I have 6 unopened rolls of Techpan… It’s 2009 and I just bought Techpan in a store. Holy wtf crap.
Okay so for those of you who have no clue what I’m talking about (probably all of you), Techpan is a B&W film from Kodak that hasn’t been manufactured since late 2004. It’s an absolutely awesome, high contrast, extremely slow film. I think it’s something ridiculous like ASA 25. You can’t find it anywhere because well, they don’t make it. Occasionally you can find a few rolls at a flea market or garage sale but they’re pretty much guaranteed to be expired. Right now there’s an auction on ebay for 4 rolls that will probably all go for $50+.
Due to a couple weird life events recently I’ve had this sudden urge to shoot B&W again. I’m pretty obsessed with TMAX and Ilford XP2 but for some reason I just can’t find either locally right now, all the local shops have Tri-X and BW400 which seems too bland. I made 1 last ditch stop at Pro Camera, a local repair and rental place. At the counter was a kinda cute girl so like always I said something without thinking… more like rambled without thinking… At least it wasn’t anything embarrassing, just nerdy.
“Do you have any Techpan? Woah I don’t know why I just asked that. There’s no way you have techpan. I mean, no one has techpan. I meant tmax. I mean, if you had techpan I’d be like WOW and you’d know why I’m rambling but I can tell you don’t. I mean you don’t have techpan I mean. <awkward silence> Do you have TMAX?”
Luckily at this point one of the manager or owners stepped in to tell me that yes he does have Techpan, in 36exp rolls, refrigerated, and that he’d sell all 6 rolls for a great price. I now wonder if I have the last 6 rolls in SF. If anyone knows of any other Techpan in SF let me know, I will horde ALL UR TECHPAN.
Hopefully I haven’t lost my eye for B&W. If anything comes out of it maybe I’ll post pictures. I doubt it though, I don’t usually share what I shoot. I’m just that critical of my own shooting I guess.