Question for 400TMY and 400TMY-2 shooters

[Sal Santamaura]

Is this true with others' experience?

I've a friend (professional landscape photographer in Colorado who started out as a physics PhD and systematically approaches these questions with precision/accuracy) whose word I trust completely. He reports that TMY and 400TMY (not necessarily TMY-2; insufficient long-term experience with that one yet) do not age well at all, even when kept in a freezer their entire storage lives.

The same friend indicated that 100TMX and 320TXP sheets age very well under those same conditions. It was based on his input that I decided to stockpile a large quantity of 320TXP over the last year, mostly 5x7 plus a bit of 8x10.

 

[Ryuji]

Sal, isn't that story interesting? It'd be nice to hear his words directly but back to Thomas Bertilsson for a moment, who said "400 speed Kodak film" which would include TX and 400TX. So, what's the story about these?

I thought 400TMY-2 would be a great film to leave in a point-and-shoot, shoot whatever you feel like and process when the roll is done, because you get both grain and speed. But I guess this is no longer so, until it’s proven that the film doesn’t deteriorate for years.

Now I compared the 400TMY in punctured foil bag (air+), and another roll of 400TMY in intact foil bag (air-). Fog level is higher in (air+) by about 0.1 density unit. Although it is not easy to compare because I didn’t expose step wedge, but by looking at the images, (air+) version had maybe 1 to 1.5 paper grade worth of contrast lower, and also with lower speed. Grain of (air+) is like Recording Film, whereas (air-) is still much worse than Delta 3200. Not only that, the image lacks resolution (worse in air-, but both bad), and a flat grey surface came out mottled. I mean all b&w film does that to some extent, especially fast one, but this is the worst I’ve seen.

If you miss the feel of old Recording Film, I have some for sale, but you could bake a brick of TMY and achieve very similar results. More genuine grain effects than any digital plugin. I actually should’ve exposed grey card out of focus, so that I could scan the neg to get real grain pattern. (Maybe I’ll do that with Recording Film.)

 

[Newt_on_Swings]

Doh... I just bought some old stock of 400 tmax circa '96 in 35mm. We'll see how that goes, after I finish a roll. It was very cheap so whatever.

 

[ic-racer]

Nope. What you are referring to is marked plain TMY. The mark 400TMY was introduced at the time of change in coating facility in 2002 or 2003. At that time, the development time and packaging changed, but the light sensitive emulsion did not.

Marking 400TMY-2 is given to the latest emulsion introduced in or around 2007.

Ok, I see. You are referring to what is printed on the film edge.

 

[Ryuji]

Doh... I just bought some old stock of 400 tmax circa '96 in 35mm. We'll see how that goes, after I finish a roll. It was very cheap so whatever.

Yeah, please report on this thread. This is going to be interesting.