Kodak Tmax 400 in Tmax Dev vs. Ilford Delta 400 in DDX

mexipike · Jun 16, 2018

I´ve searched all through here and elsewhere and have found plenty of info about Ilford 400 vs Kodak Tmax, however I just wanted to dial down a bit on my specific needs and also, I believe some of the posts were before TMY-2.

I’ve recently unloaded my Leica Monochrom and I’m going back to film for a bit. I’ll mostly be using my Mamiya 7ii with some work in 35mm.

My darkroom access is either at home, in a community darkroom or at my school (CALARTS). As such, I don’t have the means to mix/store a chemical like Xtol or D76. For this reason I have narrowed down to DDX or Tmax developer both with their respective brand film. I’m open to suggestions however.

Things that I want in my images are: Sharpness, (is Tmax really sharper?) nice shadow detail, and ability to capture a full dynamic range at close to box speed. I’m sure both of these films can provide this, I just wanted to hear some opinions. I have been testing a bit and it seems that, from contact sheets, maybe the Tmax pops just a bit more. Any thoughts? I’d like to stock up and just stick to one or the other for a while. My Tmax negs also dried flatter, however, my Delta had sat a while after shooting so maybe curled more then.

One other thing is that I use Delta 3200 some and really love it in DDX so I do always keep some on hand. I also have Clayton F76 available to me for free at my school, however, I haven’t fallen in love with it yet.

What are your thoughts? I’m open to any and all suggestions and I understand that I have to fully test to dial in what I like but it’s always nice to hear others experiences.

pentaxuser · Jun 16, 2018

The final product is the print. I'd be surprised if enough people can tell the difference between prints in TMY-2 in TMax developer and the same prints of the same scene in the same light in D400 and DDX - to a statistically significant degree. Both good films and developers although I have no experience of TMY-2 in TMax developer. My thoughts are: Whatever meets your overall needs. If it were I and had only access to one developer but used D3200 as well, the balance might tip towards D400 and DDX

pentaxuser

Lachlan Young · Jun 16, 2018

mexipike said:
I´ve searched all through here and elsewhere and have found plenty of info about Ilford 400 vs Kodak Tmax, however I just wanted to dial down a bit on my specific needs and also, I believe some of the posts were before TMY-2.

I’ve recently unloaded my Leica Monochrom and I’m going back to film for a bit. I’ll mostly be using my Mamiya 7ii with some work in 35mm.

My darkroom access is either at home, in a community darkroom or at my school (CALARTS). As such, I don’t have the means to mix/store a chemical like Xtol or D76. For this reason I have narrowed down to DDX or Tmax developer both with their respective brand film. I’m open to suggestions however.

Things that I want in my images are: Sharpness, (is Tmax really sharper?) nice shadow detail, and ability to capture a full dynamic range at close to box speed. I’m sure both of these films can provide this, I just wanted to hear some opinions. I have been testing a bit and it seems that, from contact sheets, maybe the Tmax pops just a bit more. Any thoughts? I’d like to stock up and just stick to one or the other for a while. My Tmax negs also dried flatter, however, my Delta had sat a while after shooting so maybe curled more then.

One other thing is that I use Delta 3200 some and really love it in DDX so I do always keep some on hand. I also have Clayton F76 available to me for free at my school, however, I haven’t fallen in love with it yet.

What are your thoughts? I’m open to any and all suggestions and I understand that I have to fully test to dial in what I like but it’s always nice to hear others experiences.

First things first: have you tried the TMAX in DD-X & the Delta in the TMAX developer? If not, why not? Did you compensate for the difference between Ilford's recommended G-Bar/ contrast index (0.62) and Kodak's (0.56)? You might find that following Ilford's recommended times for rating Delta 400 at 200 give you better negatives - they even give times for both TMAX developer & DD-X.

Most of the time I find 'comparisons' of film & developers to be utterly worthless because of a lack of simple process controls or basic processing competence. A lot of the time those gross errors will hide the real differences (or lack thereof) between films & film/ developer combinations. I don't have problems getting either Ilford or Kodak films to dry flat - mostly a question of using the correct clips to hang the film up & drying at a sensible temperature.

