Kodak Technical Pan Film at the Acropolis (Abandoned Films 11)

Technical Pan film

In the 1980s, Eastman Kodak heavily advertised their Technical Pan as being an extremely fine grain and high resolution panchromatic film. The data sheets stated:

This is a black-and-white panchromatic film with extended red sensitivity. It has micro-fine or extremely fine grain (depending on the developer used), extremely high resolving power, and a wide contrast range for pictorial, scientific, technical, and reversal-processing applications. 

Kodak made this film for either copying documents or for aerial reconnaissance by the military (I have read both theories). Kodak discontinued sales in 2003 or 2004 but stated that they had been selling off stock that had been stored for years. Many astronomers used it for celestial photography. 

Most document films are very fine grain but also high contrast. Therefore, for pictorial use, the photographer or laboratory must use special low contrast developers to provide a normal tonal scale. Kodak sold a proprietary Technidol developer for pictorial use, but it has been discontinued for at least a decade.

With a degree of hyperbolae or over-enthusiastic marketing, Kodak claimed Technical Pan in a regular 35mm camera rivaled the results from normal film in a 4×5" camera. Well, maybe - sort of. I cannot find an example right now but recall seeing these advertisements in camera magazines in the 1980s.

I used Technical Pan 2415 in 35mm cameras only twice. Once was in Texas (see my 2017 post) and the second in Athens, Greece. I agree that the film was incredibly fine-grain, but it was hard to develop and was contrasty, even with the Technidol developer. It had a "soot and chalk" tonality. My ultimate conclusion was why bother? If you want high resolution and smooth continuous tones, just use a medium format or 4×5" camera.

The Acropolis, Athens

We will make this a double abandoned films treat: Technical Pan from 1985 plus a couple of 1951 comparisons with other long-discontinued films. Let's take a walk around the Acropolis on a brilliant sunny July day. Click the 1985 frames to see the amazing detail. 

Parthenon east side, July 7, 1985 (Technical Pan film, Leica M3, 50mm ƒ/2.8 Elmar-M lens)

Parthenon east side 1951 or 1952 (Kodachrome slide, Leica IIIC camera, 5cm ƒ/2 Summitar lens)

The magnificent Parthenon is under perpetual preservation and reconstruction. It is amazing to think that Aristotle himself must have visited this temple and walked among the columns. And consider modern famous visitors such as Lord Byron, Winston Churchill, Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, Princess Elizabeth, Margaret Thatcher, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, Vladimir Putin, Elizabeth Taylor, etc.

Archaeologists and marble masons have spent over a century on repair and preservation. All the stone on the ground has been catalogued, measured, and fitted using 3-dimensional CAD software. The dilemma is what to do where original stone is missing. How much reconstruction is "authentic?"

Checking the Parthenon

Summer in the city - checking out the Parthenon

The Erechtheion under restoration.

The Erechtheion or Temple of Athena Polias is an Ionic temple-telesterion on the north side of the Acropolis. It was primarily dedicated to the goddess Athena. The geometry and placement of features within the temple is unknown. It may overlie a palace of Mycenaean age.

1985 south view of Erechtheion

Erechtheion photographed in 1951 from the porch of the Parthenon (Kodak Plus-X film) 

Looking down to the Anafiotica neighborhood.

Acropolis from the Temple of the Olympian Zeus (Leica 90mm ƒ/2.8 Tele-Elmarit lens)

This scene is an extreme example of high contrast that demonstrated a soot and chalk rendition. I am glad I experimented with Technical Pan film. With the revival in film photography recently, it has become a cult favorite among some film users, and they buy remaining stock eagerly. But for me, a normal panchromatic film is fine.

Appendix A

Here are some curves for Technical Pan film from Kodak Professional Black-and-White Films book F-6 © 1984. 

Photographer Michael Elliott has been getting excellent results from Technical Pan with a 2-part developer based on metol. I am impressed with his energy.

