Kodak Technical Pan

Kodak Technical Pan in 35mm & 120 medium format

It was announced in 2003 that Kodak Technical Pan (or simply 'Tech Pan') had been discontinued. The announcement confirmed that the film had not been manufactured for some time and Kodak had been simply selling their existing stock: "The last Tech Pan coating was several years ago. Since that time, the old coating room has been shut down, the gels used in the product formulation have become obsolete, and we no longer manufacture the ESTAR support on which the 35 mm product was coated."

The information leaflet that comes inside the film box states:

This is a black-and-white panchromatic film with extended red sensitivity. It has micro-fine or extremely fine grain (depending on the developer used), extremely high resolving power, and a wide contrast range for pictorial, scientific, technical, and reversal-processing applications.

Kodak's technical data sheet P-255 lists the range of applications as:

• Pictorial photography
• Photomicrography
• Microphotography (Microfilming)
• Solar photography
• Photographing electrophoteric gels
• Laser recording
• Other applications such as slidemaking, copying, and microfilming that require high or moderately high contrast combined with fine grain and high resolving power

35mm Technical Pan with information leaflet

The leaflet gives a suggestion of exposure index settings and specific contrast indexes, from 16 to 200. For 'pictorial applications' it suggests an EI of 25 and development with Technidol. Having picked up a handful of rolls of Tech Pan from online auctions, on one of the sunniest days of the summer, I shot a roll of 35mm Tech Pan in my Werra camera, exposed at 25 EI. The bright conditions were needed to shoot hand-held with a low exposure index (using the 'sunny 16' rule at 25 EI, bright sunshine would indicate an exposure of 1/25th at f16, although I would tend to give bright sunshine in the UK one stop more exposure, which in practice meant shooting at 1/50th at f8 or 1/100th at f5.6). 

The Massive Dev Chart has a section on discontinued film which includes Tech Pan. I developed the film in Rodinal 1:150 for 13 minutes at 20ºC, much longer than the recommended 7 minutes from the Massive Dev Chart. The results do appear overdeveloped, but a dilution of 1:150 for Rodinal seemed very low and the film was 16 years past its 'process before' date. However, judging by the results, the age of the film does not appear to have needed compensating for in development. At these high dilutions of Rodinal, consideration must be given to the capacity of the developing tank: Agfa, Rodinal's original manufacturer, recommended a minimum of 10ml per film, no matter the dilution used, which at 1:150 would mean a litre and a half of working solution. In practice a smaller amount of Rodinal works perfectly well; I used 6ml of developer to 900ml of water in a 3-reel Paterson tank.

The Banks of the Thames near Erith, Kodak Tech Pan (35mm), rated EI 25. Developed in Rodinal 1:150, 13mins at 20ºC.

In the scanned negatives, grain is not discernible. Presumably the grain is beyond the limit of the optical resolution of the flatbed scanners I've used. There is what looks like grain in the sky of some shots, but it appears to be noise introduced by the scanner. Having shot the photographs in bright sunlight, the images were always going to be high in contrast, regardless of the qualities of the film used. However, the blue skies reproduced darker in tone than might be expected with heightened contrast. In the section about pictorial photography in the data sheet, it states that "the extended red sensitivity has a haze-cutting effect in photographs of distant landscapes and in aerial shots." As well as cutting haze, this extended red sensitivity presumably compensates for the usual over-sensitivity to the blue end of the spectrum that normal panchromatic film has.

Concrete Defences near Thamesmead, Kodak Tech Pan (35mm), rated EI 25.
Developed in Rodinal 1:150, 13mins at 20ºC.

I subsequently shot a roll of Tech Pan in medium format using my Baldalux camera, exposed at 25 EI and developed in Rodinal at 1:150 again, but for 12 minutes at 18ºC (roughly equivalent to 10 minutes at 20ºC; this film had a 'process before' date of 02/1995).

Roding Lane South Pumping Station, Kodak Tech Pan (medium format) rated 25 EI.
Developed in Rodinal, 1:150, 12mins at 18ºC.

The contrast of the images is still there, perhaps a higher dilution of developer would provide lower contrast (the Massive Dev Chart does list times for dilutions of 1:300 for Rodinal). Interestingly, the absence of discernible grain in the sky proved a problem in scanning and processing some of the negatives. In the photograph of the River Roding below, there is some banding in the image, noticeable in towards the top corners partly due to vignetting; attempts to reduce the vignetting using Photoshop's lens correction filter made the banding worse. The solution to banding in smooth tonal gradations in a digital image is to introduce noise, which I haven't done.

River Roding, Kodak Tech Pan (medium format), rated EI 25.
Developed in Rodinal 1:150, 12mins at 18ºC.

Gants Hill Telephone Exchange, Kodak Tech Pan (medium format), rated EI 25.
Developed in Rodinal 1:150, 12mins at 18ºC.

London Defensive Ring, Kodak Tech Pan (medium format) rated EI 25.
Developed in Rodinal, 1:150, 12mins at 18ºC.

Newbury Park Tank Traps, Kodak Tech Pan film (medium format) rated 25 EI.
Developed in Rodinal, 1:150, 12mins at 18ºC.

