Kodak HC-110 and Ilford PanF+

I recently broke into the world of medium format photography by dusting off my dad's old Mamiya RB67 and finding a number of rolls of 120 PanF+ in the fridge with the rest of the old film. This stuff expired in 1987... but it doesn't seem to affect the image quality at all. It's been in the fridge for decades. Black & white film (and especially PanF+ from what I've read) keeps really well if you take care of it.

Anyway, PanF+ is Ilford's slow, fine-grain film. Since this film is older than Delta 100, and not a "T-grain" film, I imagine it's not a whole lot finer than Delta 100. But either way, it's really fine, and especially in medium format, the grain isn't noticeable unless you pixel peep or make big enlargements. HC-110 does a good job of keeping the grain size down, but since it's so small already, PanF+ will probably be the first film I try in Rodinal once I buy a bottle. Lots of people online seem to like the combo.

I'm a big fan of this stuff for portraits. A few years ago, I shot a number of rolls of it in 35mm since we had a bulk loader full of the stuff in the darkroom, but it's since run out and again... all my old negatives are MIA. If I find any though, I'll scan it in so we can see what PanF+ looks like in 35mm with various developers. Otherwise, I'll end up just buying some down the road to try out again in 35mm.

The top frame ended up on Flickr and in my portfolio, so I did some work on it in Lightroom after scanning. Because of that, the 100% crop below is taken from another photo from that same shoot; one that I did no work on after scanning. The bottom frame shows something interesting: the PanF+ is very resistant to blocking up. I did nothing on this frame after scanning. I can see detail very well even in the brightest parts of the dress, and this was taken in full sunlight from the right, as evidenced by the shadow. Seems like Ilford PanF+ and HC-110 Dilution B is a really good combo for keeping the contrast in a nice range when you shoot in direct or harsh lighting. It will be good to see how Delta 100 does on that front. Judging from other photos I've done with both films in various formats, the PanF+ does better at highlight control with HC-110B, but Delta 100 gives slightly preferable tones.

So I think I conclude that Delta 100 is my preferred portrait film when I have open shade or a cloudy day, but PanF+ is a better way to go when the light isn't so forgiving. However, I don't want to give PanF+ the first prize until I've seen what Delta 100 can do in 120 size. I have a roll to shoot tomorrow during sunset, so I'll be sure to do a couple of photos that are in harsh lighting to see how it compares.

Thus far, I'm still souping everything at regular N+0 times. Incidentally, that equals out to 6 minutes in Dilution B at 68°F with identical agitation for both films.

Here are your 100% crops for grain comparison:

The grain here is impressively fine. The sharpness seems to be better on the Delta 100 though. Improved sharpness at the cost of a little bit of grain smoothness is what Rodinal reportedly gives you in general though, so I'm more and more eager to test the stuff out.