Thoughts on TXP (not TX) at 1250?

My son has his preschool graduation in a couple of days, and my wife suggested that I should spend the occasion annoying people by running around with a Speed Graphic. It's probably a good idea---certainly it's right in my areas of expertise.

Thing is, the only 4x5 film I have in hand is TXP, a film with which I'm not especially familiar. The room isn't especially bright; I'll drop by and meter tomorrow, but I'm guessing I might have to go to EI 1250 or so to be able to handhold. PC-TEA seems likely to be my best developing option (the MDC has an appropriate time for Xtol 1+2, which normally is interchangeable with PC-TEA). I have Diafine, but two baths in trays sounds like a pain. Or I could mix up a batch of Donald Qualls's "Super Soup" if I need a really extreme push; if I remember aright he got something like EI 5000 with TXP, but I don't know what the results looked like.

Well, this isn't a mission-critical event, just something I'm shooting for fun. (I'm old enough to be one of those "Who ever heard of a preschool graduation?" people.) So I don't mind doing some experimenting, but I'm curious if anyone has done this push or something similar with TXP before and can share any results or advice.

-NT

I pushed some TXP to 3200 with hc100 1:100dil and stand development 2.5 hours with 1hr agitation. It worked well for some shots and not so well on other... Now I want to shoot some more See my pics, "James" and "Ri"

Should work, but why not just pick up box of TMY400 instead? TXP can be finicky and I wouldn't want you to waste it. You might even consider just shooting medium format as preschool graduation may not warrant breaking out 4x5 film.

I don't like the taste of t-grain much. If I had my choice I'd do this on TX400, but now that they only make it in miniature formats...

Jaybob, I appreciate the images---those look pretty darn good, and it makes me want to revisit stand dilution with HC-110. (I tried it once with TX and the results were interesting, but technically far inferior to a conventional push; there are so many variables in these things, though.) I'm curious: What were the problems with the shots that didn't work so well? Empty shadows, blown highlights, both?

My big concern would be not enough highlight compensation, I guess; the boomerang curve of TXP suggests that pulling extra information out of the shadows might end up overdeveloping the highlights. Which does suggest two baths or stand development, doesn't it? Maybe I'll do some experiments tonight.

-NT

The Ri shot came out nice, James was thinner than I expected. Another shot I got was this one http://www.flickr.com/photos/jason_madsen/6791526690/ I got some strange emulsion marks, I don't know where from. I was shooting an open box I got form someone. Haven't done a stand since I shot these... I need to shoot more...

In Kodak´s Tri-X publication they list developing times for TXP 320 in Xtol at 1250 ISO , both as roll and sheet film. Look at pages 7 and 8 in the enclosed file.
Good luck !

Karl-Gustaf

http://wwwse.kodak.com/global/en/professional/support/techPubs/f4017/f4017.pdf

Bring a flash and shoot TXP at box speed or slower is how I'd handle it. I don't generally like the results of pushing a film.