> Which is your favorite for large (8x10 & up) prints, > in 35mm format?
For large enlargements (10x12 and larger) I use Kodak Technical Pan which I rate at ISO 20. Here are my recipes with Rodinal : - Rodinal 1+100 6' 20� for high contrast but still continuous tone (reproduction, abstracts). - Rodinal 1+120 6' 20� for places - normal contrast. - Rodinal 1+135 6' 20� for people - softer contrast. Agitation for the first 10 seconds than 5 seconds every minute. I use distilled water (plain water gives me black spots on the negs) and mix the developper with a 10ml and 1ml syringes (a must have with such high dilutions). This gives nice razor sharp negs, far sharper than those I got with Pan F+ / Tmax 100. My dilutions and times provide negs that print best at grade 2. The other really nice thing about tech pan is that negatives a far thinner and transparent than with other films. Enlarging exposures are about 2 to 4 times shorter and this saves a lot of time with large prints at f/8. Exposures are about 5 to 10 minutes when usually it was 20 to 40 minutes with tri-X ! I can tell that my arms fell the difference... The only problem with Tech pan is its price (about 10 EUR at local stores here). Not the kind of film you will want to use with the motor drive set at 5fps. Hopefully development with Rodinal is very cheap. And since I use to load/unload tech pan in complete darkness I use to develop only the part of the film I just exposed and put the remaining film back on the camera for later use. I'am used to tri-X in Rodinal and can tell that if you like grain 8x10 and 10x12 still look nice enlarged. I only choose tech pan when I need absolute sharpness. I don't use much other films than those two. Oh and since I'am back from my New Year's Eve trip I wish you all a very happy new year, and the best photographic opportunities you can get. Cheers, Thibault Grouas.
