Since the medal always has a reverse side, it is also appropriate to mention the disadvantages of XP2 Super 400 compared to traditional black and white film. The most obvious disadvantage is that you cannot influence the tonal scale and contrast of the negative by choosing different types of developers and dilutions, or by increasing or decreasing the development. A unique feature of traditional black and white technology is that you can adjust various parameters such as exposure, developer, development time, dilution, agitation etc. to get negatives with exactly the properties you want. This is particularly useful if you want to enlarge the images in a darkroom. You will certainly get good results with XP2 Super 400 when enlarging in a darkroom, not least if you use the great Ilford Multigrade papers. However, darkroom enthusiasts are probably not the primary target audience for this film. It is best suited to analogue photographers who do not develop themselves and who do not see the need to use the development process to produce certain tonal characteristics of the finished negative. If you want to press it, it also works very well, just remember to let the lab know what ISO the light meter was at when you exposed the film, so that it gets the correct development time. There will be no point in pulling the film, that is, exposing it at a lower ISO and reducing the development accordingly. If you want to do this, you will e.g. Ilford Delta 400 be a better alternative. However, you can lower the ISO to 200 and have the film developed normally. (Shortening the developing time in C41 process might easily give inconsistent result and uneven development.) The film will be slightly overexposed, which will give more detail in the darkest areas. However, the highlights will not be burned out. It is not recommended to set ISO lower than 200 with XP2 Super 400.
