Time Horizon, an installation by Sir Antony Gormley featuring 100 cast iron replicas of himself, is on show at Houghton Hall in Norfolk.

XP2 just did the business thanks to a sprinkling of Wondie dust and some minimal tinkering.

Well worth a bash if you're up that way.

If there are can't go wrong with films, this is probably one of them.

It's got lovely tones and comes back from the Wondies looking pretty sharp and clean with more or less the right amount of contrast.

While I've never had a duff dev from the Wondies, they just make this stuff sing.

The grain whispers "this was shot on film" in your ear without screaming it from the rooftops.

And the scans don't sulk and go all noisy either if you like to post-process them a little to get the look you're after.

As in like what I do, with a few tweaks to things like contrast and dynamic range.

I'd say you could shoot just about anything on this stuff but I love the way it renders the muddy old Norfolk coast.

When the first iteration of XP film was launched in 1980, I was developing and printing Ilford FP4, HP3 films using the usual black and white developing and printing processes. When C41 XP was launched, I dismissed it because I didn't have the facilities to develop and print it. In the last couple of years, I've become hooked on analogue photography and, thanks to AW have embraced B/W photography again. I don't develop and print now - who needs to with such an excellent service that AW provides. I grasped the nettle of XP2 - C41 film and have been thoroughly delighted with the results. Having converted digital images to B/W and enjoyed the relatively grain-free results, I was finding HP5 a little grainy! XP2 results have been, to my eye, superior both in fine grain and excellent contrast; bright whites and deep blacks. I was so disappointed when stocks ran out at AW, but their reminder service worked well and I wait in anticipation of my next delivery of XP2, which I think will be my go-to B/W stock film from now on. Many thanks, AW for your excellent service and attention to serving your customers so diligently. Martin Gostling

I'm a regular user of Ilford HP5, it's been a firm favourite for a while now but I thought it would be interesting to compare with Ilford XP2.
I wasn't disappointed. In fact I liked the results of this film so much I've since commited to shoot with it as part of a project every month for 2024 and I'm looking forward to the results :)

Relative to HP5 which is a heavy gain film, I think this film lacks 'character', however relative to the Delta range, this film is more in-line with the HP range in that it isn't as heavy on the contrast. Therefore, this film sits between the 2 nicely. However, because of the 'on the fence' look, I rarely find myself desiring to load this film into my camera. I would go as far as to say that the images look like I have clicked the B+W button in Lightroom. I think it's a great film that you can't go wrong with, so I urge people to give it a go. It stood up extremely well to all the differing lighting conditions and the grain is very smooth for an ISO 400 film. I just think it lacks some of the character that other Ilford films have.