From the Archives: Northern Greece in 1951

When my dad first moved to Greece in 1951, he and some of the other engineers took field trips to northern Greece to look at rivers, irrigation canals, and waterworks. They also visited local engineering offices to obtain stream flow and discharge data. Sometimes they flew on a Grumman Goose airplane. I assume it was operated by the American Mission in the early 1950s. 

One of the towns where they stayed was Komotini, a city in the region of East Macedonia and Thrace in northeastern Greece.  

The New Mosque and Clock Tower, March 14, 1951

Note the stork on top of the bell tower

The baker of Komotini - delicious loaves

In 1951, Komotini was rather basic compared to the bright lights of Athens. My dad noted that accommodations were primitive and food grim. He also commented on the Turkish toilet. It sounds like it was a novelty to him, although surely he had encountered them before in Asia. I remember him telling me that when he asked for hot water to shave, the hotel host brought a tepid teacup of water. 

Agricultural wagons

What's the way to Athens?

Muslim ladies of Komotini

Komotini had a large Muslim minority. After the 1919-1922 military disaster in Anatolia, ethnic Greek and Turkish populations were exchanged and moved (forced) back to their homelands. Many Greeks had never lived in mainland Greece, and many Turkish Muslims had not lived in Turkey. As noted in Wikipedia, "Historians have described the exchange as a legalized form of mutual ethnic cleansing." It was a horrifying episode. But Komotini was not included in the forced exchange, so many Muslim families continued to live there. Two mosques are still active in town. The New Mosque (see the first photograph) has its own web page. 

Buklutzas River

I had trouble finding this spot in Komotini. My family told me that the Buklutzas River has been covered over and is now the main highway through town. None of these buildings exist now. So much for progress.....

The cobbler of Komotini

Note the gent with the overcoat walking away from the cameras is wearing a fez. In Turkey proper, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk had banned the fez (to be replaced by the western fedora), but men continued to wear fezes in former Ottoman areas.

A short social note:  After the brutal and vicious Greek Civil War ended in 1949, towns in northern Greece were desperately poor. Many of the farmers lived on almost a subsistence basis from the produce they grew. My stepdad, a Greek surgeon, said many villagers had never seen a doctor or been to a dentist. Childbirth was dangerous and often led to death. Tuberculosis ravaged families. Appalachia in USA may have been similar at that time, with isolated towns and desperate poverty.

Today, towns like Komotini are clean and cheerful. Stores are well-stocked, streets clean and well-paved, buildings neat, and the townsfolk have bright little cars, decent clothes, and look happy and well-fed. They welcome tourists. They foregather at nice local restaurants and coffee shops. Their children have often been to college and many are bilingual. 

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis (Κυριάκος Μητσοτάκης) told Fareed Zakaria at the World Economic Forum that on a day that is sunny, windy, not too hot, not too cold, Greece generates 90 percent of its electricity from renewable sources. Prime Minister Mitsotakis graduated from Harvard University, Stanford University, and Harvard Business School. 

And today, Appalachia is still Appalachia, an underclass of grinding poverty, drugs, food insecurity, crumbling towns, racism, and despondency. What is wrong with this picture?

Photography:  My dad took these these photographs on Ansco Super Speed film. One collector on Flickr states that this film was rated at ASA 100. He used his Canon rangefinder camera with a 50mm ƒ/1.9 Serenar lens. I remember this camera but I sold it in the 1970s.

From the Archives: Moscow, Soviet Union, in 1978 (Plus-X film)

Kremlin walls from the Moscow River in 1978, Kodak Plus-X film, Leica IIIC, 5cm ƒ/2.0 Summitar lens

Kremlin walls from Bol'shoy Kamennyy Most (bridge)

Vodovzvodnaya Tower, Moscow

A few weeks ago, I had coffee with my karate friend Tatyana. She remembered her childhood in the Soviet Union. When I told her I had visited Moscow and Leningrad in 1978, she immediately asked if she could see my pictures. Well, that led to retrieving my negatives and scanning them. They were on Kodak Plus-X film exposed with the same Leica IIIC that I still presently use. The negatives were scratched and muddy in the low exposure areas. Maybe muddy low tones were a characteristic of Plus-X, but I am not sure. Back then, my technique was haphazard, and I can't recall who developed this roll. The scratches may be my doing. I do not see much grain, and in those days I sometimes used Microdol-X, which was a fine-grain film developer (i.e., it was designed to reduce the visual appearance of grain). But I was staying in Athens in those days, so maybe a Greek lab developed them. Regardless, they required some serious cleaning with the heal tool in Adobe Photoshop CS3 and some adjustment with the curve to improve tonality.

