TMY-2 @EI 800-1000, Best developer?

Greetings all,
Am going to be doing some wave studies with telephoto lenses on 120, and may need the higher EI's for reasonably fast shutter speeds and depth of field. For B&W I'm going to give TMY-2 a try. I'd appreciate any suggestions for developers and times, preferably at 75* F.
It will be really important to hold detail in the bright whites. Thanks.

Any standard b/w developer. If you see much difference between them without doing extensive testing, it would surprise me. Therefore, I would go for the one that is cheapest and easiest. Prob. Ilfotec HC (or Kodak HC-110), or Rodinal.

I have had very good results with DDX at 75F for 7:30 minutes. Also, Clayton F76+ works great for 7:00 - 8:00 minutes. That's at EI 800. In my experience TMY-2 is very responsive to agitation. My method is to agitate for 15-20 seconds at first and then 5 gentle inversions every minute. That works very well both for scanning and diffuser enlarger.

You're best off with a developer that gives 'full speed' and therefore is geared towards push processing.

I recommend Ilford DD-X. It's comes as a liquid concentrate and is very easy to use. Excellent results.
Clayton F76+ and TMAX developer are similar. TMAX RS is for replenishing, if you're going to run a big tank.

Kodak XTOL is excellent, but it only comes in powder form and you'll have to mix up 5 liter at a time.
I've developed TMY-2 400 @ 1600 in Diafine, with good results.

Harry,
I was considering trying Diafine as I have an unopened batch. The box suggests an EI of 640 for T-Max 400, although that's the old TMY. Do I need to alter the times, or stick with the 3 minutes in both A & B solutions?
Thanks to all for your input.

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TMAX developer is the best one for this in my experience. It gives the most shadow detail (even more than XTOL) and that's what you want when you are pushing. It is also best used at 75 degrees. I have had great results pushing TMY-2 and Tri-X with this developer using regular or semi-stand development.

Get the regular (non RS) version if using with roll film. Kodak gives directions for 1+4 but you can easily go to 1+7, 1+9 or even 1+15 depending on desired contrast and what kind of scene you are shooting in. I have found TMAX to be a very underrated developer.

Xtol straight; Diafine, maybe; T-Max should also do it. My times won't help you unless you're using my camera, meter, water, and Jobo.

I think you will get better results with Tmax, DD-X or XTOL. I've only done one roll in Diafine @ 1250, so I don't have a lot of experience with that combo.

surfotog said:

Greetings all,
Am going to be doing some wave studies with telephoto lenses on 120, and may need the higher EI's for reasonably fast shutter speeds and depth of field. For B&W I'm going to give TMY-2 a try. I'd appreciate any suggestions for developers and times, preferably at 75* F.
It will be really important to hold detail in the bright whites. Thanks.

Click to expand...

TMAX RS straight will produce ISO 800 pretty easily, test for 1000 and see how that works. I shot a bunch of TMY-2 120 at an EI of 800 this August and had good results with RS.