Notes/Sources

Technical Pan data sheet P-255 (PDF file)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technical_Pan
http://unblinkingeye.com/Articles/Times/TechPan/techpan.html
The nearest equivalent in terms of Tech Pan's characteristics currently in production is Rollei ATP

Werra 1

Werra with 50mm Novonar f3.5 lens

The Werra is a unique 35mm compact camera produced by Carl Zeiss Jena. The version I bought at the Mauerpark flea market is the original olive green model with a 50mm Novonar f3.5 lens. This model is generally referred to as the Werra 1 to distinguish it from the subsequent versions, but at the time was simply called 'Werra'. Not knowing much about the Werra when I bought it, I had assumed that it dated from the 1960s, due to its streamlined design. However production began in 1954, and the serial number on my camera's lens dates it to 1955. Compare the look of the Werra with, for example, the Kodak Signet or the Baldessa, both 35mm viewfinder cameras contemporary to the Werra and it's easy to see how advanced its design was for the mid-1950s. One might speculate for the reason for this is that the Werra was made by Carl Zeiss Jena, principally a lens manufacturer, which made very few cameras. Perhaps it's a camera built around a lens, without being derived from any precedents. In keeping with the minimalist design, the camera is marked with just the name 'WERRA' embossed on the lens cap and rear of the body, 'Novonar' on the lens and the manufacturer's name is entirely absent.

Werra with lens cap/shade removed

The two most distinctive aspects of the Werra's design are its unusual film advance, which works by turning the aluminium bezel around the lens, and the combined lens cap and shade. The lens cap can be unscrewed from the shade, the shade removed, reversed and attached. The camera's controls are located around the lens, and, with the frame counter on the underside of the camera, which leaves just the shutter release for the top plate. The original Werra is a completely manual camera, without a meter. However there are figures around the lens picked out in red for optimum exposure and focus: 1/50th of a second on the shutter, f8 for the aperture, and 6m on the focus ring, which at f8 gives a depth of field from just beyond 3m to nearly infinity.

Detail of figures picked out in red around the lens

Obviously this depends on film speed and lighting conditions, but one can assume that these settings were designed to be used in fair daylight conditions with a film of medium speed. I used these settings to finish the film that was in the camera when I bought it. Raul M, in his blog post about the Werra, suggests that the shade can be left on covering the controls, effectively turning the Werra into a point and shoot camera. The entire back and bottom plate slides off to load the film, which travels from right to left, opposite to the direction 35mm film normally travels in a camera (although this is also true of the Agfa Optima Sensor), meaning that the frames on the developed film appear to be upside down, and also read in sequence right to left.

Sample image from the Werra, FP4 stand developed in Rodinal 1:100

Sample image from the Werra, FP4 stand developed in Rodinal 1:100

ORWO NP 20: Mauerpark Flea Market & Found Images

ORWO NP 20 35mm film

Inside the Werra camera I bought at the Mauerpark flea market in Berlin there was a partly used roll of film, which I inadvertently exposed when opening the camera to check the shutter. On buying the camera, it felt appropriate to use the rest of the film taking photographs in the flea market itself. Being a manual camera, and not knowing what the film's speed was, I used the settings marked out in red on the Werra to shoot the film.

Flohmarkt am Mauerpark, ORWO NP 20 film

Flohmarkt am Mauerpark, ORWO NP 20 film

Slot Machine, Flohmarkt am Mauerpark, ORWO NP 20 film

Flohmarkt am Mauerpark, ORWO NP 20 film

Once I'd finished the film, and could safely open the camera again, I discovered that the film was a roll of ORWO NP 20, an East German black and white film, presumably dating back to before reunification. It was also in a reusable plastic film canister, with the minimal label stuck across the join with the canister's screw top. To develop the film, I used Rodinal, diluted 1:100 for 1 hour stand development, with a couple of inversions at the 30 minute mark. I've previously used stand development with unknown or old films (including colour) with some success as it seems to simply reveal what's actually on the film. The frames I shot on the film came out well enough, apart from the inevitable light leaks. More excitingly, the film that had already been exposed in the camera yielded a number of frames, which I had feared would have mostly been lost due to being exposed to light when I opened the camera, yet a dozen frames came out almost unaffected. After an oblique shot of a fence and a greenhouse, the unaffected frames show some sort of parade or procession (oddly enough, as do some of the photographs on the first roll of old film I developed), while some of the frames largely obliterated by light leaks appear to show sheep shearing on a farm.

Found image on a roll of ORWO NP 20

Found image on a roll of ORWO NP 20

Found image on a roll of ORWO NP 20

Found image on a roll of ORWO NP 20

The images already on the film appear to show a couple of aspects of life in rural Germany. Judging from the haircuts and clothes of some of the younger people watching the parade, the pictures were no doubt taken some time in the 1980s.

Berlin Flea Market Finds

 

From the Mauerpark flea market: Werra 35mm camera with ever-ready case containing part used Orwo NP20 film, €30.
From stalls opposite the Bode Museum: unbranded 9x12cm metal plate holder with film sheath, €5.
The Mauerpark Flohmarkt had a great number of German and specifically old East German cameras. The Werra has a f3.5 Novonar lens. The same stall also had a Werra with a f2.8 Tessar lens, but in much worse condition; the Werra with the Novonar lens appeared to be barely used and I haggled down from €40.
I also found a couple of 9x12 plate holders on a stall opposite the Bode Museum, one was in far better condition than the other, with a film sheath inside; for €5 it was worth adding to my stock of plate holders.