tmax rs and huge grain

TMAX400 developed at 24C degrees (75 F) with ISO 800/1600 - times are what kodak recommends and agitation 5sec. every half minutes. I am not happy with the results when we look at the grain...it is huge!. Particularily in ISO1600 the grain is pretty huge and awful. Same goes for TMAX3200 @ISO3200 - the grain is absolutely huge. What would you do to try make the grain little smaller/nicer? Dilute and increase time? Different temperature? Different agitation?

I am going to test rodinal for push processing but since kodak tells that tmax rs is designed for normal- and push-processing I want to use that also (well, the main reason is that I have many bottless of ready mixed solution...).

Well, Tmax RS has served me well. Maybe your expectations are too high, a 2 stop push is a 2 stop push, and TMax400 isnt THAT fine grained.

Rodinal will probably just make it even worse, since it is not a fine grain developer.

My sugestion would be to use a more appropriate film if you want finer grain.

For years I used Ilford's XP-2 (and previously XP-1) processed in C41 chemistry push processed to 1600 & 3200 ISO, far finer grain and far better control of contrast.

Here's an image made under quite difficult lighting:


Ian

I'm not a big fan of TMY (TMax 400), preferring to use Tri-X in most situations. Neither of these two films is terribly fine grained, though I prefer the look of Tri-X over TMY. Still, I do keep some TMY around for low contrast, low light photography because the resulting prints have a bit more snap to them when printed through a close to normal VC filter. Otherwise Diafine with Tri-X at EI 1250 does just fine. TMX is a different animal and I think a much nicer product. It is slow at ISO 100 and therefore doesn't give you what you need.

Rodinal is probably not the best chocie for this film. It will do nothing to minimize apparent grain and even worse in your situation, will deliver a net speed loss over a more modern developer. Extending development in an attempt to wring more speed from the film will only get you more apparent grain and more contrast. That's ok if that's what you want, but your initial question indicates otherwise. I have tried TMY with D-76, TMax developer (not the RS version, though the two are quite similar,) and XTOL. Best results to date have been with XTOL 1+3 with agitation for about 5 seconds each minute for around 17 minutes at 20 deg C.

For good overall balanced results try:

Xtol
DDX

I get a natural ei 500-640 from HP5 plus in DDX witth no effort and no push