Pan F plus - latent image fade?

Dante_Stella

Dante_Stella

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I have used Pan F Plus on and off for quite some time but am now reading for the first time that it has a relatively quick latent image fade. Is this real? I don't ever remember having a problem, even though it would be 2-3 weeks before I would get around to developing it.

But maybe this is like Wile E. Coyote hanging in the air until he realizes he ran off a cliff...? Now that I know, will the latent images fade faster?

Dante
 
Doubtful. I've developed PanF that was exposed a decade prior, not cold stored and the results were fine. Over the course of a year, I doubt you would see much difference unless you kept the film in a glovebox of your car. I've only noticed base fog increasing not latent image fading.

Phil Forrest
 
Not to start a fight, but this is absolutely real. I’d say a month before it starts to happen, tho heat (and/or humidity?) will speed it up. Two months can be dramatic loss. Just be timely with PanF and love it up.

This is why frame numbers and edge printing is so often barely visible with PanF.

I discovered it with a roll of PanF that sat in a camera for several months two years ago while I was working too much to shoot. I’d shot half the roll in October, came back to the camera in April and finished the roll. The October images were two stops under exposed. I contacted Ilford and was told “yes, develop promptly.”
 
Yeah, it's a real deal. I stopped shooting Pan F just for that reason. If you can't process Pan F relatively quickly, you pay the price.

Jim B.
 
Find out for yourself. Don't take others advice, run a test.

Expose a roll normally, saY 24 exposures. Put your camera on a tripod and expose every frame exactly the same with the exact same subject. Do a clip in the dark of about 5 frames and run it immediately as you normally would. Label O days. Store the remainder of the film normay and after 2 weeks do another 5 frame clip and run it exactly as you did the first. Label it 14 days. Now do a third clip at 4 weeks, process as you did before. Now at either 6 weeks or 8 do another clip text and label.

If this is within your timeframe evuate your clips and determine for yourself. Look at shadow density. That's where it'll show first.

Don't trust others information. Determine your own.
 
Ilford Pan F Plus technical information found on page 6:

“Exposed film
Once exposed, process PAN F Plus as soon as practical – ideally within 3 months. Exposed films should always be stored in cool, dry conditions - as recommended above.”

Here is the technical information brochure from Ilford:

https://www.ilfordphoto.com/amfile/file/download/file_id/2049/product_id/699/

For me, I find it easy to develop film and get it done soon after exposing a roll but making prints in a darkroom, that’s another story! I still make a contact print of the roll on an 8x10 sheet of paper with a contact print glass frame but then making enlargements of each negative, I just don’t do it anymore.

I guess, if I had the question/doubt in my mind as you have started your thread here, I’d take a short roll, maybe 20 or so exposures, take 5 frames, wait a month or two then repeat until the roll is exposed, develop and see if the first set look different than the last. But I do have outdated Pan F Plus film, some outdated by 10 or more years and it hasn’t affected the information Ilford puts on the edge during manufacturing.
 
Bill Clark said:
Ilford Pan F Plus technical information found on page 6:

“Exposed film
Once exposed, process PAN F Plus as soon as practical – ideally within 3 months. Exposed films should always be stored in cool, dry conditions - as recommended above.”

Here is the technical information brochure from Ilford:

https://www.ilfordphoto.com/amfile/file/download/file_id/2049/product_id/699/

For me, I find it easy to develop film and get it done soon after exposing a roll but making prints in a darkroom, that’s another story! I still make a contact print of the roll on an 8x10 sheet of paper with a contact print glass frame but then making enlargements of each negative, I just don’t do it anymore.

I guess, if I had the question/doubt in my mind as you have started your thread here, I’d take a short roll, maybe 20 or so exposures, take 5 frames, wait a month or two then repeat until the roll is exposed, develop and see if the first set look different than the last. But I do have outdated Pan F Plus film, some outdated by 10 or more years and it hasn’t affected the information Ilford puts on the edge during manufacturing.
Click to expand...


Exactly.
It is official by Ilford themselves.
I also remember some years ago, former Harman technology / Ilford Photo CEO Simon Galley confirming exactly that on apug.org (now photrio).

I think developing film in a time frame of 2-3 months max. after exposing is not a problem at all.
 
I shot a camera with pan f + for like 6 frames, then finished the roll 6 months later - the first few frames we're definitely goners
 
I have a full case of outdated 120 Pan F I bought down in the basement of Midwest Photo for $1/roll. I'm not selling it, it's in the deep freeze. I let some sit for a year and then developed it, and I lost about a full stop. YUCK. Won't do that again. Develop within a month or so I'd say but run your own tests if it's important to what you do. If Ilford says it's three months (they oughta know) then it's more of a long term problem.
 
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