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A bit of History
&
Credit where credit is
due!
Before Technical Pan film, Kodak produced a film
called High Contrast Copy Film. It had extremely
fine grain, virtually invisible with a grain
magnifier, and exceptional sharpness. 11x14 inch
prints from 35mm negatives could rival those from
4x5 negatives made with "normal" film. The problem
was excessive contrast. As quoted in a 1979 article
in "Darkroom" magazine, "In 1967, Marilyn Levy, a
photo research specialist for the U.S. Army,
published the formula for "POTA", an elegant simple
to make developer that dramatically lowered
contrast without lowering the film speed." The
developer I came to favor was called "Perfection",
the formula for which is now, sadly, long lost.
In the late '70s, Kodak abandoned High Contrast
Copy Film, replacing it and "Solar Flare Patrol
Film" with a single emulsion called Technical Pan
Film. This was like a red flag to photographers,
and the rush began to find the best developer. The
original Kodak recommendation was of course POTA.
Various dilutions of most common developers were
tried and reported in endless magazine articles.
Two I remember were dilute Edwal FG7 and Rodinal,
each mixed with sodium sulfite. I felt that the
Rodinal solution provided a bit more "edge" and
chose it as my standard. Kodak followed the POTA
lead and soon marketed a variant called
"Technidol", first in solid form, then liquid.
I owe my thanks to whomever wrote the article
for "Photographic" magazine in the late '70s.
The
various
available developers provide variable low
value (toe), and high value (shoulder) results and
can be useful in special situations where one or
the other is to be optimized.
The "new kid on the block" is of course
PMK Pyro, and
the credit here goes to Gordon Hutchings.
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