I was recently shooting pictures for a friend and I decided to experiment with a roll of 35mm Kodak Technical Pan film. The other rolls that I shot were TMAX 100. The Tmax rolls came out perfect with good contrast and negative density. I was shooting outdoors in direct and indirect sunlight.(posted 8732 days ago)My question is about what happened to the Tech Pan negs. I have them processed only at a local lab and they said they use Xtol developer (not sure of dilution). The negatives came back with EXTREMELY high contrast and the highlights being washed out. I dont think my exposure was off because the shadow detail is excellent and when blown up on my enlarger it looks very sharp. I exposed the film at ISO 25. The Kodak technical info sheet for this film is confusing on how to expose it when you use Xtol to develop. So I think what happened was one of two things:
1) the negs were overdeveloped causing the highlights to go totally white (Zone X) or they were developed wrong. I have technidol at home but I was too lazy and busy to develop these negs myself.
2) I have exceeded the luminance range of the film and it couldnt handle the highlights. I have no idea what the difference in stops was between the shadow and the highlights (does anyone know the range of the film?).
I am intruiged by this films slow speed and was wondering if anyone had any experience with it. while the pictures I got from it were very "artistic" looking and my friend liked them, they do not make very good pictures in themselves. I would like to be able to take normal contrast pictures.
Thanks -- Micah