Ilford PanF Latent Image Keeping

[ssloansjca]

I have recently started shooting Pan F+ and am aware of its rather peculiar tendency for deterioration of the latent image after exposure. I have been told this film should processed within 15 days of exposure. I have had personal experience with fading of images when I have waited months before development.

MY question: why is it that the frame numbers do not fade? Is there some voodoo that goes into their creation that causes them not to fade?

I am shooting at ISO 25 and processing in D76H. I am considering switching to Rodinal. Is that a good combination? I'm shooting both 35mm and 120 and wonder what others think of this combination.

~Steve Sloan
San Jose, CA

 

[k_jupiter]

I have recently started shooting Pan F+ and am aware of its rather peculiar tendency for deterioration of the latent image after exposure. I have been told this film should processed within 15 days of exposure. I have had personal experience with fading of images when I have waited months before development.

MY question: why is it that the frame numbers do not fade? Is there some voodoo that goes into their creation that causes them not to fade?

I am shooting at ISO 25 and processing in D76H. I am considering switching to Rodinal. Is that a good combination? I'm shooting both 35mm and 120 and wonder what others think of this combination.

~Steve Sloan
San Jose, CA

News to me! From a Physics point of view, why would the silver halides behave any different in this film than any other traditional emulsion?

Have you done any sort of test whereby you shoot a roll of film, develop one half right away, place the other in a dark can to develop in a couple of months? Same developer/time/temp/etc?

I shoot my PanF+ at 25, in these very bright California sun lit scenes. I develop using Rodinal @ 1+100 stand. Calms the angry highlights.

tim in san jose

 

[Ian Grant]

Pan F isn't particularly susceptible to latent image deterioration, Ilford say: "Exposed film:
Once exposed, process PAN F Plus as soon as practical. Images on exposed but unprocessed film will not degrade for up to several months when stored as recommended."

Ilford say the same for all their films, I've used Pan F and Pan F+ and never found this to be an issue & sometimes I have a part used film in a camera for 6 months or more, and there's no loss of quality.

Of course it's good practice to process as soon as you can.

Ian

 

[ssloansjca]

This is what I have been heard, "I know from sources at Ilford, for instance, that Pan F should be developed within 10-15 days. Image degradation gets significant after that. Other Ilford films can last for months or years, but keep in mind that the sooner, the better." I have found that, for me, images exposed on Pan F do deteriorate faster on Pan F than other films. But, just because I have found that to be true does not mean it is true for you.

http://photo.net/large-format-photography-forum/003xtM

 

[noblebeast]

I also have found the "quick degradation of latent image" of PanF+ to be true in practice. I went about 6 months between starting the roll and finishing it, and when I developed it the early images were faded to the point of being completely unusable. I haven't noticed with any other films, but when using PanF I now make sure to use the entire roll up and develop within a couple of days. Still one of my favorite portrait films!

Joe

 

[Mark Layne]

I have recently started shooting Pan F+ and am aware of its rather peculiar tendency for deterioration of the latent image after exposure. I have been told this film should processed within 15 days of exposure. I have had personal experience with fading of images when I have waited months before development.

MY question: why is it that the frame numbers do not fade? Is there some voodoo that goes into their creation that causes them not to fade?

I am shooting at ISO 25 and processing in D76H. I am considering switching to Rodinal. Is that a good combination? I'm shooting both 35mm and 120 and wonder what others think of this combination.

~Steve Sloan
San Jose, CA

I seem to remember mentioning this in an earlier thread. I like PanF a lot, but I have had definite image ghosting on films left in the camera for a long time.
Let us not mutter too loudly though lest they discontinue it
Mark

 

[John Lawrence]

I shoot Pan F and have never had the problem the OP has experienced or indeed image ghosting on the film.

I do try to process as "quickly" as possible, but sometimes this can be anything from the next day to 8 months later!

 

[ssloansjca]

I like Pan F+ so I just will just deal with the processing issues by developing quickly. I still wonder why the frame numbers don't seem to fade while my images do seem to. I guess it is just demonic possession.

BTW - When I was a newspaper photographer I would often develop film within an hour of exposure but never noticed a speed bump from doing so.

So, what do people think of Pan F+ and Rodinal vs. D76?

~Steve

 

[PhotoJim]

It tends to be the least-exposed areas that are affected the most, I'm guessing. The frame numbers *would* be affected, if they were barely there to begin with.

 

[Ian Grant]

I've never used Rodinal with Pan F but with Agfapan 25 and APX 25 I only ever used Rodinal, usually for about 9 minutes @ 3:100. The results were always outstanding the quality of 6x9 matched that of APX100 or Tmax 100 5x4, in Rodinal. I'd expect similar results with Rodinal & Pan F, although I think I'd need to use 1:50 to tame Pan F's tendency to build up contrast.

Ian

 

[jim appleyard]

All film should be devved ASAP. However, we live in an imperfect world and this is not always possible. I sometimes will have a roll sit in the camera for as long as a month or two, but have never experienced any problems other than a permanent mark from being wrapped around a roller in the camera back.

Rodinal v D-76? Rodinal tends to give me more of a 'full-bodied neg" and is a bit more flexible as I can dilute it any way I want; 1+25 to 1+100, further if I want. With D-76 I can really only go 1+0, 1+1 and 1+3. However, I put two 8x10's next to each other, one done in Rodinal and the other in D-76, 1+3, I'm not sure I could tell the difference.

Pan-F in either makes for a good neg. I only do 1 inversion/min.

 

[Hatchetman]

I just had my first experience with this. shot about 10 frames of Pan F+, marked the roll and set it aside. time passes and the roll sat there for about 6 months. Ijust shot the rest of the roll. first 10 frames are essentially blank. I can just make out a bit of image on a couple of them, but the rest nothing. The frames I just shot, just fine. I knew this was a risk, but did not realize how severe it really is!

 

[Chris Livsey]

we DO recommend PAN F+ is processed within 3 months of exposure and our Technical Information sheets available on our website state that,
Simon Galley Ilford, when posted.
(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

Technical data link:
http://www.ilfordphoto.com/Webfiles/20131021134532242.pdf