Follow up to TD-3 and Tech Pan

Hi all,

I wanted to follow up on another post regarding this subject.

I shot and developed my first roll of 35mm Tech Pan last night. Mainly, I wanted to get some test data to set my personal EI before I head off into the woods with this stuff. I exposed at ASA 50 with +/-2 full stops of 1/3 step bracketing for Zone 1, 5, and 8. ( I then finished up the last few frames on the roll with some high contrast and high detail picks at ASA 50 ).

I hand developed in 500 ml. of 68 degree TD-3 for 20 minutes using the 10 inversion per 3 minute method. The TD-3 was mixed 50ml of Solution A, 50ml of Solution B and 400ml of Distilled Water.

I was very supprised to find the negatives to be REALLY thin. If I am to believe my results the negatives that came out correctly are shot at ASA 12! These ended up with a Zone 1 density of .09 /fbf and had pretty appropriate densities for Zones 5 and 8. ( Once I repeat my Zone 1 testing I will adjust development for the high values.)

The interesting thing is that the pictorial shots, while very thin, have increadable detail and almost no grain at all, I had a hard time finding the grain with an Omega grain focuser at 8x10!

I will reshoot some more this weekend, time permitting, and post another continuation.

I have a couple of questions for those of you who have used TD-3 in the past. What ASA did you end up with, was that checked with a densitometer or "eyeballed", and what development method did you use.

Best Regards, -harry

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