Here in the UK, we're well and truly stuck in the middle of winter. Not the ideal season for film photography…Day after day of driving rain and blankets of grey cloud on short days aren't the most natural backdrop for colour film.
So do you pack the cameras away and spend the cold months hunched in front of the computer scanning your negatives? Or do you just accept the grey days?
I've always tried to do the latter by shooting black-and-white film. But seeing as I still don't process my own, that stockpile of film builds up in the fridge month after month, taunting me every time I go in for the milk.
My online camera shop Cameraburo always needs stock, and I've found it vital for my mood to get out and about even when it's cold and raining.
One film has become my new go-to from December to late February. It's black-and-white, but I can drop it off at my local labs along with any colour film I've been lucky to shoot.
Ilford XP2 Super isn't a new film; it's been about since 1998, a rejigged version of a film that had originally been unveiled at the Photokina trade show in West Germany in 1980. Ilford XP1 was the world's first chromogenic black-and-white film, one that could be processed using the same C-41 process as colour negative film.
Ilford XP2 Super, snapped on the counter at Aperture Printing in London (Pic: Stephen Dowling)
Kodak later invented its own rivals to Ilford's novel film, but all of the US film producer's chromogenic films have since bitten the dust, leaving XP2 Super to reign in a field of its own.
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I make a special trip to one of my favourite labs Bayeux to drop off black-and-white to develop e very few months, but Ilford XP2 is a film I can pop into local minilabs like Analogue Films in London's East End on the weekend when I've been testing cameras.
On top of how convenient it is to develop, here are four other reasons why I think it's a film worth adding to your winter shooting kit:
ISO 400 for winter light: Those of us who live in northern climes will know that even at midday, the winter light can be week and watery. ISO 100 and 200 sometimes just aren't sensitive enough on intensely overcast days.
It's pushable: If your lab pushes film, you can push XP2 Super up to two stops (ISO 1600). Yes, you'll get crunchier grain and more contrast, but the grain will have the same pleasing look as true black-and-white films.
Refined grain: Ilford XP2 Super is a modern film and its grain is relatively restrained for an ISO 400 emulsion.
It scans easily: Lab scans from this film always look sharp and contrasty – and they really do look like they were taken on a true black-and-white film.
Here's a few example images I've included from recent rolls:
The White Swan pub in Twickenham, shot on a Nikon TW Zoom
Happy faces at the pantomime Horse Race in Greenwich in December 2024 on a Canon Sure Shot Zoom XL
Open-air chess players engrossed in their games, Shoreditch on an Agfa Optima Sensor 335
Blurred runner on an Olympus Trip Mini AF
Dino smile outside the Natural History Museum on an Olympus Mju-I
Peeking statue looks at police horses, also on an Olympus Mju-I
What’s your go-to winter film? Let me know!