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Best exposure index for Plus-x

That's a good way of looking at it, Sandy. I agree with you. It is difficult to remain completely objective and exclude personal preference in these discussions.
 
I think of grain as a tool. Use it or not. Box wrench or socket set. Neither matters as long as your nuts are tight.
 
I look at grain as a choice; much like the choice of using 60 grit or 220 grit sandpaper before finishing a piece of furniture.
 
I aim for fine grain in my photographs and in my whiskey.

Steve
 
Tom Kershaw said:
This is a completely nonsensical comparison. 5000 dollar cables won't make any difference to the actual sound, whereas a 4x5 camera can give a result that is differentiated from 35mm.

Tom.
Click to expand...

Actually those cables DO make a difference, just that difference is very small, in fact it may take very well trained ear or delicate
electronic equipment to detect the difference, but it is there.

Now lets be realistic here for a minute, while the quality from a 4x5 is excellent, the cameras are not always practical for all purposes. For example, I like to ride a bicycle, and I can go long ways on one. Carrying a 4x5 camera and lenses and tripod and holders, isn't practical for that purpose. A small 35mm range-finder or a non-SLR digital are the best tools as they are light and small.

If I want less grain, there are slower films like PanF, and cubic particle films like the T-Max and Delta films, which produce less obtrusive grain, using a solvent developer will also help. So why is this all such a big issue.
 
After not working with 35mm to any great extent for a few years, I've just started experimenting with TMY-2 / Pyrocat-HD in 35mm for making some handheld close-up photographs. I have been surprised at the excellent image quality considering the small size of the negative.

Tom.
 
Tom, that's interesting. Just this evening I printed from 35mm TMY (the previous incarnation of the film). The film was processed in Xtol (stock, replenished), to a slightly high contrast, so I had to print at Grade 1 using Ilford MGWT and LPD (replenished).
I got some pretty nice 6x8" prints from it that surprised me. I knew TMY-2 was fine grained, as I've used it many times in 120. But from 35mm I got prints that were sharp and almost grain free. A very pleasant surprise. I actually processed one roll in Rodinal too, just for fun, and was surprised by how tight the grain was in that developer as well.
Tmax 400 (TMY-2) is astonishing film, and will yield grain that you would probably find more in films like FP4+ or Plus-X. And, in Xtol, it's not a problem to shoot the film at EI 400 so the speed benefit can be retained.

- Thomas
 
Not to throw this thread back on topic, but...

One combination that I have had good luck with for fine grain is Plus-X at 125 in Microdol-X. Microdol is designed to deliver finer grain in traditional-grained films like Plus- and Tri-X. In fact, depending on how bad the graniness is to you, you could try to soup a roll of Tri-X in Microdol.
 

You're right about that, of course. But in order to get the most grain softening possible from Microdol-X, it must be used full strength. Doing so will cost some film speed. Kodak admits, "very little loss of film speed" on page one of this document. When I worked with this developer, I got good results by adding an extra full stop of light to the exposure. Probably could have done with a little less, but a full extra stop guaranteed that I'd have a good negative to work with. Plus-X, and Tri-X too, are less grainy now than they were when I was pairing them with Microdol-X. Consequently, I quit using the developer and got back the speed. Both films, shot at or near box speed and developed in XTOL, look a heck of a lot better now than the old formulations ever did with Microdol-X.
 
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