I like both of the films, but they do have somewhat different curves & TMY-II is definitely the higher resolving with less grain. I tend to follow Ilford's EI200 times for Delta 400 & get readily printable negatives - I normally use ID-11 1+1, but no reason why you shouldn't use DD-X or TMAX dev.

RattyMouse · Jun 17, 2018

mexipike said:
I´ve searched all through here and elsewhere and have found plenty of info about Ilford 400 vs Kodak Tmax, however I just wanted to dial down a bit on my specific needs and also, I believe some of the posts were before TMY-2.

I’ve recently unloaded my Leica Monochrom and I’m going back to film for a bit. I’ll mostly be using my Mamiya 7ii with some work in 35mm.

My darkroom access is either at home, in a community darkroom or at my school (CALARTS). As such, I don’t have the means to mix/store a chemical like Xtol or D76. For this reason I have narrowed down to DDX or Tmax developer both with their respective brand film. I’m open to suggestions however.

Things that I want in my images are: Sharpness, (is Tmax really sharper?) nice shadow detail, and ability to capture a full dynamic range at close to box speed. I’m sure both of these films can provide this, I just wanted to hear some opinions. I have been testing a bit and it seems that, from contact sheets, maybe the Tmax pops just a bit more. Any thoughts? I’d like to stock up and just stick to one or the other for a while. My Tmax negs also dried flatter, however, my Delta had sat a while after shooting so maybe curled more then.

One other thing is that I use Delta 3200 some and really love it in DDX so I do always keep some on hand. I also have Clayton F76 available to me for free at my school, however, I haven’t fallen in love with it yet.

What are your thoughts? I’m open to any and all suggestions and I understand that I have to fully test to dial in what I like but it’s always nice to hear others experiences.

For 5 years I used DD-X exclusively with TMAX400 and Delta 3200. The results are outstanding. I never had any complaints at all. Because of this, I never tried the TMAX developer. I would highly recommend DD-X on any film. It's a great developer, especially for high speed film.

Jim Blomfield · Jun 17, 2018

I had always used Tmax 400 with T-Max developer. Then I switched to DDX when T-Max developer was unavailable, but I still used Tmax 400 film. Once development times were adjusted, I noticed no difference in the negatives or their printabiljty.

mexipike · Jun 17, 2018

RattyMouse said:
For 5 years I used DD-X exclusively with TMAX400 and Delta 3200. The results are outstanding. I never had any complaints at all. Because of this, I never tried the TMAX developer. I would highly recommend DD-X on any film. It's a great developer, especially for high speed film.

Jim Blomfield said:
I had always used Tmax 400 with T-Max developer. Then I switched to DDX when T-Max developer was unavailable, but I still used Tmax 400 film. Once development times were adjusted, I noticed no difference in the negatives or their printabiljty.

To those who are using TMAX in DDX- Do you find that TMAX has an edge over the Delta?

RattyMouse · Jun 17, 2018

mexipike said:
To those who are using TMAX in DDX- Do you find that TMAX has an edge over the Delta?

I used Delta 3200 when I needed ISO1000 or greater. I would never use TMAX400 at anything higher than ISO800.

Lachlan Young · Jun 18, 2018

mexipike said:
To those who are using TMAX in DDX- Do you find that TMAX has an edge over the Delta?

Define 'better' - otherwise it's like claiming Jazz is superior to Blues (or your choice of specious comparison).

Sal Santamaura · Jun 19, 2018

Lachlan Young said:
...it's like claiming Jazz is superior to Blues...

Of course jazz is. That's not even a contest.

mexipike · Jun 27, 2018

RattyMouse said:
I used Delta 3200 when I needed ISO1000 or greater. I would never use TMAX400 at anything higher than ISO800.

I was more referring to is there a reason that you would like TMAX 400 (@box speed) vs Ilford Delta 400 (@box speed) in DDX? Do you favor one or the other of those two.

warden · Jun 27, 2018

Having used both films with both developers, I see nothing between them once enlargers and paper are involved. Even photo nerds would have a hard time telling what film you used on a print, and it would be impossible to tell what developer you used.

Kodak Tmax 400 in Tmax Dev vs. Ilford Delta 400 in DDX

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