I just use D-76 -- but again, for high contrast...Originally Posted by vinny
I just use D-76 -- but again, for high contrast...
OK, Brian ... I get the point. I still have a few sheets of 8x10 Acros left. Wish they'd import it. But with the incessant wind around here it would be hard to switch
from TMY. Up in the high country I use ACROS a lot, but mostly in 4x5. I like the orthopan sensitivity. I'd shoot it up there in 8x10 too if I thought I could get more.
Efke 25 was avail until recently in 8x10 and extremely fine grained - too many quirks to tempt me to use it in sheets, however.
Great emulsion. I have some 9.5" in the freezer. I would use an ED lens, Pyrocat-HD or xtol and scan it above 5000 dpi. Otherwise it's a waste of film.
Tech Pan's inherent high contrast work for some people, witness Vaughn, but it never did anything for me pictorially. The short tonal scale and development issues (unevenness, streaking) made it unpleasant to use in normal circumstances. (At Kodak we used it for a variety of things in the lab, where it excelled.) And I wonder at the logic of using an ultra fine grained film in 8x10, even if you're making 40"x60" prints. Is it just to say "I've got the finest grain film", like "I have the sharpest lens"? Perhaps people just like its look, in which case more power to them.
I had occasional issues with the stuff, but it gave a great look for portraits due to the extended red sensitivity. And it was very nice for big prints: I know a guy whose career was essentially defined by a 72mm SAXL, 4x5 TP, and big rolls of Tapestry X paper.
Not much if he gave them away.
I know someone else who just recently got seventy-five of the 8x10 50 sheet boxes at no cost from someone he knew. I don't know what 8x10 TP is going for on the open market, but I did see that similarly aged and stored Technical Pan 4x5 50 sheet boxes have been selling for $200 on eBay.
Ben, Tell them I could use just two boxes. I love the stuff in overcast conditions.
Nowadays serious art sleuthing and restoration experts have all kinds of expensive devices; and most photo restoration projects are now done digitally. But when
someone showed up with what they imagined was an Old Masters painting and didn't want to spend ten grand and wait for months for an opinion, or risk the guess
of some antique dealer down the road, it's pretty amazing the kinds of hard information a bit of IR film and TechPan could tell them for a few hundred bucks. I took
one glance at a "Carravagio" once (which the client hoped was worth millions), and knew if it was indeed old, it was probably a copy by some klutzy art student.
But they aren't paying me for my opinion. So when the red filter and film shows the ghost image of "Dogs with Cards" in the underpainting, back the thing goes to Grandma's closet, and no need to spend thousands more.
I got my tech pan, 4x5 hsi, and 400 rolls of konica ir from a guy who shot dead sea scrolls and other artifacts like that for a living. He had all sorts of stuff I'd never seen.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks