Ilford PanF 50. HC-110, Xtol, D-76, Ilfosol S, Ilfosol 3... WHICH ONE????

I FINALLY shot a roll of panF that had been sitting in my darkroom for quite some time and now i'm confused as to what i should use to develop.
My choices are as follows
fresh HC-110 (i guess this one's always fresh regardles of how old it is huh...)
fresh Ilfosol 3
fresh X-tol
fresh D-76

I also have some ilfosol S that is AT LEAST 3 years old, but it's been sitting in its unopened bottle. It looks brownish/orange, but that's how the label says it should look anyway...

Even though its probably the best option, i'd like to steer clear from D-76 since i wont be able to get it developd tonight (since i have to let it cool after dissolving). If i were to use it diluted instead of stock i have a little leftover in a quarter full bottle. Its exactly a month and a half old.
The pictures were taken this afternoon/evening when the sun was close to setting, so even though the contrast shouldn't be an issue i'd like to keep it under control so that the negs don't turn out to be impossible to print.

What do you people recommend?
cheers and thanx a lot!

You could use any of the devs you mention and get OK results. Which one would depend on what you want. Bear in mind thet Pan F+ has a quite high inherant contrast, so a more dilute dev may work better for you. I would steer clear of the old Ilfosol S, though, as I doesn't have a good shelf life. If it's gone brown it's probably dead. On the other hand, fresh Ilfosol 3, diluted 1+3 gives me excellent results with PanF+.

I've also had nice results with D76/ID11 diluted 1+3. My favourite dev with PanF+ is a home brew, Stoeckler's 2-bath - you'll find plenty on it on APUG!

I've never tried HC110 or X-tol.

Hope this helps

Rob

I've been using D-76 1+1 with 120 pan F+ (same as my 35mm) incredible results. Next roll I'll be trying 1+3 just to compare graininess. My negs are super crisp, D-76 allows me to shoot any situation and get great negs from soft to super contrast without changing development procedures. Maybe thats why I've been using it for more than 40 years.

Rick

You forgot Rodinal. 1:100. Let it sit for an hour.

or Xtol 1:3.

I plan to try Microdol-X 1:3. Then decide which way to go long term.

Dear Kaboom,

I use Pan F+ regularly and my advice is to avoid the usual trap of over exposure combined with over development. If you like to give a little more exposure for the shadows, make sure you reduce your development time. In my experience, any issues of high contrast have been of my own making rather than any inherent flaw in the product.

For Xtol, I find the times and temperatures given in the data sheet for rotary processing work great. Of course, the agitation is well controlled between different users.

Good luck,

Neal Wydra

In the end i went with Xtol 1:1 for 7 minutes and got REALLY thin negs. Even the frames which i GENEROUSLY overexposed have very black shadows lacking in detail and gray highlights. This blows...
I'll try printing some frames tomorrow to see if its salvageable.
It'll be d-76 next time...

I shoot this film quite a lot. I use Rodinal, it seems either dilution (1:50 or 1:100) gives good results.

I've heard nothing but good things about XTol, FWIW...odd that you got the results you did. I'd always stay away from badly coloured (ie. oxidized) developer.

Best luck next time - it's a fine, fine film.

Never used HC-110 with PanF+ and can't recommend it. I don't have much experience using XTOL with this film either, so I can't honestly recommend it yet. I'm sure that I can make it work well, but I have no incentive to bother experimenting since D-76 1+3 is like magic with this film. Use Ilford's recommended times and have a little patience.

Ilford Pan F 120 *EI 40 for me,
Rodinal 1:50 15 minutes,
Agitate for the first minute,
Then at 5 minutes for 15 seconds,
Then at 10 minutes for 15 seconds,
NO STOP,
**Fix for 5 minutes,
Hypo Clear for 2 minutes,
Wash for 5 minutes,
LFN in rinse,
One wipe with a rubber blade from a windshield wiper,
Hang up to dry and leave the room and close the door.

*determine your personal EI based on your camera, lens, and meter.
**Follow the fixing time for the fixer you choose, TF4 or 5, Kodak, Ilford etc..


If they made it in sheets life would be sweet.

All is not lost; consider intensifying the negs.

I run my panf+ at ei25, and develop in pmk 1+2+100, and quite like the outcome.

I had to tailor the development time, as the published infomation gave me quite thin negatives on my first pass as well.

I used T-max at 1:9 (I think, or 1:8) for my first Ilford Pan F+ (iso 50). The negs come out quitte good! Rob, "fresh Ilfosol 3, diluted 1+3" a so small dilluition?

Rhodes said:

"fresh Ilfosol 3, diluted 1+3" a so small dilluition?

Click to expand...

