Head to head
Ilford HP5+ vs Ilford XP2 Super 400
Both shoot at box speed 400, both come from Ilford, and both end up black and white, so newer photographers tend to pit them against each other. The split that matters: HP5+ is a true silver gelatin film you develop yourself in standard B&W chemistry, while XP2 Super is a chromogenic film built on the C-41 color process, so your corner lab can run it alongside a roll of Portra. That one fact drives almost everything else about how the two behave.
How they differ
HP5+ has real grain with bite to it, and it pushes beautifully. Rate it at 800, 1600, even 3200, adjust your development, and it holds up with that gritty, contrasty look people associate with classic reportage. It is forgiving of overexposure and rewards anyone who wants to control contrast in the tank. XP2, by contrast, runs through C-41 only, which means you cannot push it the same way and you are at the mercy of a lab unless you do your own color chemistry. Its grain is finer and smoother because the image is made of dye clouds rather than silver, and it has a very wide, gentle latitude that handles a botched meter reading gracefully.
Choose Ilford HP5+
Pick HP5+ if you develop your own film or want to. It is the workhorse for anyone learning the darkroom, anyone who shoots in low light and needs to push, and anyone chasing that traditional grainy newspaper-photo rendering. It is also the cheaper path per roll once you factor in home processing, and it is stocked almost everywhere.
Full Ilford HP5+ guide →Choose Ilford XP2 Super 400
Pick XP2 Super 400 if you do not develop at home and want black and white prints (or scans) from any one-hour C-41 lab, including the drugstore counter. It suits travel, family snaps, and event work where you want smooth grain, easy scanning, and a film that shrugs off exposure mistakes. Good for someone shooting mixed rolls who does not want to think about a separate B&W process.
Full Ilford XP2 Super 400 guide →The verdict
It really comes down to your workflow. Develop your own film and want to push: HP5+. No darkroom, want a lab to handle it: XP2. Both are excellent 400-speed films, so the choice is less about quality and more about how the roll gets processed and the look you are after.