Thanks to my generous friend,
Kodachromeguy, I was able to shoot a roll of Kodak Panatomic-X with an expiration date of 09/1991. At his suggestion, I shot the film at 25 ASA. Having just mixed up my first batch of Kodak XTOL I decided to use that developer to process the Panatomic-X. I took the suggestion from the
FilmDev site to develop in XTOL 1:1 for 7.5 minutes at 20°C. Also helpful for a general introduction to XTOL was the
Covington Innovations site.
The results seemed pretty extraordinary for a film nearly three decades past its expiration date. XTOL may not be the optimum developer for Panatomic-X, but I was pretty pleased with the outcome. I'm not sure when I'll get another chance to shoot a roll of Panatomic-X, but I am looking forward to trying XTOL with several of the modern b&w films I often shoot, including HP5 and Kentmere.
