the photos might come back underexposed, so you then know to shoot the remaining rolls at an even lower ISO to accommodate this).

I wouldn't really worry about sampling a roll before you buy it; in all likelihood, the film should be fine.

 

[norters]

Just shoot it

 

[ChrisR]

Expired 1 year C41 black and white... unlikely to be any problem, and IMHO you should shoot the first film at box speed and expect it to be fine. The "rule of thumb" is one stop per decade, so the film might be 1/10 of a stop out... way less than the margin of error in most shutter speeds, and also way less than the flexibility of cnsumer film!

 

[AJQS]

It'll be 100% fine, my XP2 stash is from 2005 and I'm still putting stupid pushes on it.

 

[skysh4rk]

Expired 1 year C41 black and white... unlikely to be any problem, and IMHO you should shoot the first film at box speed and expect it to be fine. The "rule of thumb" is one stop per decade, so the film might be 1/10 of a stop out... way less than the margin of error in most shutter speeds, and also way less than the flexibility of cnsumer film!

You could shoot it at 400 and likely would be fine with regard to the condition of the film, but even guaranteed fresh XP2 is prone to graininess in the shadows at 400 ISO, so many people recommend shooting it at 200 to get less grain and more detail in the darker areas of the photo and that is what I've done when I've used it.

Even Ilford recommend shooting at ISO 200 for finer grain with easy printing: http://www.ilfordphoto.com/Webfiles/201142711321939.pdf

That said, the film is meant to have great latitude (Ilford say it can be exposed anywhere from ISO 50-800 and developed normally), so it's hard to do anything that's completely wrong with it; it's just a matter of determining personal preferences.

 

[ChrisR]

You could shoot it at 400 and likely would be fine with regard to the condition of the film, but even guaranteed fresh XP2 is prone to graininess in the shadows at 400 ISO, so many people recommend shooting it at 200 to get less grain and more detail in the darker areas of the photo and that is what I've done when I've used it.

Even Ilford recommend shooting at ISO 200 for finer grain with easy printing: http://www.ilfordphoto.com/Webfiles/201142711321939.pdf

Ah, that's good advice, thanks RJ.