(No subject)

[James Luckett <jl@mollymail.com>]

starting in november i will be living in tokyo for 14 months . . . 
without access to a darkroom. i've decided this will be a great time 
to explore printing out paper (POP) and possibly some other 
alternative processes that utilize the sun as a light source for 
printing. 

i've been doing some research, and have learned that the best 
negative for POP is most likely from a film capable of a long tonal 
range that is overexposed and overdeveloped. very dense. 

now the problem i have is where do i get started here. i've always 
used APX. and have grown to love efke 25. but APX is no longer 
available and efke 25 (as far as i know) is not available in 4x5. 
and my research suggests that TMX or fp4 is best anyway (the 
centenial POP faq says so) - both films i'm not familiar with. to 
top it off i love rodinal (its the cheapest thing out there and agfa 
products have never ever done me wrong + its easy + the whole cache 
of being the oldest manufactured developer. very cool. and BAMO! 
acutance is something like a very dry martini). 

so who out there has been working with POP? what film/developer 
combo do you use to get the best POP negatives? is TMX in rodinal a 
good start? what about this new fuji acros? i know everyone loves 
pyro. but i'm not sure if i'm ready to make that leap. worried that 
it maybe difficult to get pyro in japan (don't speak japanese). and 
just how great is this pyro anyway? will pyro negs help me do POP? 
if so, i'm there. so what do you all think? how do i get the best 
negs for POP? the less i have to fool around (though i know its 
valuable) the better. 

thanks in advance.

cheers,