Contradictory Kodak Development Times

I'm just about ready to start developing my own film for the first time. I have some rolls of Tri-X and Tmax 400 that I will develop in D76 diluted 1:1. From reading a number of forum threads, I'm going to take the suggestion that I go with Kodak's suggested times for my first attempts.

What I'm a little confused about is that Kodak doesn't seem to be consistent in their posted times. These are all for small tank developing, 1:1 dilution and 20 C for simplicity.

For example, on the D76 data sheet, it says that you would develop Tri-X Pan for 10 minutes at 20 C. On the Tri-X data sheet it gives a time of 9 3/4 minutes. Perhaps this is due to a difference between Tri-X pan and pan professional?

It's an even bigger difference for Tmax 400. On the D76 sheet, it gives a time of 12.5 minutes while the Tmax sheet lists 10.25 minutes.

I've attached the files that I'm looking at. Any suggestions which to use and which to ignore. Or perhaps I'm doing something wrong.

Thanks!

~Brad

punkzter said:

I'm just about ready to start developing my own film for the first time. I have some rolls of Tri-X and Tmax 400 that I will develop in D76 diluted 1:1. From reading a number of forum threads, I'm going to take the suggestion that I go with Kodak's suggested times for my first attempts.

What I'm a little confused about is that Kodak doesn't seem to be consistent in their posted times. These are all for small tank developing, 1:1 dilution and 20 C for simplicity.

For example, on the D76 data sheet, it says that you would develop Tri-X Pan for 10 minutes at 20 C. On the Tri-X data sheet it gives a time of 9 3/4 minutes. Perhaps this is due to a difference between Tri-X pan and pan professional?

It's an even bigger difference for Tmax 400. On the D76 sheet, it gives a time of 12.5 minutes while the Tmax sheet lists 10.25 minutes.

I've attached the files that I'm looking at. Any suggestions which to use and which to ignore. Or perhaps I'm doing something wrong.

Thanks!

~Brad

Click to expand...

Follow the film data sheets - some of the chemical data sheets are quite old & give times for older versions of TMAX 400 & Tri-X (TX & TXP).

The D-76 datasheet has not been updated in MANY years. Since then, Kodak has reformulated all of their films. Use the times on the current versions of the film datasheets.

I wish they wouldn't date the d76 document then, because the date is newer than the film documents.

I may need to update my graph but I've relied on this for TMAX 400 in D-76 1:1 for about 8 years...

Basically, I develop normally for about 13 minutes. If I were to develop for 10 minutes, I would get near 0.5 contrast which is something people consider normal these days. I still like 13 minutes.

I would recommend 10 or a little more.

http://beefalobill.com/imgs/Sept9TMY2.pdf

punkzter said:

I wish they wouldn't date the d76 document then, because the date is newer than the film documents.

Click to expand...

All the newer documents on the Kodak Alaris site have been edited by Kodak Alaris to, among other things, remove references to no longer available products (e.g. Polydol developer) but they haven't been updated or modernized.
In the relatively recent past Kodak Alaris has, however, responded positively to information that there are problems with datasheets, so if someone wants to report this - profilm@kodakalaris.com - then it may very well end up being fixed (eventually).

I had a similar question with Ilford with developing times printed inside the boxes. I used them and and was landed with under developed films. When I asked Ilford themselves, they suggested I look at their website for the up to date times because emulsion and consequently development times can change.

They went on to say they print thousands upon thousands of film boxes, enough to last years in some cases and the times can change before they are all used.

I understand that it is confusing situation, but at the other hand, it is a good welcome to the world of self-developing. The 'right' development time depends on a lot of things, for instance what the next step of the process will be. Are you intend to make wet prints in a darkroom for instance, or are you going to scan them? And when wet printing: are you using a condensor enlarger or one with a colour head? Other things that may influence the development time is the accuracy of your thermometer for instance. At the other hand: the process is pretty forgiving and films have a quite some lattitude to compensate for errors.

The most important thing when developing your films is to be consistent and to evaluate carefully: do everything the same every time and when changing something: only one factor at the time so you get clue how it affects the process. When evaluating film development you look at two or three things. Firstly there are the highlights: is there enough detail in them? In landscape photography this typically means that you look at the sky and see if there are shades of grey in it. Blown out highlights typically indicate to much development, to much grey indicates underdevelopment. An old trick is to put a negative on some printed text, which should be about just readable through the darker parts of the negative. When printing in a darkroom you should be able to get a decent print on grade 2.5, while perhaps helping the sky with a bit of burning.
The second thing to look after is shadow detail. Putting a negative on a light box or holding them against a bright light will tell you if there is. When not: the negatives need more exposure. A third thing to evaluate is overall scale of tone. That is rather subjective and also depends on what you are going to do after you have developed your prints. Personally I don't like the tonal scale of Pan F very much, even when it is an excelent film and lots of people enjoy using it.

So the advice i would like to give you for a first time film development: when intending to make prints on a condensor enlarger or scan them: slightly softer negatives are generally prevered, so use a time of say 9.30 for the Tri-X and 10 min. or 10.30 min for the TMY. When printing on a colour head: develop half a minute longer and then go from there.

What is the mystery you mentioned that you had three different processing times, but you are looking at the data sheets for three different films. Go with the times posted on the latest Alaris film data sheets, the formula for D-76 is almost 100 years old. And be sure to note there's old TMax 400, new TMax 400, old Tri-X and new Tri-x.

For an excellent comparison of how different films (including TMX and TMY) look in D-76 1+1, check out this Web site: