Commercial lab for Pan F Plus?

cjbecker · Dec 7, 2020

George Mann said:
You have to realize that I lack the room to store all the stuff I would need to develop it, with no reliable way to shield the drying film from dirt, let alone a way to control the temperature of the developer.

Also, the service provide by Swann aka the Darkroom has been less than reliable for many of us.

I need a reliable lab for Pan F, or I will have to give up on b&w film photography!

Have you considered a c41 black and white film? Like Ilford XP2? I assume your shooting pan f for the small grain and tonality, ilford xp2 should work for you also.

relistan · Dec 7, 2020

@George Mann talk to Blue Moon Camera and Machine in Portland: https://bluemooncamera.com/ . The whole place is analogue enthusiasts. I only ever had good experiences there. I almost always do my own B&W film but the few times I didn't, I had them do it.

Roger Thoms · Dec 7, 2020

As far as labs go, Praus Productions is very good. You would have to contact them regarding scanning as the is a notice on their website regarding their Norista scanner no longer working. I would guess they have other options. https://www.4photolab.com/

Roger

NortheastPhotographic · Dec 7, 2020

At Northeast Photographic we process Pan-F in XTol 1:1 using rotary equipment. Seems to work just fine!

MarkS · Dec 10, 2020

you could ask Edgar Praus: www.4photolab.com

George Mann · Dec 10, 2020

I have decided to give the Darkroom a chance to redeem themselves. Would Harman pick them if they were still unreliable?

MattKing · Dec 10, 2020

One really important thing to do with labs is to make sure you return poor results for re-do.
That actually helps them and their customers.

George Mann · Dec 10, 2020

MattKing said:
One really important thing to do with labs is to make sure you return poor results for re-do.
That actually helps them and their customers.

You are right.

markjwyatt · Dec 10, 2020

George Mann said:
I have decided to give the Darkroom a chance to redeem themselves. Would Harman pick them if they were still unreliable?

I had the Darkroom do one roll of Pan F (shot at box speed). It is contrasty, but I suspect that is its nature. The Darkroom uses DDX.

https://www.flickr.com/search/?user_id=157638541@N07&view_all=1&text="Pan F"

George Mann · Dec 10, 2020

markjwyatt said:
I had the Darkroom do one roll of Pan F (shot at box speed). It is contrasty, but I suspect that is its nature. The Darkroom uses DDX.

https://www.flickr.com/search/?user_id=157638541@N07&view_all=1&text="Pan F"

Did the Darkroom do the scanning?

markjwyatt · Dec 11, 2020

George Mann said:
Did the Darkroom do the scanning?

Yes, I do the high res scan (~33 Mpixel, but I do not put the full file on Flickr).

p81 · Dec 11, 2020

Don’t understand the problem, I develop the PanF+ in Rodinal 1+25 at EI 50 or EI100 under 20°C usually and I got very nice and smooth negatives which were always good to scan via Epson V800.
PanF+ Rodinal 1+25 19-20°C, EI50 6:45, EI100 12:00
Xtol 1+1 20°C EI50 7:45

foc · Dec 11, 2020

MattKing said:
One really important thing to do with labs is to make sure you return poor results for re-do.
That actually helps them and their customers.

+1

Mistakes do happen but a good lab should be able to admit them and rectify them to the customer's satisfaction.
Constructive criticism should always be welcome but the old saying "you can't please all the people all the time" also holds true.
When I had my minilab, I dreaded the customer with a little knowledge but a lot of attitude. They were always right and the lab was always wrong.
One such repeat customer was so persistant that I had to ask why they bothered to return if my processing was so bad.
I didn't get an answer and they didn't return.

When we have scanning (either lab or home) and laptop/pc monitors, we have so many variants that it can be hard to pinpoint the trouble.
My personal opinion is that the majority of times it is not the lab but how the end-user is scanning and viewing it.
I found the Ilford monitor set up, for B&W, very handy for adjusting my viewing screen. Most times it just brightness and contrast.

pentaxuser · Dec 11, 2020

markjwyatt said:
I had the Darkroom do one roll of Pan F (shot at box speed). It is contrasty, but I suspect that is its nature. The Darkroom uses DDX.

George, in my very early days with film photography I enrolled in a night school class and developed film there with Ilford developer which was ID11. I had a few days break in Yorkshire and bought and used Pan F. I literally know nothing about film in general so hadn't heard of Pan F contrast. I just metered with the camera and then developed in ID11 when I returned to the course. I simply followed the Ilford times and agitation that had been printed on a card by the instructor which included times for Pan F

So ignorance was bliss as they say. The negs and subsequent prints I did, were fine. I thought no more about it.

I had no idea until I joined APUG as it was, that I had successfully done the equivalent of climb the North face of the Eiger as a complete novice who was still at the stage of practising on a ladder

The point of this long but hopefully faintly amusing story is that if the Darkroom use Ilford methods and chemicals, controls things as it should which sounds to be the case then everything should be fine.

pentaxuser

George Mann · Dec 12, 2020

pentaxuser said:
The point of this long but hopefully faintly amusing story is that if the Darkroom use Ilford methods and chemicals, controls things as it should which sounds to be the case then everything should be fine.

pentaxuser

Which is exactly what I am hoping to find.

Commercial lab for Pan F Plus?

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