nicholas_lindan

Another vote for Tech Pan. I read somewhere (on the internet - so you know it is true) that a special, and rather old, coating machine was needed to make Tech Pan; this machine was scrapped many years ago and for the last years of Tech Pan's availability the rolls were spooled from stored film stock. I still have a life-time supply of hoarded Tech Pan, running out of Technidol, though.

TechPan seems to keep forever, so the chances are very, very good your roll is still good. The appeal of TechPan isn't the lack of grain - you can get that with TMX and Microdol-X - but the large-format creaminess of the resulting prints. Really, truly, it is possible to get 4x5 results out of a 35mm camera. The best developer for TechPan is, unsurprisingly, Technidol. Which you can't get except at high prices on ebay. C-41 process uses a low contrast developer that will work with TechPan. Do not use the whole C-41 process with blix (or seperate bleach & fix) or you will get clear film. Camera stores used to know to do this. You can also diy it with a developing time of ~8 minutes at 20C. Rate it at 12. Results are, well, meh, in my judgement. Photographers' Formulary sells TD-3 specifically for TechPan, which some people like and some don't (no surprise there). I haven't tried it. And then there are Rodinal and HC-110. I have tried both and in my book the results do not come close to what this film is capable of. Like any B&W film you can develop it in darned near anything and get an image - whether that is an image you like is, tautologically, up to you. In summary, my advice is if you can't get hold of Technidol then the Formulary's TD-3 is probably the best bet. The other alternative is to sell the roll on photo.net or ebay. The smallest bottle of TD-3 will process ~20 rolls so there are plenty of people with developer just sitting there on the shelf waiting for some TechPan to roll their way.

**** SOLD ****

I bought this for my Father many years ago. I don't think he put more than 2 rolls through it (if that). I just put a stub roll of B&W through it and it appears to work flawlessly. Warranty cards included but the original instruction book has gone missing - likely it was somewhere in my Father's files which are long gone. $240 ppd to USA; $260 overseas

I saw the title & said - yeah, why not? But I was thinking of something else - a digital rangefinder for an analog camera like an old Nettar or Silette. Shouldn't be that hard, use an autofocus sensor from a P&S and add a readout. Maybe add a light meter function to it. But as for it being something with a low demand, I'm afraid it would be a lost cause.

I like using the Portragon with a 2x telextender. It gets rid of the super-fuzzy perimeter and only uses the center of the image. Two examples: A straight forward portrait, of someone who won't object if I post their portrait: And a cyanotype print from an enlarged negative, Portragon, extension tubes & 2x extender:

The 'X' in Microdol-X is for the addition of some pixie dust that prevents dichroic fog. The standard metol, sulfite and salt formula will produce fog with modern films and produces lots of fog with TMax films. Photo Engineer on APUG identified the two additions to make M-X from M as Sodium Citrate and 4-chlororesorcinol. In one post he identified the citrate as the 'X' ingredient by putting an '*' next to it, but this may have been a typo. S. Citrate can be made from S. Bicarbonate & Citric Acid or can sometimes be found at the grocery store. The 4-chlororesorcinol seems to be hard to track down though it is a common ingredient in hair coloring dye. Alibaba lists it at ~$10/kg, Sigma-Aldrich et al. want $43 for 100g. TMax-100 in genuine M-X produces a Tech-Pan level of grain; however, it doesn't produce that same large format like creaminess. -- Nicholas Lindan Darkroom Automation / Cleveland Engineering Design, LLC