New TMY in Diafine?

My roomate has been talking up the new 400 TMax like you wouldn't believe, and I've seen some wonderful things out of it, so I'm not too inclined to argue.
However, he seems to keep around 400 for it, though he says it pushes well.

My main thing has been TriX in Diafine at about 1250.
Does anyone have any experience with how well diafine takes to the new TMY?
Or just how well it'd push up to that range, grain/shadow detail all that mess?

Diafine is not now nor ever been a push developer. Ever. And there is no way to predict what a film speed will be until you try it yourself. But TMY2 IS a wonderful film.

Shoot some TMY2 at various speeds, from 100 to 800, and pick the one you like best.

The new TMY, while measurably better than the older version, behaves similarly. I've tried the old TMY with Diafine a couple of times and wasn't terribly impressed. It just doesn't work as well as Tri-X when pushed that hard. The film is beautiful at box speed in nothing more fancy than D-76 or XTOL. At EI 800 in plain old D-76 1+1 or XTOL 1+1, results are better than I'd expected. Given a choice, I'd go with XTOL 1+1 for that. A two stop push to 1600 with reasonably good results is do-able in dilute XTOL.

For a 1 1/2 to 2 stop push, Tri-X is the best match up for Diafine, though I've had some pretty good success with the developer and other films. Foma 100 works nicely at box speed without any fuss and retains good highlight detail. Same goes for Foma 200, which is notorious for not reaching box speed in anything else I've tried.

Not blown away by 400TMY-2 in Diafine. Like you, I think 400TX is a better fit, and like you, I shoot it at 1000-1250. I think 400TMY-2 looks best in Xtol or D-76, either one diluted 1+1.

Here are two curves posted by Sandy King at HybridPhoto that might be good reference. Really handsome curves, fine performance, wonderful developer. NOT a push developer. I wouldn't hesitate taking TMY and Diafine around the world: great combo.

TriX

TMY


Sandy's posts:

http://www.hybridphoto.com/forums/showpost.php?p=6881&postcount=5
http://www.hybridphoto.com/forums/showpost.php?p=6900&postcount=6