Opinions on TMAX ISO 100 Film?

[clayne]

That's not what I meant by it. Tmax does not have flat tonality, but its exposure:response relationship causes highlights to suddenly blow out at the end of the range -- exactly what digital does, and just as no curve will save a blown highlight, no paper can print detail that does not exist.

Yeah but highlights don't just blow out to nothing with analog materials. How hard are you burning them in?

 

[chriscrawfordphoto]

That's not what I meant by it. Tmax does not have flat tonality, but its exposure:response relationship causes highlights to suddenly blow out at the end of the range -- exactly what digital does, and just as no curve will save a blown highlight, no paper can print detail that does not exist.

Oh ok. I stopped getting that after a lot of experimenting early on when I finally got my developing tuned in for it. It was very frustrating at first...I nearly gave up but this was when I was in high school and worshipped fine grain so I persevered! LOL! When I finally got it to work while I was in art school, I discovered the film was actually really beautiful tonally too.

Tmax has a long straight line section that extends way beyond the normal highlight densities, which means it doesn't lose detail in very overexposed areas like other films...its in the film but is harder to get on the paper so it looks like its blowing out. I always reduce developing time in situations where something I want detail in will go beyond zone VII and I think that helps too. Tmax 100 has a far greater tonal range than digital. I've shot it for almost 20 years, almost always developed in Rodinal (which gives easier to print negs than Tmax Developer and in my opinion nicer tonality than D-76).

I've also shot a lot of digital, tried to go all digital several yrs ago then went back to film. Digital was hard to handle in some light because of the lack of tonal range compared to BW film, but was similar to working with color slides.

 

[Casey Kidwell]

Chris are you overexposing in addition to your underdevelopment or are you just working with thinner than average neg? Whatever you do, it's working for you.

 

[chriscrawfordphoto]

Chris are you overexposing in addition to your underdevelopment or are you just working with thinner than average neg? Whatever you do, it's working for you.

You have to give an extra stop of exposure to keep the shadows from losing detail when you pull the development. I reduce dev. time 30% and increase exposure one stop.

 

[Ian Grant]

You have to give an extra stop of exposure to keep the shadows from losing detail when you pull the development. I reduce dev. time 30% and increase exposure one stop.

John Sexton told us all that back in the 80's and Kodak were paying him

I still have some of his articles from Darkroom Techniques. Once you realise that Tmax 100 is really a 50 ISO film and treat it as such it's an eye opener, the film behaves wonderfully in all lighting, contrast scenarios, what ever you throw at it

The original Tmax data sheet said for Tonality use at 50 EI, tucked away in small print, I'll scan it in a week or so when I'm back in the UK, as Kodak seem to have hidden that data since the rise of the Internet !!!

Ian

 

[bblhed]

I am a lousy hack of a developer, and Tmax 100 works quite well for me unless I do something really really bad, and even then I was able to get nice images from it. The only time I ever had an actual problem was when I kinked the film while spooling it and got a "crescent moon" on my negative. As for scratches, the only scratches I have ever seen on my Tmax 100 were where the clip held the film to the spool at the core of the spool.

Ok, my my photos are crappy poorly composed and badly framed, but other than that the film reproduced my bad photography quite well.

 

[Gerald C Koch]

Be prepared that your fixer will exhaust much more quickly with the Tmax films due to their higher iodide contant. Keep track of the film clearing times.

Just my personal taste but I have never liked the results from these films. I describe them as being "fussy".

 

[bobwysiwyg]

I am a lousy hack of a developer, and Tmax 100 works quite well for me unless I do something really really bad, and even then I was able to get nice images from it. The only time I ever had an actual problem was when I kinked the film while spooling it and got a "crescent moon" on my negative. As for scratches, the only scratches I have ever seen on my Tmax 100 were where the clip held the film to the spool at the core of the spool.

Ok, my my photos are crappy poorly composed and badly framed, but other than that the film reproduced my bad photography quite well.

Ha, ha, we're two peas in a pod.