Best soup for tech pan if not technidol

[gbenaim]

Hi,

I just got a bunch of 35mm tp, and wanted to know what the best developer for pictorial apps if not technidol. I remember reading aboout using rodinal 1:100, but wanted to make sure from someone who actually uses the stuff. Thanks. Also, what's a fair price for a long 150ft roll of the stuff? Is it worth the hassle?

 

[gandolfi]

I ALLWAYS use Tetenal Neofin Doku. expose as 100 iso - develop in 6 min - continous agitation - and remember to pre rinse for about 5 min in plain water..

 

[Claire Senft]

C41 (flexicolor) works like a charm with normal stop and fix. Try a starting time around 11 minutes with normal agitation and a film speed of 50 for your first try. I have shot 2 150ft rolls and perhaps 10 rolls of 120. It certainly is a finegrained film. You may or may not find the extended red sensitivity to your liking. As far as resolution is concerned it will be very challenging to achieve higher resolution than can be realized from 100Tmax because both are spectactularly good. I tend to find TP to more of a special purpose rather than normal film.

 

[Keith Tapscott.]

I ALLWAYS use Tetenal Neofin Doku. expose as 100 iso - develop in 6 min - continous agitation - and remember to pre rinse for about 5 min in plain water..

I thought that I read some where that Neofin Doku was discontinued a few years ago.

 

[Donald Qualls]

I thought that I read some where that Neofin Doku was discontinued a few years ago.

SPUR makes a Docuspeed which they claim is optimized for Tech Pan. If it were mine, I'd probably use Caffenol LC+C, which has been working very well for me lately with Copex Rapid; I'm getting EI 64-80 with good shadow detail and a nice range, better tones than I'm used to for microfilm. Coffee crystals, washing soda, and vitamin C -- pretty simple stuff, and very, very cheap to use.

 

[craigclu]

When I was experimenting with this a couple of years back, I had very good initial results with WD2D+. As I was returning to the project, I found out they were discontinuing the film and never regained my enthusiasm. The tonality was the best I'd seen from TechPan.

 

[richardjx]

Not Technidol

Hi There

Have you heard of POTA?

It is a simple Phenidone/Sulfite soup designed to develop films that were used to record nuclear blasts in the '50s. I'm sure you can Google it and find the formula.

An amateur in Massachusetts named Dick Delagi ( Google him too) used this to get very close to 4 x 5 results from 35mm Tech Pan. I have some of his prints and they are exquisite.

Cheers

 

[richardjx]

Not Technidol

POTA

Water at 125 F------------300 mL
Sodium Sulfite-------------30 g
Phenidone-----------------1.5 g
Water to make --------------1 Liter Use full strength.
Development time on the order of 10 to 15
minutes.

 

[Neal]

Dear gbenaim,

I would like to second the C-41 suggestion.

Neal Wydra

 

[jim appleyard]

Formulary makes TD-3. I have not used it nor have I shot Tech Pan in years, but it's still nice to keep up on things.

http://www.photoformulary.com/Deskt...tabindex=2&categoryid=31&selection=0&langId=0

 

[Peter De Smidt]

I've used TD-3 and C41 developer. I prefer the TD-3, as it gives slightly better speed. That said, if I were to try it today, I'd try Ethol TEC, which John Hicks recommended. I haven't seen him around on internet forums for a few years, but he's a very knowledgeable darkroom worker. I found the my densitometer tended to back up his recommendations, unlike the claims of many others. You might do a search on "John Hicks Ethol TEC" on Google News and see what it pulls up.

 

[Peter De Smidt]

Here's a Usenet post that John made back in 2000:

" In my first test of TP in TEC, I followed the instructions and used
the higher dilution stated for TP; I got rather low contrast, speed,
and low D-max. This was with ordinary intermittent agitation.
For the second test I used the 1:15 dilution and got a normal (for
TP) curve shape and EI 50, which is two stops more speed than I get
for TP in any other developer for the same CI and curve shape.
This was certainly a surprise....so, suspecting an error, I tested
again and got the same results.
Subsequent usage (real photos) have shown my test results to be
valid.
TEC is intended for slow films; it came along in the days when
everyone was trying to equal 4x5 quality with 35mm using Panatomic-X,
Pan-F, the slow Adox film etc. There was much more "look how grainless
and sharp this is" than any interest in picture content. I'm glad
those days are gone.
This was long before anyone was using rotary agitation. Mechanical
agitation machines were goofy; there was even one that would invert a
standard steel tank.
The reason I mention that is that I believe TEC works just right on
the edge of exhaustion as a compensating developer; the very low D-max
obtained with the higher dilution of TEC appears to me to confirm
that. The edge of exhaustion isn't a comfortable edge to be dangling
over.
TEC in a rotary processor may not work very well; if it's diluted
too much it may oxidize too much, while otoh at sufficient strength to
avoid too much oxidization (brain fade; I can't recall the exact
spelling) it may give too much contrast.
I never tried it in a rotary processor. You're the pioneer, and you
know what's said about pioneers and arrows....
Data sheets for Ethol products are available from the distributor,
which I believe is still BKA. The Ethol data sheets I've seen are
pretty much a reflection of the old days, with greatly inflated EIs,
no curve plots etc."