Developer for Rollei / Pan F+

I have only been developing my own film for about a month and a half, and I am having good luck with HC110 for what I have been shooting so far (Ilford Ortho+, HP4 and HP5).

I have a roll of Pan F+ waiting to be developed and a roll of Rollei Pan 25 in my camera now. All of the google (and apug) searching I have done came back with the same answer, namely that my results will be poor to horrible with these two films using HC110.

So that leads me to believe that I need to find a second developer for these films, but I would like something with a decent shelf life and if possible something that can be used as a one shot developer like HC110.

Thanks for any suggestions.

My tried and true for almost everything I shoot is D-76 almost always at 1+1 dilution.

Rick

I like Rodinal with Panf+...see portfolio below.

I have used both rodinal and pyrocat hd for these films and really like the results. With both developers I dilute quite a bit. I would try either and work with it for awhile, learn how it reacts, works, etc. With either rodinal or pyro (any flavor) the real results are seen in printing.

Rodinal can be purchased from almost any of the sponsors of this site and pyrocat can be purchased from photo formulary OR you can piece the chems together from any chemical store (Artcraft, Sigma, etc.)

A suggestion, Anschell's Darkroom Cookbook really helped alot when I decided to stray away from Ilford's ID-11 developer and enter the mystic realm of B&W developing. He lays out how the chemicals work in each developer, strength/weakness, then goes into fixers, paper developers, toning etc. Good reference book.

Erick

Rodinal will work very well for you. It's my standard developer and I get some of my best results in anything from that and Pan-F+.

It's not just film quality though - it's very inexpensive and, best of all, lasts forever once you crack open the bottle. Even when the solution colours deeply, it works just fine. I think you'd be very happy with how economical it is.

If you're interested in mixing your own ( easier than it sounds) you may like to try Stoecklers 2-Bath. You will find plenty here on it.

Both PanF+ and Rollei 25 have quite high inherrent contrast and a 2-bath dev is one way of getting good shadow detail without losing your highlights.

Whatever you decide, my experience with PanF+ is that it needs more exposure and less develoment than Ilford's recommendation. You may need to experiment a bit depending on your equipment, methods and taste. PanF+ has a lovely unique 'creamy' tonality and is my favourite slow film. I have not yet tried Rollei25 so look forward to hearing how you get on.

Rob

Rodinal 1:50 will give you the best results with not only your Pan F, but is pretty much the developer for Rollei films. I've used it with the Rolleipan 25 Ortho, and was enough to convince me there was no need for any other soup for their films. There's a reason it's been around for well over 100 years, and once you try it you'll see for yourself.

Sorry to interject in the thread, but does not Rodinal increase the grain size of a film? Part of the reason for using Pan F+ is the lack of grain. I develop my Pan F+ in Perceptol 1:1 and get very creamy and grain-free prints from it (I just printed some 20x24 from a 6x7 negative and there still is no grain visible). The kick is that Perceptol is a contrast-reducing developer for me*, so I need to overexpose by 1/3 of a stop to compensate for the loss of contrast in the development.

*It could be my water supply, my agitation methods or even my film storage methods, which is why I say "for me".

With shooting 120, grain isn't too much of an issue. I've processed in DDX, D-76, Microdol-X, X-tol, Accufine, and more. The best results for me, have been using Rodinal 1:50 (not 1:25). Zeiss lenses just love it, and so does Sekor. Most Ilford films are fine-grain anyway. HP5+ is one of the finest grained 400asa films around. I've processed it in D-76 (straight....no dilution) and printed 16x20s from 135 negs with no problem.

So shooting Pan-F in MF w/Rodinal 1:50 will not only retain the fine grain, but add the brilliant acutance missing from other developers. Easy agitation works fine, and there's never been a problem here. Hope this helps.