HI, I bought a couple of Kodak Techpan (120) rolls, and since this are quite expensive I would like some reference point from people already gone this path. Before wasting to much money so I couldnt buy any more ;)

At this point I use Tetenal's Negafine, it seems a good one. Old faithfull Rodinal, Im not please with this one, only have what I have left from the times I use to like it. and a PKM mix, "ilumitol" very good developer, unfortunally I have no reference for this one with Techpan, and is a pain to use.

I Intend to use the films for street shooting, hoping for pictures with high impact, no grain and with some tonal range, so it wont look too wierd. hooooooo and to be enlarged up to 50x60cm (from 645)

Any Ideas?

thanks

Diego K.

-- Diego K. (Heuristica@yahoo.com), September 01, 2000

Answers

To get more than two tones out of it you have to rate it too slow for street use though some photographers images that I have seen used it. ISO 64 is the highest I have seen. It is a slow film used for very sharp work like microscopy and such. Your shadows may go to shit if rated too high. But try a compensating type developer and long development times combined with very little agitation. I use it alot in landscape and still life uses but movement in the scene is all a blur. James

-- james (james_mickelson@hotmail.com), September 01, 2000.

The best developer I know for Tech Pan is TD-30 from Photographers' Formulary. It lets you shoot at an EI as high as 64, and has very good tonality (unlike most developers with TP).

Beware that exposure is a bit of a moving target. Because of its increased red sensitivity, the film tends to underexpose greens, and its speed increases according to the amount of red in the available light. Even so, if you're after the finest grain there is, Tech Pan is the one.

-- Brian Hinther (BrianH@sd314.k12.is.us), September 01, 2000.

Check:

Almost all of the images were made with 35mm 2415.

-- Gene Crumpler (nikonguy@worldnet.att.net), September 01, 2000.

So much for HTML!

http://home.att.net/~gene.crumpler.

-- Gene Crumpler (nikonguy@worldnet.att.net), September 01, 2000.

Hi I Its not the first time I hear bout the Photographers Formulary, could someone tell me what the HxLL is it? Is it a book with recepies, a shop where to get chemicals? what?

If some one knows anything on how it reacts with rodinal, In the massive dev chart I saw that you can use it with 1+99, 1+150 and 1+300 ratios, for continuose tone. any experience with it?

DIego K.

-- Diego K. (heuristica@yahoo.com), September 02, 2000.

Diego,

Go to:

www.photoformulary.com

They are a wonderful company with helpful people and an incredible catalog of hard to get chems and supplies. Every serious photog should know about them.

chuck k

-- chuck k (kleesattel@msn.com), September 02, 2000.

Diego,

If you want formulas try "The Darkroom Cookbook" and "The Film Developing Cookbook". Both are by Steve Anchell and ? Troop.

Then you can buy the stuff to try them out from The Photographer's Formulary.

-- Terry Carraway (TCarraway@compuserve.com), September 03, 2000.

I have used Techpan for years and mixed up a Divided D76 with great results @50asa. Now Photo Formulary has a kit of DD76. Highly recommend it!

-- Scott Walton (scotlynn@shore.net), September 03, 2000.

If you like arcane darkroom work, and don't mind the odd unpleasant surprise, great. Use this high contrast copying film for something it was never designed for.
IMHO life's too short for this sort of messing about. The grain using Tmax 100, Delta, or even FP4plus is well nigh invisible in Medium format. I really don't understand why you'd want to put yourself to this extra trouble.

-- Pete Andrews (p.l.andrews@bham.ac.uk), September 05, 2000.

Why do we even boder developing the films ourselves, just give it to some lab to do it for you. why do we get the best camera gear we can? lets just shoot polaroids in pinhole cameras alltogether!

I, as many photographers, am looking for a special look on my photos, and just looking around for films that may give me that look.

Diego K.

-- Diego K. (heuristica@yahoo.com), September 05, 2000.

Here, here! My hat is off to you Diego. It is the look and the final object that we strive for and in my opinion, doing my own film (B/W ) is the only way to get what I want. Cheers,

-- Scott Walton (scotlynn@shore.net), September 06, 2000.

