Praktica TL-5B and Ilford XP2

I have quite a thing for Ilford XP-2 film. For those who don’t know this is a C41 (i.e. the colour process) film, designed to be printed as black and white – aimed at those who want monochrome images without black and white processing.

However, this does require some trickery at the printing stage, else the film prints with an interesting sepia like olive green and ornage tone, which can be used to great effect.

I also like my TL-5B camera as this workhorse of German engineering is generally quite robust and dependable.

But what when these go wrong?

I am not sure if this is my processing (exhausted developer), light leaks, old film or (most likely) a combination that has led to some slightly more random effects here, but I quite like them, for me they are reminiscent of old pictures that have sat in a drawer for years to be discovered in an house clearnce, especially with the steam and early diesel locomotives from Keighley and Worth Valley in the images.