Red Square from the GUM department store

This is the view of Red Square and the Kremlin walls taken from the GUM store. The GUM department store was a giant arcade built during the czarist era. It was reasonably well-stocked when we visited in October of 1978. Tatyana said Moscow and Leningrad were quite cosmopolitan in those days, but small towns in the hinterland had stores with empty shelves. We bought something in the GUM, but I do not remember what. The purchase process was multi-step. First you pointed out what you wanted to a clerk, and she wrote out a ticket for you. Then you took the ticket to the cashier's counter. The cashier took your tickets and added the total amount on an abacus. She accepted your Rubles (definitely no credit cards in the Soviet Union, and regardless, I did not have any cards in those days). Then the lady gave you a receipt in multiple copies, which you took back to the original counter. Upon close examination of the receipt, the lady gave you your merchandise. They were reasonably friendly and did not seem too surprised to see foreigners. That was the era of Perestroika, when the Soviet Union was semi-opening and increasing interaction with the outside world. Tourists were encouraged to come, stay in hotels, and spend foreign currency.

As tourists, we were herded into one of the Beryozka shops. These only accepted foreign currency and catered to tourists, diplomats, government officials, and special people (athletes? ballerinas?). The Beryozka shops sold goods that were hard to get in normal shops, but most local people were forbidden to enter the premises, plus they usually did not have any foreign currency. We saw the normal offerings of liquor, cans of caviar, and some jewelry. I almost bought a Kiev camera but passed.

In the photograph through the arch, the people in the distance are waiting to see Lenin's body. If we tourists wanted to enter the mausoleum, the guards would have put us in front of all those people, but that seemed rude and we did not want to flaunt privilege. So we never did see Lenin's body. Stalin  and other notables are buried at the base of the walls. Notice the gents hanging around in "plain" clothes? We assumed were being tracked, but who knows? Maybe our grumpy Intourist guide was the only official watching our group. In our hotel room, we occasionally said "Hi!" and "How are you today?" to the telephone receiver.

Soviet tourists, bronze Czar Cannon (cast in 1586)

The premier tourist site was the Kremlin, the ancient seat of power of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union. We were surprised how open it was. You could not enter the government buildings, but could pretty freely walk around and take pictures. I occasionally looked for First Secretary Brezhnev, but of course, he was nowhere to be seen.

Church of the Nativity, Kremlin 

Several ancient cathedrals and churches are inside the walls of the Kremlin. Although religion was officially discouraged in the communist era, some churches were maintained and, I think, held services. The government preserved others as museums.

St. Basil's Cathedral, Red Square, Moscow

St. Basil's Cathedral, Red Square

St. Basil's Cathedral, (from Wikipedia: The Cathedral of Vasily the Blessed (Russian: собо́р Васи́лия Блаже́нного, Sobor Vasiliya Blazhennovo)) is an architectural wonder. This, too, was a museum. I recall the inside being rather dark and claustrophobic. The ornate chambers were much more confined than the soaring spaces in Gothic cathedrals in France or Germany.

Smolensk Cathedral

The bell tower of the 1690 Smolensk Cathedral dominates the walls and passages in the ancient Novodevichy Convent. This is now a museum.

Bolchoi, Moscow

We saw the Barber of Seville (Il barbiere di Siviglia, ossia L'inutile precauzione) at the Bolshoi. I recall a superb performance, but cannot remember if it was sung in Italian or Russian. Also, I cannot recall if we went with our tour group or just bought tickets and attended by ourselves.

