Film is funny stuff. Or cameras are funny stuff.
I used to use both Pan F and Panatomic X on 135 format just before I turned pro, mainly on people shots. I found myself making very thin negs with soup such as Unitol, and getting fairly good skin tones that way.
When I did go for the money, I discovered quickly the limitations of the two films: a bit too slow for the lights that I had. At the same time I realised that there was a breakdown between regular outdoor usage of ASA as a guide to film speed and the actual speed of the same set of films when exposed to flash... I couldn't explain it to myself then, and still can't. At best I see some form of reciprocity failure at flash duration times, though I'd fondly imagined that was a phenomenon related to long exposures, not short.
Anyway, I abandoned the two Pans and settled for FP3 and HP3 on 135 and then the later iterations of both
With 120 format, I didn't like those two at all, and eventually used TXP 120 for everything in that format other than, of course, colour.
The developer, once I turned pro, was always D76 1+1 in both film formats.
Rob C
