Dear Readers, this is a continuation of my series on discontinued photographic films. Previous posts covered GAF Versapan film packs, GAF Versapan 135 film, Kodak Ektar 25, and Kodak's famous Panatomic-X black and white film.
For decades, Kodak's Verichrome Pan film was a staple in camera stores around the country. It was a medium-speed (ISO=125) panchromatic black and white film intended for box and medium format cameras. Kodak's data sheet stated:
FEATURES BENEFITS
• Extremely fine grain • Excellent for producing high-quality images
• Wide exposure latitude • Rich tonality maintained with overexposure and underexposure
• Very high sharpness • Excellent for applications that require a high degree of enlargement
• High resolving power • Good rendition of detail
Over time, Kodak sold it in 120, 127, 116, 126, 616, 110, 620, and 828 formats. As far as I know, Kodak never packaged it in 35mm cassettes. Note that these are format designations, not width in mm. The 126 was the Instamatic cartridge that was so popular in the 1960s and 1970s, and the 110 was the smaller cartridge for 110 cameras. As of 1996, they even sold it in long roll for Cirkut panorama cameras. Numerous writers on the web enthusiastically claim that it was a superb film. It was such a flexible film, an inexperienced amateur could could load it in a crummy box camera and achieve something that a lab could print.
For unknown reasons, I never tried any Verichrome Pan, and now it is too late. But good news: my Indiana friend, Jim Grey (author of the Down the Road blog), generously sent me a roll.
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| Kansas City Southern tracks from the North Frontage Road bridge (80mm ƒ/2.8 Planar-CB lens) |
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| 2624 Washington Street, Vicksburg (80mm Planar lens) |
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| Fairground Street Bridge (permanently closed; 80mm ƒ/2.8 Planar-CB lens) |
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| Pearl Street view north (80mm Planar lens) |
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| Kansas City Southern rail yard from Levee Street, view east (80mm Planar lens) |
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| Kansas City Southern rail yard view south (80mm Planar lens) |
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| Work shed on levee next to Yazoo Canal (50mm ƒ/4 Distagon lens, 1/30 ƒ/11) |
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| Sycamore Avenue, Vicksburg (80mm Planar lens) |
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| View west from Sycamore Avenue (80 mm Planar lens) |
Well, once again I am thrilled that a 30-year-old film responds so well. What amazing technology. I love the tonality of this Verichrome Pan, at least under these conditions of soft light.
Praus Productions in Rochester, New York, developed the film, and I scanned it with a Minolta ScanMulti medium format film scanner. The Silverfast Ai software did not have a Verichrome Pan profile. Instead, I used the profile for Plus-X film. I read in some old Kodak books that Verichrome and Plus-X responded about the same. I have read that they were almost the same emulsion but one had no anti-halation layer (?). I do not know if that is true, and I had no recent experience with Plus-X. The last time I used Plus-X may have been in Moscow in 1978 (click the link).
Thank you, Dear Readers, for following along on this exploration of Films from the Dead. All comments welcome.
5 comments:
I'm happy to share! Especially when you get such good results.
Looks like that roll of film was properly stored all those years. The only roll of Verichrome Pan I've shot was in 828 format and it looked to have spent decades in a tropical environment. The sky in my example was heavily mottled. Even so, the range of tones was superb.
As always I love your photographs of bridges and train tracks. My ideal dream home would be an old industrial loft with an open plan and your photographs (some wall-sized, and others varying depending on the space). Your photograph of the line of urinals on blue tile in the old school bathroom will be the centerpiece of my master bath. I might not know diddly about the film or its processing, but I really appreciate your work.
A lot of professionals actually shot Verichrome Pan in 120, even into the 90's. Kodak tried to kill it a few times, but the scuttle-butt was that pros, including Avedon and Skrebneski put up such a stink that they didn't do it the first few times. I can tell you as a pro in the era, I used it until they killed it, then I switched to Ilford FP-4, then Agfapan 100. Plus-X was no where near like Verichrome Pan, Plus-X was considered a pretty ugly film comparatively!
I've read some websites that "claim" that the two were similar, but I can tell you from use that it was no where near true. Kodak had a tendency to "kill" products and tell the professional community not to worry, because the item they killed was very similar to another item they had, which was never true. The only thing similar about the two films was the ASA. This was back in the era where Kodak was killing items not because they weren't making a profit, but because they weren't making the amount of profit Kodak deemed they should. Kill it instead of promote it more in advertising.
Even to this day, old guys mourn the loss of Verichrome Pan.
Very elegant and exquisite works of art.
I stand confused.
This life doesn't make sense
This life does not have the minimum level of justice.
I see many ordinary works of art that are devoid of any creative glimpses, yet you find that these photographic artists are very famous in the world of photography, and I see that their works are ordinary, and I do not know why they are famous at a time when there is a talented photographic artist People like you never got the amount of fame they deserve.
Greetings to you, I wish you good luck and success.
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