Response to Simple Agitation Question

I apologize for my error. My answer above refers to changes in dilution and not agitation - I should drink some coffee. In my experience, agitation does change the shape of the characteristic curve although this is probably qualified by film-developer interactions. Tech Pan (and document/lith films in general) are pretty much designed to deliver high contrast results and getting pictorial gradation, leave alone changing the shape of the curve can be extremely hard. I doubt changes in agitation alone will cure your ills. The typical pattern I've seen with agitation changes (as long as time is adjusted to compensate) is that reducing agitation can put a shoulder on the curve (this assumes, of course that time changes have been made to ensure that Zone whatever develops to the same density). The ease with which a shoulder can be produced seems a function of film-developer combination. For example, FP4 and D23 produces a shoulder very easily, FP4 and HC110 with more difficulty (i.e., greater reduction in agitation). With Tech Pan, I think producing a shoulder is going to be very hard because the emulsion was not designed to be a flexible one. So, I would still think that the answer would be 3 above. I would suggest trying a couple of other developers based on the recommendations above.

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