KodakPanatomic-X

Kodak Panatomic-X is a slow, panchromatic black-and-white negative film, rated ISO 32 in its later years, that Kodak described as “extremely fine” in grain with very high resolving power [1]. It was the slowest of Kodak’s “X” films, alongside Plus-X and Tri-X [2]. It has been out of production since the late 1980s, most often dated 1987 [4].

Look and color

The only Kodak document we found for the consumer film is the 1958 book Kodak Films, which rates graininess “extremely fine”, resolving power and sharpness “very high” and the degree of enlargement allowed “extremely great” [1]. Reviews, almost all of expired film, add these descriptions:

• “Creamy middle grays and solid blacks”, with negatives “scanned as sharp as my tools can manage” [4].
• A film that “continually defies aging”: a reviewer reports that rolls from the 1960s, 70s and 80s almost always shoot at box speed [3].
• In 1950s Kodak advertising, quoted by Mike Eckman, the film was “too sharp for flattering portraits” [5].

None of the reviews we read describes how it turns colors into grays. The 1958 book prints two spectrograms, to sunlight and to tungsten light, as photographs with no numeric scale, and says only that the film is panchromatic [1]. It also gives a No. 8 yellow filter factor of 2 in sunlight for a correct monochrome rendering of colored objects [1].

Tonality

• Development sets the contrast. Kodak’s book plots gamma against development time in D-76: for roll film, 0.43 at 3¾ minutes up to 0.96 at 13 minutes; for 35 mm in D-76 1:1, 0.42 at 3¾ minutes up to 1.02 at 15 minutes [1].
• Curve shape. On the graphs, the toe is long and soft and there is no visible shoulder: density is still rising near 2.2 (our reading of the graph) [1].
• Kodak’s wording. The 1958 pages call it a film of “moderate speed and contrast” [1].
• Reviews disagree. Analog.cafe calls the contrast “medium to high” [3] and also quotes a reviewer who finds it low with D-76 but with excellent tonal separation. We aimed our style at the middle of that range [3] [6].
• Speed. The 1958 book gives an exposure index of 25 in daylight and 20 in tungsten light [1]. Reviewers report an original ASA 25, then ASA 32 and, at one point, ASA 40 [3] [5].

Grain and sharpness

• The book groups the film among the very-high-resolution emulsions and illustrates it with a 40-diameter enlargement of a 35 mm negative [1].
• The Aerographic II aerial film, a different product developed in machines, has a published RMS of 9 [9]. We did not use it for the consumer film.
• Reviews: “zero grain” in D-76, “even more” fine in Xtol [3], and “a little bit of magic” from a 1970 roll [2].
• In our style measurements, the grain of Panatomic-X is finer than that of the Plus-X style (2.1 against 3.5 on the same sky area). This measures a simulation, not the film [6].

Names, status and history

• 1933 and the 1950s. Panatomic-X first appeared as a sheet film in 1933. It was dropped in the 1940s, then came back in the late 1950s in roll and 35 mm formats, completely reformulated, according to two reviewers [2] [5]. The book we used dates from that second period [1].
• Formats in 1958. Roll films 127, 120, 620 and 828, and 35 mm in magazines of 20 or 36 exposures and in bulk [1].
• End of production. Photographers usually give 1987 [4]. Sources differ: the late 1980s or early 1990s [2] [3], and Mike Eckman notes rolls with a March 1990 expiry date [5]. We show 1987 as the commonly cited year, not a confirmed one.
• Name. Photographers call it “Pan-X” [3]. We found no rename or respool.
• Datasheet. No standalone datasheet was found for this film. The 1958 book is the only Kodak document we used, through an unofficial copy [1].

Also sold as

• Pan-X (short name used by photographers) (reported) [3]