how to develop Kodak Technical Pan for line art reproduction

[swchris]

Hi,

I had acquired a few rolls of (35mm) Technical Pan some years ago. They seem to be ok. I recently used a roll for some pictorial test pictures and developed it in Rodinal 1:100 for 1h.

Now I want to use it to photograph some old drawings of my grandfather. They are in black indian ink on white (now yellowish) paper.

I want to have them strictly in black and white.

Can anyone recommend an ISO value to use, and, more importantly, a current developer to use to achieve this?

Thanks,
chris

 

[removed account4]

hi chris

kodak used to publish in their technical notes how to do this with tech pan.
they used to suggest exposing at iso 200 and developing the film in dektol or similar PRINT developer
for 3 mins.

http://www.kodak.com/global/en/professional/support/techPubs/p255/p255.pdf

i have done this with both 35mm and 4x5 tech pan and it worked beautifully.

have fun !
john

 

[David Lyga]

For a rather extreme level of contrast informed by solely black and white, I would rate Tech Pan at 400 and process it like the Tmax films. You should be very happy with the results. But. I do recommend doing a clip test first with the lighting and exposure you will use with the whole roll (why waste film?)

swchris: You just might opt for an even faster speed (800, 1600?) once you see the results. You want rather contrasty negatives, but negatives without an undue accumulation of density.

Virtually any developer is fine: even paper developer diluted as much or a bit more than is normally used for paper. - David Lyga

 

[DREW WILEY]

You can obviously increase the contrast a bit by using a yellow filter or simply yellowish tungsten copy lights. Otherwise, it's been a long time
since I made line copy negs onto TP, but I think I used ordinary Dektol.

 

[David Allen]

I used to use Technical Pan a lot for copying line art, drawings, etc. It is great for this purpose (as well as pictorial uses of course) and you will find the best results using tungsten illumination as the extended red sensitivity gives about 10% more speed and better contrast.

Looking at my note book, I used to rate the film at ISO 125 and developed it in HC110 Dilution B at 20˚C for:

• 8 minutes for pencil drawings (especially when the lines were quite feint
• 12 minutes for ink drawings
• 18 minutes for circuit drawings

This was with a 2 minute pre-soak, 4 inversions in the first 30 seconds of development and one inversion every subsequent 30 seconds.

Obviously, you will need to test and adjust to your own inversion regime.

Bests of luck and let us know how you get on.

David.
www.dsallen.de

 

[swchris]

Thanks for the hints.

I will make a test using ISO200 and developing with Dektol. I don't have Dektol or HC110, so I ordered a bag of Dektol.

Will report back...

 

[Bob Carnie]

see David Allen post above for correct process.

Dektol is a paper developer.

Thanks for the hints.

I will make a test using ISO200 and developing with Dektol. I don't have Dektol or HC110, so I ordered a bag of Dektol.

Will report back...

 

[Jim Jones]

see David Allen post above for correct process.

Dektol is a paper developer.

Yes, but it has a long tradition of working well with some film in some applications. Tech Pan for high contrast images is one such use. For example, Tech Pan with a red filter does a dramatic job of photographing clouds. Chris' project is another example. I would try it with an ISO of 200 with a yellow filter and two to four minutes in Dektol. Dektol also does wild things to 35mm Tri-X.

 

[Bob Carnie]

Ok I guess, for artistic applications .

I used tech pan and Hc110 as a lab technician at various Toronto facilities to do copy work of line drawings.

never considered Dektol as all Kodak Manuals for this film called for HC110 in various dilutions for copy work.

 

[removed account4]

i've never used hc110, but i am sure it does great stuff even when the techpan is exposed
at a high iso .. the technical paper i posted suggests it for lower iso's .. i am guessing with high iso's
it not only gives high contrast, but some variations of mid tones that maybe dektol might miss ?
i never used dektol when i used techpan, but i used whatever print developer i had handy .. and it worked fine ..
i'm guessing if i had hc110 on the shelf i wouldn't have given it a second thought and used that too ..
the middle tones with techpan are beautiful, even when it is high contrast , at least when i did it, almost charcoal grey..