Expired Kodak Technical Pan – a Cornucopia of Contrast

I’m a straight shooter. I follow the rules. If a carton of milk expires on December 16th, I bloody well drink it before the 16th. And because of this, I came to the world of expired film with a lot of anxiety and foreboding. For the longest time, I just couldn’t do it. I could not willingly load a forty-year-old pack of film into my precious Leica when I had a fresh, unsullied roll of HP5 sitting in the fridge. The idea of it made my hands shake. And that ain’t good for photography.

All good stories of radicalization involve an enabler. For me, it was a quaint, unassuming film studio called All Things Film, in London, Ontario. They eased me into it. Made it seem like I wasn’t doing anything wrong. As I was leaving the store one day, the owner, Avan, casually called out: “Hey, Dave. Hold on one sec. I’ve been meaning to give you this. It’s a roll of expired Kodak Technical Pan. I think you’ll dig it. It’s like 100 TMax on steroids. No need to use it right away. Just hold on to it. Wait for the right moment…”

Gobsmacked, I grabbed the old, faded carton and shoved it into my luxury leather camera satchel. When I got home, I buried the contraband in the freezer. But every time I opened the freezer door, there it was, taunting me. No matter what I piled on top of it (frozen fish, peas, Häagen-Dazs…), that little yellow box crawled its way out. I hollered at my wife: “Did you move this?” “Honey,” she replied, “I don’t even know what that is.” “It’s TMax on steroids, for Christ’s sake!”

On a dreary Sunday afternoon, I broke down and loaded the film into my black-paint Leica MP. I tried to be cool about it. But I knew I’d crossed a line. A week later, with my head hung low, I walked into All Things Film with the exposed roll clenched in my fist. Avan smiled sympathetically and said, “I’m excited to hear what you think of the results. If you like them, I got more rolls in the back that I can set aside for you.” And that’s when I knew he’d become my Tech Pan pusher.

Of course, the black and white images jumped off the screen in a cornucopia of contrast. They were truly TMax on steroids. After staring at the Technical Pan pics for a few hours, all my other photos looked flat. I was ruined and already craving the next hit. I took a little peak on eBay, just to see how serious this problem might be. Ouch! In some cases, it was over $50 for a roll, when factoring in taxes and shipping.

Below, are a few more photos I’ve taken with Technical Pan using a Summilux-M 50 f/1.4 (ASPH). My favorite is of my son, Kipling, wearing a bike helmet. It was taken on the day he first learnt to ride a bike without training wheels. The kicker is that the Technical Pan used for that shot expired in 1986, which is the year I learnt to ride a bike. If that doesn’t pierce your analog heart, then nothing will. Just don’t tell Kip that his university fund is quickly being allocated to expired film.

You can find more of my photos at Leica Fotografie International and my Instagram feed.

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