Comparison: Ilford's 120 Pan F & Delta 100

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Andrew O'Neill

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I posted these two in the Gallery a few days ago. Thought I'd do the same here, but with the inclusion of their curves, and spectral sensitivities. It's interesting how their curve shapes are similar, although Pan F has a steep gradient, as I suspected. I didn't expect their spectral sensitivies to be so different. I guess these are the qualities that give films their character (as well as grain). I've been shooting Pan F casually for about a year, and am really liking it.
Both films were developed in Xtol-R. Pan F on the left. EI 25. Delta 100 on the right. EI 64.



PanF_Delta100_Compare.jpg

PanF_Delta100.jpg
 

JensH

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Hi Andrew,

always nice to see such comparisons.
The Delta looks like PanF+ with a yellow light filter (#5 or 021).

I like PanF+ better, a yellow is almost always on the lens when using PanF+.

The spectra comfirm this not that clearly saying Delta is more sensible around 630nm (red) and 400nm (violet)...
(Hmm, the Delta curve looks smoothed stronger...). In real life blue is stronger as Ilford measures at only 2850K.

Not talking about contrast, here the develover does it's work as you like...

Best
Jens
 
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pentaxuser

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The D100 print looks to be a softer contrast as if it was a softer light and I think I prefer the Pan F one for the foreground but the background highlights look to be more defined in the D100

pentaxuser
 

braxus

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Interesting you got similar results between the two films. My experience seems to differ between these two. I find Pan F+ very contrasty, while Delta 100 not contrasty at all. I see you pulled the films. I wonder if that may of tamed Pan F out a bit?
 

DREW WILEY

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They are actually VERY different films. Pan F has the shortest straight line section to the curve of any current film I can think of. It has the native tonal range of about transparency films, and an enhanced S-curve. That would be apparent if the published curves were extrapolated more. But even in the posted images you can see how the top of the curve begins to shoulder off sooner, and thus the background high values are more open than the Delta equivalent. I sometimes make use of that property in low contrast situation like at the beach on foggy days, when Pan F can lend a wonderful silvery fade-away to the highlights. But for the same reason, Pan F can become quite disappointing in high contrast scenes if you expect well separated shadow values. I think of it as more of a special application rather than versatile film.

As long as Delta 100 is properly exposed for the shadows (which for me requires a rating of 50 to get shadow separation well off the toe), then the contrast per se (gamma) can be developed quite an amount in a manner Pan F cannot. It's a more flexible film, though not to the same degree as Kodak TMax films, which have a steeper straight line further down into the shadows (in other words, less of a toe). In skilled hands, D100 can excel at upper midtone to highlight reproduction, since the curve tends to be a bit upswept, versus shoulder off quickly like Pan F. Again, it helps to see the big picture rather than just "sanitized" curves like Michael appropriately referred to the tiny curtailed published ones.

Slight spectral sensitivity differences, along with different filter factors, are evident from the spectral sensitivity diagrams. Speed of course is quite different. And Pan F can hold even more detail than Delta. I personally develop both in PMK pyro, which lends a lovely "wire sharpness" rendering to Pan F, and with both films, this particular staining developer reins in the printing quality of the highlights better than ordinary developers.
 
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