Do People Like the Older Versions of Tri-X 400 More?

[Philippe-Georges]

I also found it interesting that the film is classed as "Panchromatic Type C" which emphasizes yellow/orange, unlike Type B which is a closer match to human vision.

That's why, when I was a 'student' at Photo school so long ago, that we were told to put an yellow filter on [the lens] when shooting Tri-X in daylight and outdoors...
BTW, if you look in to the older Kodak Wratten Filter documentation, the Yellow filter is marked as to be used when shooting B&W outdoors.

At the time I schot Tri-X professional 320ASA in my Rolleiflex and process it in Microdol-X liquid.

PS: At the photo school we were forced to shoot Tri-X, as I was used to shoot AGFAPAN 400 (in Rodinal), this was a little discovery for me, those were the days...

 

[Lachlan Young]

Those papers seem to have disappeared when cadmium was banned from them and available base ended up being limited to one supplier.

It probably wasn't cadmium that saw them off (it seems to have relatively quietly gone in the 1970s (probably about the time of all the moaning about 'taking all the silver out' - which was total nonsense, but Cd played roles that could have a visual impact that might lead to those sorts of misleading opinions) - but it probably suited various interests that they played up that component vis-a-vis their competition - or that salesmen weren't always as clued-up on the finer chemical details of products as they could have been (or they were, but didn't remember properly)) but possibly lead salts that seem to have lurked in a great many warmtone papers (Portriga Rapid is potentially quite a likely case). What we now know is that the desired characteristics (i.e. crystal habit) of these materials can seemingly be achieved by modern emulsion controlled crystal growth technologies - but that it may simply have been the case that the economic feasibility of doing so was questionable. From what I understand, the UK paper mill that could make baryta bases in smaller quantities was bought out by Schoeller a long time ago & shut down for various reasons (not all of them clear, or particularly sensible in the long run - at least from the perspective of this point in time) - though it must be said, a great deal of textured baryta finishes were largely rather cheesy/ chintzy impersonations of fine mouldmade papers. From a perspective of archival stability, a pure linen rag base would be the best of all - and noticeably whiter than cotton rag - and at the level of purity obtainable, you don't need a baryta layer (historically, it was only there to physically separate the emulsion off a potentially non-optimal base material composition).