Tmax 400 in Perceptol or Tmax 100 in Xtol?

[A49]

In the darkroom cookbook they say it´s better to take a film with less speed and a developer which exploits (or slighly increases) the speed than take a higher speed film with a real fine(est) grain developer which decreases the speed.

I wonder if that is true with the exceptional fine grained Tmax 400 in comparison to its 100 ISO analogue. Has anyone tried a comparison? I think especially interesting would be Tmax 100 in Xtol, because of the fine grain and the speed gain of about 2/3 stop. And for the Tmax 400 I one could consider Perceptol (or something other from the especially fine grain department) that decreases the speed for about 1 stop, so that both films should have nearly the same resulting speed.

But which one would provide the better overall picture quality in terms of grain, sharpness and tonality? For any thoughts and experiences I would be grateful.

Best,
Andreas

 

[BetterSense]

I think TMAX 400 in perceptol would still be at least a stop faster than TMAX 100 in Xtol.

 

[clayne]

You won't get 2/3 more stops out of xtol with any film. It's a great developer but its not adding speed. However it isn't losing speed either.

 

[Bruce Watson]

I use XTOL 1:3 and 1:1 on both Tmax films in 5x4. I get box speed out of both. Nice looking well defined grain structure out of both (if you have a loupe strong enough to see it).

That said, I stopped using the slower film altogether. Didn't need it. TMY-2 is just too darn good. I'll gladly trade the slight increase in graininess for the extra speed. At a 10x enlargement (that's nearly a 50 x 40 inch print for me) it's difficult if not impossible to tell the difference between the two films.

If you're shooting smaller formats, and therefore enlarging even more, the decreased graininess of the slower film might be worth it to you. IDK.

 

[Ian Grant]

Tmax 100 in Xtol is a better combination for 35mm, although you'll get a stop more speed from Tmax 400 in Perceptol at FS, but dilute the Perceptol 1+2 and you get better slightly speed and significantly better sharpness.

Ian

 

[A49]

If you're shooting smaller formats, and therefore enlarging even more, the decreased graininess of the slower film might be worth it to you. IDK.

My question ment smaller formats like 35mm and MF and shooting handheld. In 5x7 inch I shoot very slow Ortho film and therefore I can choose the developer with only tonality and dosing of edge effects in mind. Meanwhile I found out that both Tmaxes are really almost identical in grain and should also be in sharpness (both said to resolve 200 lp/mm at high contrast).

Thank you for your thoughts. I understood that it is no important question which Tmax I take when considering image quality. The developer question is more interesting because of the different levels of grain and sharpness and the kind of tonality they produce. If I want to use Perceptol Stock I should take Tmax 400 to compensate the speed loss.

Another question came to mind now. Which developer as a stock solution, Perceptol or Xtol produces the finer grain with Tmax400?

I confused something with the speed gain of Xtol. Surely you won´t get 2/3 stop more, but at least box speed or sometimes slightly more (1/3 stop).

Best,
Andreas

 

[Bruce Watson]

I confused something with the speed gain of Xtol. Surely you won´t get 2/3 stop more, but at least box speed or sometimes slightly more (1/3 stop).

As I said before, I get box speed with XTOL and Tmax films.

 

[RobertV]

About Ultra Fine Grain developers:

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

Interesting for iso 100 films and less in 35mm.