How should Ilford HP5 Plus 400 be processed, and is there a black-and-white equivalent to C-41?
Asked 8/18/2011
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I’m shooting Ilford HP5 Plus 400 and want to know what to ask for when sending it to a lab. Is there a standard black-and-white process comparable to C-41 for color film, or do labs use different developers? If a lab says they process black-and-white film, is HP5 a routine film for them?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
15y ago
2 Answers
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Most labs I've seen that do black and white processing call it generally D-76 processing, but they could use any number of other chemicals. HP5 is about a standard a b&w film as you'll find, so if the lab claims they do black and white processing, they'll be able to do HP5.
Ilford's site has a PDF for all the development solutions and times that they recommend if you need something specific to ask about.
If you want to shoot black and white film but can only find places that do color processing (for example, most drug store labs only do color film now), you might want to look into chromogenic films like Ilford XP2 or Kodak T400CN. Those are b&w films but they're designed to be developed with the chemicals for color film.
Originally by user6268. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user6268
15y ago
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Ilford HP5 Plus 400 is a very standard traditional black-and-white film, so any lab that offers black-and-white processing should be able to handle it.
Unlike color negative film, which has the standardized C-41 process, traditional black-and-white film does not have one single universal process. Labs may use different black-and-white developers, and that’s normal. One common name you may hear is D-76; Ilford’s similar developer is ID-11. Other Ilford developers such as Ilfosol may also be used.
So the main thing to ask a lab is simply whether they process traditional black-and-white film. If they do, HP5 is routine.
If you want specific development behavior, check Ilford’s published development times and recommendations for HP5 in different developers.
If a lab only offers C-41 color processing, then HP5 is not the right film for that process. In that case, use a chromogenic black-and-white film such as Ilford XP2 (or similar C-41 black-and-white film), which is designed to be developed in standard color chemistry.
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