Developer for Ilford Pan F?

brian steinberger

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I'm beginning my journey into slow speed films and Pan F seems a good candidate. What are those of you that shoot this film developing it in? I've heard good things about rodinal and ID-11 1:3. Also, can you give me exposure indexes and development times? I'm shooting medium format Pan F, all outdoors. Thanks for the help!
 

Curt

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Rodinal 1:75 semi stand 15 minutes, EI 40.
 

fschifano

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D-76, same as ID-11, 1+3 is a good place to start. Rate the film at box speed and use the times given by Ilford as a starting point.
 

srs5694

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I've been using Dead Link Removed for my slow films lately. I process Pan F+ for 7:30 at 20C using the 2+1 dilution. Note that DS-12 is a mix-it-yourself developer, not a commercial product.
 

David Brown

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brian steinberger said:
I'm beginning my journey into slow speed films and Pan F seems a good candidate. ... I've heard good things about rodinal and ID-11 1:3.
Click to expand...

I've also just started working with PanF over the last year. Generally, I am a D-76/ID-11 guy. Box speed, manufacturers instructions for times, etc. I've not been disappointed. However, as a result of the raves for Rodinal on this site I tried this developer. I was generally not seeing the extra sharpness overcoming the extra grain for my purposes, with one exception. With PanF, I did a direct comparison of the exact same shots but developed in D-76/ID-11 vs. Rodinal. I found the Rodinal negs to be sharper (to my eye), of course, and the grain not objectionable due to the fine grain nature of the film anyway.

The data sheet for PanF on the Ilford website will give you good starting development times for all 3 of these developers.

http://www.ilfordphoto.com/Webfiles/2006216115811391.pdf

These are just my opinions, and your experience may differ. It really all gets down to what works for you and whether or not you like any film/developer combination. Good luck!
 

Jean Noire

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It has been a while since I used Pan F, it is a fairly contrasty film, but I used to get best results with Ilford's Perceptol 1:3, find your own speed rating by testing.
Regards
John
 

Rich Ullsmith

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I was going to say, Perceptol 1+2, 13.5m at 70f. In MF finding the grain is not easy unless you go to 11X14 or bigger.
 

craigclu

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Whatever you try, don't be surprised if you find a true speed of 25-32. I haven't knocked myself out over it, but I sporadically dive into an large cache of PanF+ in my freezer with the intent of tuning a process to it and I consistently find that it requires more exposure than box speed and adjustments to developing times to keep the highlights in check.
 

Jim Chinn

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Pan F and Rodinal are a great combo. Like others I use an EI of 25-32 and soup 1-50 for 8 min in a JOBO. I also got some ncie results with semi-stand at 1-100 dillution but can't find my notes on the time.
 

Woolliscroft

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If you want to try something a little out of the ordinary, try Neofin bleu. It's a high acutance developer and the results with Pan-F are stunning.

David
 

Black Dog

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Also try Presycycol-the tones really glow!
 

sanderx1

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I'm very particular to Ultrafin Liquid, I like the results better than what I get from Rodinal.
 
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Rui.Cardoso

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Jun 27, 2006
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Hi,

This is one of my favourite B&W Films, I use it mostly at box speed.

Typically I scan my film and do digital printing, I gave up Rodinal as it seamed to produce grain effects that where not very pleasing when scanning (they look good in wet printing though).

I currently use Xtol at 1:2 (20º C) for 8 minutes, this produces negatives that are a little on the thin side, but they are sharp enough, highlight detail is there and they scan really well.

On my way here I also tried Xtol 1:3 (I could not see visible differences from the 1:2 dilution, so I opted for the one that would possibly bring less problems due to the lower concentration of developer), and Ilford DDX (a little bit less sharp than Xtol but more convenient to use, I droped it because it's really difficult to get here in Portugal).

Hope this helps,

Regards

-Rui
 

kcf

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Mar 8, 2006
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pan f

I just looked at my first ever Pan F negatives today. I pulled it to ISO 25, then processed in D-76 at 70% of normal, about 7 minutes 10 seconds. It is contrasty film, but the skin tones are gorgeous. At first glance I have to say I love it.
 

thebanana

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I just processed 2 rolls in Ilfosol S, 7 min @ 20c. The negs look great. Printing on Saturday if I'm lucky.

J
 
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