TMX in 8x10 -- what to do with it?

A big box came with a camera purchase a couple years ago and I'm finally sick of looking at it on my shelf, so I'm wondering how to use it for contact prints. Any recommendations for different processing techniques? I'm willing to experiment, obviously, but if there's some well known technique for which the film in this size is absolute gold, I'd like to find out about it before I blow through it all.

The camera also came with tons of outdated Ektachrome, Vericolor, etc... which I'm really excited about. I'm going to let it age a bit longer at unreasonable temps and then buy my first color kits with the hope of getting weird results (pretty much guaranteed even with fresh film!).

My favorite developer has always been Rodinal. I did a fair amount of testing with TMAX and Rodinal when TMAX first came out and found that it was not a good combination - very undeven curves when I plotted them. So, since there was such a good selection of other films, I stayed away from TMAX.

Now, I am going to try the AZO\Pyro\Amidol approach and I understand from the resident expert on thesee forums (Sandy King) that TMAX is a good film with the developer Pyrocat HD, which can be bought in LIQUID form from Photographers Formulary (I don't know about B&S or ArtCraft). He says it has a low film base+fog and that it responds well to expansion\contraction and stains very well. So, if you want to try a developer, you might consider this in convenient liquid form. The other good developer that I've heard of is Kodak's TMAX RS developer.

Have fun.

-Mike

Thanks, Mike. I just mixed some fresh HD and that's definitely something I'll try.

I struggled with TMX for over a year when I first got into photography, reading the oft quoted advice to pick one film and stick with it for a good while. It took a long time to realize I just didn't like the stuff. But there's got to be a route I can take to make it work.

I have found 100 TMX to be very unforgiving in both the highlights and shadows. I much prefer 400 TMY to 100 TMX. Kodak 400 TMY is lovely in Pyrocat-HD.

That said, I produced some good 100 TMX negatives this last weekend, semi-stand developing them in Ansco 130 diluted 1:20 (as a 1 shot).

Tom,

What time and agitation did you use for the 130 semi-stand technique?

26 minutes at 71 deg F. I initially agitated gently for 20 seconds, then gently agitated for 10 seconds at the 13 minute point. No stop bath, water rinse instead. Fixed in TF-4 and washed.

If the red dye does not all wash out, soak the film for 5 minutes in 1 liter of water with 2 heaping tablespoons of sodium sulfite added, then wash.

Thanks for the details, Jim. Will give it a shot.

EI 80 in D-76 (1+1), 68 deg. F., in trays shuffling through the stack every 30 sec., targeted for Azo.

N-2, 8 min. (you might increase exposure a half stop to support the shadows)
N-1, 11.5 min.
N, 13.5 min.
N+1, 16 min.
N+2, 20 min.

This is old TMX. I haven't tried the stuff from the new factory, since I've been shooting mostly Tri-X lately. I usually choose TMX over Tri-X for scenes that have a wider brightness range. If you are printing on enlarging paper, just back it off one zone in contrast, so my N-1 time for Azo, would become the N time for enlarging paper, etc.