Tmax 100 vs 400?

I'm currently trying out various bw films and am quite pleased with tmax film. I've been using D76 1:1. I found the 400 seems to develop more reliably, although that could be just chance..

The 400 doesn't seem that far off the 100 in terms of sharpness, grain eye..

How do you find these two compare to one another?

Are there other similar films from other manufacturers?

Similar films would be for example Ilfords Delta 100/400/3200 or Foma Creative 200 - all T- or cubic grain films. But obviously the 3200 is a bit more grainy than the 400 film ...

In reply to your question, I find that the Tmax 400 gives me better options when being lazy and trying to photograph in gloom without a tripod, compared to the 100.

i like TMY-400. It works great for me in tmax developer.

The Tmax 100 is so fine grained that photos shot with it sometimes appear to have less sharpness, when instead they just have increased fine resolution.

In some Kodak developers, the two films have the same suggested developing time, which can be really convenient.

Personally, I think TMY-2 is the finest black and white film made:

TMY-2 in HC110 dil E (replenished), from a 6x6 negative (Mamiya C330, 65mm lens).

I generally use Tmax 400 as my go to film in HC110 (dilution H) and D76 1:1. I stopped using Tmax 100 because, as MattKing says, the grain is so fine that it doesn't appear as sharp as other films. It always looked kind of mushy to me, so now I only use Tmax 400.

tomfrh said:

I'm currently trying out various bw films and am quite pleased with tmax film. I've been using D76 1:1. I found the 400 seems to develop more reliably, although that could be just chance..

The 400 doesn't seem that far off the 100 in terms of sharpness, grain eye..

How do you find these two compare to one another?

Are there other similar films from other manufacturers?

Click to expand...

similar to your experience,I findtmax400 a bit more behaved and very fine grained(at least in MF)but both films are great.

Every one always fawned over tri x and neopan... Tmy 2 just gives you clean images every time - love it with portraits too

I noticed that your profile lists you as a medium format shooter. Just as a possible warning, some people had recently had issues with paper backing text being transferred/imprinted/shadowed onto their images with TMAX400 in 120 format. It may have been an intermittent issue or isolated batches or it may have been resolved, I don't know. If you haven't noticed it, perhaps it's no longer a problem.

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

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Thanks for the tip regarding tmx 400 120. This is becoming my film of choice so I will keep an eye out for the issue.

definitely TMAX 400, from my favorite films in B&W this TMY coming as first for ISO 400 second as favorite after Acros 100 as general, i think it is the first film in 120 i started with too, and i tested it with 4 developers [TMAX, D-76, Ilfosol 3 and HC-110] and i always get great results, i printed one frame from TMY film in a darkroom of an institute i took a workshop at and the print came out amazingly incredible sharp and clean, and the tones are blowing mind, and i didn't use this film so much for long time and i am not an expert, so i can comfortably recommend TMY over TMAX 100 anytime.

I uploaded 5 images in my gallery here, as you can see all the images are from TMY, and i can't remember which developer but i think that time the only developers i had were TMAX and Ilfosol 3, i have much more images from TMY, but i think what i posted are the best so far.