I just developed a roll of 120 Pan-F, rated at 50, in right-off-the-shelf fresh Ilfosol 3 (1:9) and got seriously thin negatives at the Massive Dev Chart recommended time for 68 degrees F. I then tried a pair of rolls of 35mm Pan F, with about a minute more time, and they are still pretty thin. I'm going to try the 1:3 dilution tomorrow. I haven't developed with this film/dev combination ever before so it should be fun!

I have had a lot of success with D76 (@ 1:1) and Pan-F (exposed @ asa 50)

rthomas said:

I just developed a roll of 120 Pan-F, rated at 50, in right-off-the-shelf fresh Ilfosol 3 (1:9) and got seriously thin negatives at the Massive Dev Chart recommended time for 68 degrees F. I then tried a pair of rolls of 35mm Pan F, with about a minute more time, and they are still pretty thin. I'm going to try the 1:3 dilution tomorrow. I haven't developed with this film/dev combination ever before so it should be fun!

Click to expand...

I asked since ilfosol 3 is used 1:9 and 1:14 (normally and for what I know, and what I also use). I used 1:14, 6m for ilford fp4+, iso 125 and 1:9 for hp5+ pushed to 1000)!.

For Pan-F, I also used rodinal 1:50 (I think) and the negs come out good!

Kaboom said:

In the end i went with Xtol 1:1 for 7 minutes and got REALLY thin negs. Even the frames which i GENEROUSLY overexposed have very black shadows lacking in detail and gray highlights. This blows...
I'll try printing some frames tomorrow to see if its salvageable.
It'll be d-76 next time...

Click to expand...

According to my XTOL Data sheet Pan F @ 50ASA & XTOL 1+1 @ 20C is 7m 45s

Have you misread the XTOL instructions?

Pan-F is a nice film but needs careful exposure and processing to make it sing

Martin

Rhodes said:

I used T-max at 1:9 (I think, or 1:8) for my first Ilford Pan F+ (iso 50). The negs come out quitte good! Rob, "fresh Ilfosol 3, diluted 1+3" a so small dilluition?

Click to expand...

Sorry, I should have said 1+14 - I was thinking of something else (old age?)

Rob

Rob Archer said:

Sorry, I should have said 1+14 - I was thinking of something else (old age?)

Rob

Click to expand...

ahahah!

Rhodes said:

I asked since ilfosol 3 is used 1:9 and 1:14 (normally and for what I know, and what I also use). I used 1:14, 6m for ilford fp4+, iso 125 and 1:9 for hp5+ pushed to 1000)!

Click to expand...

Turns out that I made a mistake mixing the 1:9 dilution... I was closer to 1:12 (oops) and used the time for 1:9. Ah well... I haven't used concentrated liquid developers in years. Ilfosol 3 diluted 1:3 is definitely contrasty and I won't be using that combination again. As an experiment I used the little 1:3 working solution I had left on a very-expired roll of 35mm Kodak HIE (infrared) that I've waited way too long to develop, and it worked very well.

Next on my shopping list, a few one-gallon bags of D-76!

Until now, I only used concentrated liquid developers. After Ifosol-3, I possibly will use Ilford DDX and continue with rodinal!

My absolute favorite developing for Pan F would be to shoot it at ISO 20 and develop D-76 @ 1:2. Also, a 1:3 stand or semi-stand method is fantastic for particularly high contrast scenes.

Bye XTOL

Too little too late.
I ran into this discussion looking for a replacement for XTOL which is a great (if not the best) developer. When you do not use the stuff within let's say 6 month, you may find yourself with dead developer hence blank film, unnoticed by discoloration or bad smell. The sudden death issue is particularly to beware of when using XTOL for TMax 100.

I used Ilfosol S before, but left it because of its horrible shelf life. I concentrate on a selection between Ilfosol 3, Ilfotec LC-29 of DD-X to process my rather large stock of Kodak TM.. (100 and 400) rolls and sheet.

Using my antique Jobo ATL, I have to reckon with minimum quantities of stock solution per film (Chemical constraint). Jobo requires only small quantities of developer to wet the film adeqately (=technical constraint). Except for XTOL, Kodak's chemical constraints do not match Jobo's chemical constraints well and Ilfosol 3 seems to have more headroom in this respect.

As fas as the image quality is concerned: I read so many different recommendations that I wonder which effect is more important: belief or reality. Satisfaction is a very personal thing, created by a mix of developer, developing time, exposure index and film type. That's the fun and the craft of Silver Imaging. No histogram in my darkroom please!

Walter

Example (D-76 1+1)

As a good "all-rounder" solution (fine grain, decent acutance) I have always developed my Pan F (exposed at ISO32) with D76 diluted 1+1. Here is an 8x10in print I made just today from such a negative (35mm):