I’ve been using chromogenic films for a while now, mainly Kodak BW400CN and Kodak T400CN. But I never really dug into how they actually worked until I started reading about Ilford XP2. What caught my attention was its ability to be shot across a wide range of ISOs while still being processed in standard C-41 chemistry. That’s when I decided to put XP2 to the test.
I loaded a 120 roll of Ilford XP2—manufactured by Harman Technology whose native ISO being 400—into the RB67. For the test subject, I chose one of my favourites: the Williams BMW RC car. With the camera locked on a tripod, I planned out a full ISO sweep, starting at ISO 50 and going all the way up to ISO 1600. This wasn’t meant to be an aesthetic shoot; it was a controlled experiment to understand how XP2 handles exposure variations across its range.
After metering and shooting at each ISO, the roll was sent to Darkroom8 for processing and scanning.
The results are shared below:
ISO 50
ISO 80
ISO 100
ISO 200
ISO 400
ISO 640
ISO 800
ISO 1250
ISO 1600