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- Jun 16, 2005
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One trade off was the speed of TMX. The first specification was for a family of speeds 200, 400, and 1000 speed films. These speed points corresponded to the consumer color negative films of the 1980's. We made a series of coatings that varied the grain size and consequently the speed of the 200 speed film. I liked the fine grain of the slower films in the series. 100 was much faster than Panatomic-X EI 32. With 100 speed t-grains the grain was finer than Panatomic X and the MTF was better. So we changed the goal and worked on making the film 100 speed. It took some additional work but it proved to be worthwhile. Many give-and-take decisions are made in film design.
I occasionally see comments that Panatomic-X is missed but in a side by side comparison I still feel that TMX is a better film. I still have the prints from a Pan-X and TMX experimental film comparison set that I made in the early 1980s. In an ideal world film manufacturers would still make the old films from days gone-by. But the manufacturers have to minimize the number of films in the product line. In nearly all product lines there is a conflict between marketing and manufacturing. Marketing would like a customized product for each class of user. Manufacturing would like one product for all customers. This conflict is no unique to photography. Food products have the same dilemma.
www.makingKODAKfilm.com
Bob Shanebrook
I occasionally see comments that Panatomic-X is missed but in a side by side comparison I still feel that TMX is a better film. I still have the prints from a Pan-X and TMX experimental film comparison set that I made in the early 1980s. In an ideal world film manufacturers would still make the old films from days gone-by. But the manufacturers have to minimize the number of films in the product line. In nearly all product lines there is a conflict between marketing and manufacturing. Marketing would like a customized product for each class of user. Manufacturing would like one product for all customers. This conflict is no unique to photography. Food products have the same dilemma.
www.makingKODAKfilm.com
Bob Shanebrook
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