Hi all-I've just completed some comparison testing of slow b&w films. Using a medium format camera, I shot three subjects at a range of aperature/shutter speeds giving me 1 stop under, on exposure, and 2 stops over exposure using a hand held meter. I developed tech pan in technidol, panf in d-76 and panf in rodinal, all following reccomended times and temp. The results: Tech pan came out very muddy, low contrast. Panf/d-76 w/ good sharpness, but needing #3 grade filter to punch up contrast. Panf/rodinal (1/50 dil)--very, very sharp, but contrast high enough to make printing rather difficult. It seems that panf in rodinal is the way to go for slow speed B&w, but I need to find a way to control the contrast. Any and all thoughts on the above would be greatly appreciated. Thanks Deb

-- debra rozin (philndebra@aol.com), July 21, 1999

Answers

Hi Debra you might try increasing your time in 76 about 10%.

Due you meter highlights or shadows.

You might try exposing for the shadows and developing for the highlghts, it will give you a more printable negative with good detail in the highlights and shadows. It tkes some testing but will pay off in the long run. Good Luck Marty

-- Marty (photocouple@webtv.net), July 21, 1999.

Refer to Ansel Adams', "The Negative" for a full and wonderfully simple explanation of what Marty is talking about.

-- shawn gibson (shawn.gibson@utoronto.ca), July 21, 1999.

You control contrast (at the negative stage) with eith/or/both of a compensating developer and shorter development time (its in the book).

-- shawn gibson (shawn.gibson@utoronto.ca), July 21, 1999.

Try Pan F+ in Rodinal (1:100) for 12 minutes at 68 degrees. Limit agitation to 10 seconds per minute.

-- Ed Buffaloe (edbuffaloe@earthlink.net), July 22, 1999.

Check your mixing of the Technidol. Most people complain about Techpan being too high in contrast. I have never had a "muddy" negative with Techpan. At ISO 25 and times straight from the technical sheet, I get negatives which are a little high in contrast.

-- Brian C. Miller (brianm@ioconcepts.com), July 22, 1999.

Make sure that the films were correctly identified. The techpan should be contrsty no matter what. Panf gets muddy when not exposed and developed properly. James

-- james (james_mickelson@hotmail.com), August 07, 1999.