Before Technical Pan film, Kodak produced a film called High Contrast Copy Film. It had extremely fine grain, virtually invisible with a grain magnifier, and exceptional sharpness. 11x14 inch prints from 35mm negatives could rival those from 4x5 negatives made with "normal" film. The problem was excessive contrast. As quoted in a 1979 article in "Darkroom" magazine, "In 1967, Marilyn Levy, a photo research specialist for the U.S. Army, published the formula for "POTA", an elegant simple to make developer that dramatically lowered contrast without lowering the film speed." The developer I came to favor was called "Perfection", the formula for which is now, sadly, long lost.

In the late '70s, Kodak abandoned High Contrast Copy Film, replacing it and "Solar Flare Patrol Film" with a single emulsion called Technical Pan Film. This was like a red flag to photographers, and the rush began to find the best developer. The original Kodak recommendation was of course POTA. Various dilutions of most common developers were tried and reported in endless magazine articles. Two I remember were dilute Edwal FG7 and Rodinal, each mixed with sodium sulfite. I felt that the Rodinal solution provided a bit more "edge" and chose it as my standard. Kodak followed the POTA lead and soon marketed a variant called "Technidol", first in solid form, then liquid.

I owe my thanks to whomever wrote the article for "Photographic" magazine in the late '70s.

The various available developers provide variable low value (toe), and high value (shoulder) results and can be useful in special situations where one or the other is to be optimized.

The "new kid on the block" is of course PMK Pyro, and the credit here goes to Gordon Hutchings.

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