I have been using TechPan with Kodak Technidol and getting a nice, full range of tones. The shadows come out great. Of course, I am shooting at 25ASA and below.

I found that with my local water supply, the Divided D-76 has problems. I found that I absolutely have to mix it up with distilled water. The second half of DD-76 (alkali) crystalled up when it cooled down from mixing it with normal tap water.

-- Brian C. Miller (brian.c.miller@gte.net), September 13, 2000.

I have shot about 200 rolls of Minox 8x11mm format Kodak Technical Pan film slitter from bulk 150' roll with my Minox TLX/C/B/IIIS cameras and developed with Rodinal Special-- a speically formalated Agfa fine grain developer sold only in Canada/Europe, but not in USA. I routinely enlarge these 8mm x 11mm negativews to 8x10" For examples see

http://web.ionsys.com/~martntai/811.html

-- martin tai (martin.tai@capcanada.com), October 11, 2000.

Hey Martin, I saw your photos and liked very much the tones you obtained, what was the dilution-temp-and EI used? I also notice you use the Agfapan 25 as well, how do you see this 2 films hand to hand? what one gives over the other? BTW, is it true AGfapan has its days counted?

Diego K.

-- Diego K. (heuristica@yahoo.com), October 11, 2000.

Hi Diego. For TP, I use 1:80 Rodinal Special 20 degree C 16 minutes for grade 2 density For Agfapan APX 25, I use Rodinal Special at 1:60 dilution 20 degree C, 18 minutes. Both rated at ASA 25. Both films are my favorite film. Agfapan APX 25 has great tonal range, but not as fine grain as Technical Pan. 25x is the limit of APX 25; with 8mm x 11mm negative size, the max I can get out from APX 25 IS 8X10", TP can be enlarged to about 40x.

-- martin tai (martin.tai@capcanada.com), October 11, 2000.

RE: Agfapan APX 25. It has being know to Minox photographers for many years that Agfa intended to disconitue APX 25; first they discontinued 4x5; now it is official that they have discontinued the production of APX 25 due to low sales volume. However they still have APX 25 in stock. They advice people deep freeze the film with insulation to extend the life of the film five years beyond expiry. I have ordered two 50' rolls of APX 25.

-- martrin tai (martin.tai@capcanada.com), October 11, 2000.

Thank you very much for the info, I cant seems to find here in Madrid the S version of rodinal, I have the standart one, any changes should apply?

Thanks again

Diego K.

-- Diego K. (heuristica@yahoo.com), October 14, 2000.

Diego, yes, you can use standard Rodinal with the following soup:

1. Solution A: dissolve 56 g of sodium sulfite in 1000 cc of distilled water.
2. Minox 1 part of Rodinal with 100 part of solution A: For example 2.5 cc of Rodinal in 250 cc solution A )

Develop in 20 degree C for 6-7 minutes.

-- martin tai (martin.tai@capcanada.com), October 14, 2000.

"Minox 1 part Rodinal with 100 part solution" should read

"Mixing 1 part Rodinal with 100 part of solution A " ( 1:100 Rodinal, not with water, but with water with sodium sulfite added )

-- martin tai (martin.tai@capcanada.com), October 14, 2000.

Well Diego, i suggest testing your film with edwal's FG7, i am about to do so myself using 4x5 sheet film. FG7 is a compensating developer which can be useful with film such as tech pan. I suggest you start your first test with a dilution of 1:31, 6 min at 20B0C exposing at about asa 25...just try it at different asa's by bracketing at one third increments then look at the final result on a contact sheet.

good luck, Daniel D. Canada

-- Dan (cazou@nbnet.nb.ca), November 04, 2000.

Martin, I just found some Rodinal S around here, and Did the first roll, the look if nice, now lets see how it goes on to the paper. Its the first time I get PINK developer, never did before :)

Ill keep you posted

Diego K.

-- Diego K. (Heuristica@yahoo.com), November 05, 2000.