Ilford Pan F development suggestions?

jbf

jbf

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Hey all,

I'm planning on trying out some PanF+ soon for some landscape shots i hope to do back home in about three weeks or so... and I was wondering if you guys had any suggestions with what kind of developer, etc?

I am hoping for a developer that will work well with PanF but also with HP5+ and even Tri-X. I dont necessarily like my photos to be chalk and charcole, but I do like it to have good tonality as well as good contrast (though not too much).

Any suggestions on developer and times possibly?
 
I LOVE Pan F in Rodinal. I think you'll love it. Sharp, contrasty, good tonal range, beautiful. Rodinal is good with Tri-X but a lot of folks don't like it with HP5.
 
Hmmm... is Rodinal hard to use? I hear there are some developers that you have to mix as a powder... definately dont want to have to do that. Would prefer the ease of using liquid concentrate developers i think.


Do you know where I might be able to find examples of Pan F in rodinal?


Thanks so much, Nick.
 
Rodinal is very easy and comes in concentrate, no mixing. There's some good samples if you Google "Pan F in Rodinal" (no parens) and click the "images" link on the Google home page. I'm sure if you put that phrase in Flickr you will also see some examples.

Rodinal is renouned for its sharpness and is a good match for slower traditional emulsions, like Pan F. It is grainier than most developers but is known for its acutence - sharpness, and has a nice tonal range. It also lasts forever. (Its a bad match for higher speed films - 400 and over, because grain can get intrusive). Modern slower speed films in Rodinal have no issue with grain. Rodinal was the first commercial film developer, marketed back in the 1800's.
 
I would also recommend Rodinal, though for the last roll of Pan F+ I used Ilford DD-X according to the recommendations, and it was really nice. However, my next rolls of Pan F+ will be developed in Rodinal, or maybe Rodinal + Xtol.

The nice thing about Rodinal is that the stock solution keeps a long, long time. You really don't have to worry about it going flat over time.
 
Hmm... that is a good point about it's shelf life.

How does DDX work with 400 speed films?

The only thing keeping me from using rodinal would be that besides this project with panF...i mostly shoot 400 speed films...

so i'm worried that the 400 iso film might be too grainy for my tastes with rodinal...

How does DDX fair with 400 speed film?
 
ID 11 or D76 works superbly with all three.

If you want to spend a lot of money, use DDx to no benefit. Use DDx for Delta 400 only. Manditory almost.
 
jbf said:
Hmmm... is Rodinal hard to use? I hear there are some developers that you have to mix as a powder... definately dont want to have to do that. Would prefer the ease of using liquid concentrate developers i think.
Click to expand...

Honestly, it's a non-issue. You mix up a batch (I usually do a gallon of D76) and it lasts months. Takes all of five minutes to mix with some warm water. Because of the distribution of chemicals within the powder you have to mix the entire thing at once, so you're either doing a quart or a gallon. 🙂
 
As above, Rodinal for Pan F and for most films if you want to stick with just one developer. T-max dev is also a good choice for faster films, but is like DDX, a bit dear and is mixed 1:4, so it doesn't stretch all that far where as Rodinal is 1:25 or 1:50, very ecconomical. Andrew.
 
jbf said:
The only thing keeping me from using rodinal would be that besides this project with panF...i mostly shoot 400 speed films...

so i'm worried that the 400 iso film might be too grainy for my tastes with rodinal...

How does DDX fair with 400 speed film?
Click to expand...

Tri-X in Rodinal, 1:100 @ 20C, 20 min, 30 sec agitation then 3 inversions every 5 minutes:

1573281267_4dff0ea87d_o.jpg


1574175920_d4095bbce4_o.jpg


1592745306_7f12642bcc_o.jpg
 
Ronald M said:
ID 11 or D76 works superbly with all three.

If you want to spend a lot of money, use DDx to no benefit. Use DDx for Delta 400 only. Manditory almost.
Click to expand...

I agree with Ronald. Lately, I have been developing all my 35mm FP4+ in DDX and love it! I have yet to run any 120 thru DDX but expect it to look great as well.

I have not really been impressed with HP5+/DDX.

Bob
 
Yeah Im not a big fan of rodinal and Tri-X it seems. I was never a big fan of the ghost outline effect you get along the edges of things.

So... yeah i dunno. I'm so lost. 🙁
 
Diafine! Virtually made for Tri-X (EI 1250), lovely I think with HP-5 (EI 800), and gives nice results with FP-4 (EI 250) and Pan-F (EI 50) too. So convenient I now use it for everything.
 
cmedin said:
Honestly, it's a non-issue. You mix up a batch (I usually do a gallon of D76) and it lasts months. Takes all of five minutes to mix with some warm water. Because of the distribution of chemicals within the powder you have to mix the entire thing at once, so you're either doing a quart or a gallon. 🙂
Click to expand...

What do you store your developer in once it's been mixed together?

As long as I dont have to be super perfect with temperatures of water when i mix solutions together then I'll be fine I guess...


Also, what do you guys use to measure the 1:50, etc style dillutions with the rodinal and other extremely concentrated developers?

I've only used Sprint Developer and it's only 1:9 dillution... so i would need a graduated cylinder that has much more precise markings from what i'm used to i imagine.
 
Last edited:
Wow those shots have great tonality and look to them. The second shot is great!

Did you use a red filter on the second? The sky looks like a red filter was ued. So much more dramatic.

Man these shots of PanF make me really want to use rodinal, etc.

I just wish that rodinal would have beter results with faster films such as hp5...

my main concern is that with tri-x or hp5+ rodinal will end up giving me the "unsharp mask" effect where edges of dark and light areas have halos or a "ghosting" like effect.
 
Wow some of those shots are gorgeous! Love the tonality your getting from those.

I always thought that with a PanF or 100 speed film you'd have trouble shooting without tripods... guess not. Hah. 😀

So for APX100 you rated it at 50 and then pull it correct? But so then do you expose the film at 50 as well? By pulling the film you are stopping the development early right?

What exactly does it do besides affect contrast? Cant it affect the actual density of the negative?
 
Thanks for your kind words JBF.

APX100 was exposed at EI50 and PanF at EI25, both developed approx. 20% shorter time than normal. The idea of pulling the film (overexposing and underdeveloping) is to reduce the contrast of the negative to avoid blown-out highlights and sooted shadows. By overexposing the film you make sure to have plenty of detail in the shadows while controlling the density of the highlights through development - expose for the shadows, develop for the highlights.

Some people call the entire process pulling, that is they include both the overexposure and underdevelopment in the definition. Same for pushing, underexposing and overdeveloping which will yield a higher contrast negative with less shadow detail. For each stop in any direction, increase or decrease the development time about 20% (subject to film specific testing!)

As for the tripod, I even took some shots with PanF (EI25) and a 2 stop orange filter to increase the definition in the sky. At EI6, you need a steady hand even in pretty bright sunlight! 🙂
 
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