Originally posted by Vendee Thanks Chris. I think I skimmed your original post and thought you were still talking about the FP4.
So I've loaded up my Kiev 4 with the expired XP2 super and started exposing at ISO 100. It also gives me he chance to see if I've definitely fixed my shutter light leak on the Kiev.
I read through your APUG post..... very interesting. Did you prefer the Rodinal or the HC110 for developing the XP" Super? The film edge scans were interesting.
Rodinal is definitely not as smooth with XP2, unless you choose to go this way: ISO 200, 1+100, semi-stand for one hour. I'm still experimenting a bit with Rodinal in place of HC-110, as I have several bottles of it in the chemistry fridge, and I was running low on HC-110. But now I have some Legacy pro LP110, so the pressure is off to find a way of using the Rodinal instead. This is XP2 in semistand Rodinal:
I can't put too much faith in those edge scans - longer film holders in Flextight scanners are prone to have the magnetic flap slide on the steel backing as they are curved and straightened as the two layers curve with different radii. The flap often has a buckle in it after it has been in and out of the scanner a few times, and this shifts the negative slightly. Normally this doesn't have any blurring effect as the negative tends to shift only as the holder is ejected - consequently you might not get the exact frame you had drawn a marquee around, but it will be sharp. But to scan the edge of the film the negative has to be placed incorrectly in the holder, and is unsupported at the edge being scanned. You can see some of the letters in the edge lettering are distorted as a result. If I could be bothered, I'd do them over again on the Nikon 9000. Nonetheless, there does seem to be a reason to think the C-41 process adds a little sharpness, but I have no complaints about the detail I get with B&W chemicals in practice. They have the advantage of speed, simplicity and cheapness and let me keep my C-41 kits for colour films, But that's just me being lazy and cheap; the real benefit is that XP2 proves itself to be a very versatile film with next to no grain even when pushed to 1600.