A decade ago, if you wanted to shoot b&w with a C-41 film, we had several choices -- there was one from Konica, one from Kodak, and one from Ilford. Kodak's version had an orange mask like most C-41 films, but Konica's and Ilford's did not (the orange mask made conventional b&w prints more challenging, but I did get good results). The reasons why someone would want to shoot C-41 b&w are simple -- at the time, it was easily processed by any one-hour lab and did not require any special treatment. The films were quite good, and I felt that the tonal scale was excellent, especially the Kodak's many iterations of its C-41 B&W. Now, Ilford is the only manufacturer of a C-41 b&w film. Years ago, I shot XP-1 that was already about a decade expired, and was astonished at how good the results were. I have shot XP-2 a few times over the years, and found it often was better at an ISO of 320. Last year, I exchanged a bulk roll of Tri-X for a 10 pack of XP-2, as I wasn't using Tri-X any more. The XP2 film was a bit expired, and I have been shooting it a bit. Now that I am doing my own C-41 developing, it's certainly worth noting that it's as easy as any color C-41 film to work with. Of course, if you wish, you can develop it in b&w chemistry, too, but I have not tried it. The neutral gray mask allows easier darkroom printing. Best of all, it scans beautifully, too. If you are new to film shooting, and want to try b&w, XP2 is a good choice.
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