What are your experiences with Pan F 50? I have never shot any before but read some information that makes it sound interesting.
Would it be a good portrait film?
I have used a lot of this film and really like it, especially for portraits. See my APUG gallery - I think the picture titled "Jenitude" is definitely PanF, as is this one: (there was a url link here which no longer exists)
I developed it in WD2D+ for outdoor landscape stuff, but like a homebrew version of Xtol for the portraits as I like a bit more contrast. Some say slow films like this are difficult to tame contrast-wise, but I personally have not experienced that issue with Pan F. Search the archives here as well for some information on Pan F in Rodinal, in particular with stand development.
Almost all my recent China work is shot on Pan F+.
I also haven't found a contrast problem with this film (I use Rodinal 1:50 @13 minutes, for the record). It's a wonderful film to work with -- great tones, great contrast and wonderful grain.
From all my work with this film, I've pretty much settled on it, in medium format at least.
It's ok. I like it best in D-76 1+3 using Ilford's recommended time with agitation at 30 second intervals. That seems to keep the contrast in check a bit, though you will find it to be a bit more "contrasty" than a lot of other films. Works really well outdoors on days when it's lightly to moderately overcast. Avoid it on days when the light is hard. You'll just get a bad taste for the stuff and start thinking the film is just crap, which it is not. I use it at box speed but it can be slow in the shadow areas, so you might want to give a little extra exposure if you want to preserve some detail there. Control the highlights by reducing the agitation to once a minute.
I don't shoot alot of medium format, but Pan F at ei 25 in perceptol 1:3 is one of my favorite combinations. Great tonality, little or no grain and very easy to control.
It's probably the best slow film out there these days. Sure there are other brands and some ISO 25 films, but the QC with some of these manufacturers leaves a lot to be desired. You didn't mention what format you are shooting, but I use Pan F+ about 90% of the time in my RZ67. I soup it in Rodinal 1+100 for 14 minutes with constant agitation for the first minute, and three gentle inversions every minute after.
PanF+ rocks! Yeah it's "contasty" but that's good. Everything's good.. to everything there is a season, right? You work with PanF when its qualities benefit you the most. It just so happens that you could shoot PanF literally in most settings on most days in most light with exception to midday in the open desert with the sun beating down on you. Maybe on a day like that you should be relaxing out of the sun with a margarita anyway!
woops.. editing here. I tried it with Rodinal before and I just had my heart all deflated for it lost its sweetness. Bear in mind this is my opinion. I much prefer to develop PanF in Ilford Ilfotec DDX. Man that developer just makes PanF sing all the notes in the scale. A very rich complex creamy delicious distinctive flavor with high notes and the lowest of bass.
Pan-F is awesome. Contrasty, yes, but not so much if you pull it back to EI25. Soups very well in D76 1+3 or Rodinal. Very fine grain, nice traditional characteristic curve with lots of midtone contrast.
It is a very nice film. It has very little latitude. I find myself "tweaking" it quite a bit in order to get things where I want them. I got EI 16-20 (depending on the shutter - 16 with the good shutter on the 180mm, and 20 with the slow shutter on the 80mm) when I tested it for shadow placement ability in medium format, using D-76 1:1. I am not the world's most huge fan of "shadow detail", but this film drops it so severely that I only generally use it in controlled artificial light now, and do not consider it a "general-purpose" film. I love it for still lifes and studio portraits, as well as for architecture. I really wish that it was made in 4x5 format.
...I am not the world's most huge fan of "shadow detail", but this film drops it so severely that I only generally use it in controlled artificial light now, and do not consider it a "general-purpose" film.....
Have you ever tried Ilfotec DDX? If you haven't, it is worth the expense to try it at least once. DDX really makes it hang onto details where other developers might drop off.
Pan F is a mild mannered, high performance film. Lot's of legend about it (contrasty, etc.) but if you get to know it, almost any developer will give you superb results. The thing is, Pan F is strongly influenced by its developer, probably more than most films, and you can get a strong signature by choosing the developer.
Here are 4 curves that illustrate this (from Foto Import)
I think that one of the cool things about Pan-F is that it has a moderate sensitivity to blue, so it is pretty easy to shoot under open skies without duress. Chris Crawford's example shows this perfectly.
My own favorite Pan F developer is FX-1. The first try with Crawley's super acute developer gave correct shadows and midtones, but the high values ran toward N+1/N+2. I reduced the agitation and extended the time, and got a straight line to Zone X.