Ilford Pan F coming to large format?

A couple of years ago I reported in a PM a conversation I had at the Photography Show. In the light of this post, it may be relevant to repeat it here.

StephenM said:
We've just arrived back from the Photography Show. There is one snippet of information gleaned from a chat with the speaker after a talk on "how to choose a black and white film" by someone from Harman.

In the talk, she had said that PanF was only really suitable in very bright light, such as was scarcely found in the UK. I queried this afterwards and one thing lead to another. On her bringing up hand holding at slow shutter speeds, I brought up being a LF user who normally had a camera tripod mounted. She said that Harman had received many requests for PanF Plus in sheet film; I mentioned that I understood it couldn't be done because of the film base.

I was then countered by two remarks: "it used to be" followed by "keep a watch on the web site".

I take this to be a pretty clear hint that Harman are intending to make PanF Plus available in sheet film sooner rather than later.
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I'm not sure if I would shoot Pan F as a sheet film, I've been more than happy with 5x4 Delta 100, and amazed at HP5 in Pyrocat HD, which I've been using for hand held LF work for around 19 years.

A lot depends on how large you print, here in the UK few photographers print larger than 16"x12" or 20"x16". In the past I printed much larger for work,

In the US some photographers are making very large prints, Clyde Butcher is printing up to 52"x76", so shooting Pan F would make sense, especially if it was added to the annual ULF run.

I have a few 120 rolls of Pan F and plan to start shooting it in my 6x17 camera, So will be interested in the resulting print quality, particularly now I have a Centre ND filter for the 75mm Super Angulon lens.

My favourite Ultra Fine Grain film was Agfa AP25/APX25, I used it in a 6x9 roll film back with my Wista 45DX. I also use EKE PL25 in 5x4 & 10x8, it's actually a 50 ISO film in daylight, 25 is the Tungsten light ISO. So I'm not adverse to UFG slow films, where I can use a tripod.

So perhaps I would try a box of 5x4 Pan F as I've almost finished my 5x4 PL25m 2 boxes of 10x8 left :D

Let's see.

Ian
 
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