We stayed in an old hotel called the Berlin. It was on Pushechnaya Street and and within walking distance of Red Square and most tourist sites. It dated back to the Czarist era and looked like it had not received much maintenance or cleaning since the 1917 revolution. Sturdy babushka ladies sat at a desk on each floor and gave you your room key while they glared at you. I am not sure if they worked for the KGB, but they certainly had been instructed to report any suspicious happenings.

This was a quick tourist look at Moscow. I am sorry I did not take more pictures of ordinary life. There are some slides in my boxes, but scanning will wait for "some day" (like so many other mythological projects). These black and white frames were from Kodak Plus-X film, exposed with my dad's Leica IIIC camera and 5cm ƒ/2.0 Summitar lens, which I am still using many decades later.

Revisit to the Pláka of Athens, Greece

When visiting Athens, one of your first destinations should be the Acropolis and the Pláka District. Compared to the noisy and congested modern city, in the Pláka, you have a sense of village life before the cars and mobile phones and pollution.  To refresh your geography, the Acropolis is the limestone hill on which temples and sacred precincts have existed for 3000 years.  Classical Athens was situated around the Acropolis, and the Pláka is the last remnant of the 1800s village that clung to the slopes before 20th century urban sprawl.

First, here is a 1951 photograph of the Acropolis taken on Kodak Plus-X black and white film. The big temple is the Parthenon.

View from the University of Athens History Museum (site of the original 1800s university).

Walk in the Pláka, look up, and the Acropolis looms above you.  History is everywhere. The two photographs above were taken from The University of Athens History Museum. The building is one of the few remaining from before the King Otto era. From 1837 to 1841, it served as the first university of the independent Greek State.  The museum is free, and the building is air conditioned if you need a cool break.

The narrow lanes wind up and down, and are really pleasant.

View north with Mount Lycabettus in the distance

Sadly, look in the distance, and the frenetic, uncontrolled post-World War II urban construction is all too evident.  Thousands of elegant homes, mansions and early 20th century Art Nouveau buildings were demolished and replaced with rapidly-constructed concrete boxes.

Still, take your time, look around, and stop for a relaxing drink or meal under an umbrella.

Temple of the Winds, 1951

Here is the Temple of the Winds, another 1951 scene.  This view does not look very different today.

I have written about the flea market in the Monastiraki District before.It is a bit dull compared to the 1950s (see the link) but still worth a visit.

It is definitely worth a visit to see lovelies like these two.

Emerge from the flea market, and you are in Monasteraki Square, now a popular meeting spot with easy access to the Metro. Beware of pick-pockets.

Turn around and look south, and there is the Acropolis dominating the skyline.  The building in the foreground is a former mosque, one of the few remaining from the Ottoman era.

Editorial note:  The US media is full of ominous stories about the terrible state of the Greek economy, strikes, civil disobedience, and general gloom and decay.  The stories may be true to some extent, but as a tourist, you are mostly sheltered. The Greek people are as friendly as ever, the restaurants a bit less expensive than five years ago, the food as good as ever, the wine better, the scenery as magical as ever, and the ladies weigh less than 300 lb. Moral: don't believe the scare stories in the media.

Update, October 2016:  Conditions have deteriorated badly in Athens. In 2015, it looked almost "normal." One year later, the city looks distinctly grungy, as if buildings have not been pressure-washed or painted in years. In rural Greece, trash is everywhere. Street repair is of a much lower standard than before. Graffiti has been sprayed on almost all flat surfaces as well as on busses and trams. The area between Omonia and Monasteraki has a distinctly Middle-East flavor and crime there has increased. I am changing my previous opinion and now recommend tourists not travel to Greece until it can sort out its financial and security issues. It's really sad.

2013 digital images were from July 2013 with a Nexus 4 phone, reprocessed with ACDsee Pro software. The 1951 photographs were from a Canon rangefinder camera (possibly a model IIB) with 50mm ƒ/1.9 Serenar lens.