This is where I'm at. And I don't even fully understand why, which is frustrating. But when I see TMax in particular, even before I tweak anything in post, I LIKE it more than I like other black and white shots. Even ektar is more flexible for posting into b&w, with more tonal range and the possibility of pulling different color channels out. But that TMax just comes out looking "correct" for my brain. I still get giddy when I've decided to shoot a roll of it.
Hi Kyle: I just want to make sure you and everyone else understands that my reaction to Tmax 100 is just that --
my reaction. The result are OK, but I find it really finicky, and since I can get what I want from acros 100 with a lot less darkroom gymnastics, that is how I'll go. I speak only for myself and realize that for many others the film is the answer to their prayers, so to speak. The 400 was easier to deal with for me, and I found it less susceptible to blocked highlights.
All of this applies to scanning the films. I'll put my past negative darkroom experience of them aside and give some wet prints a shot. If the TMY works as well in the darkroom as it scans, it will become my fast black and white film. I liked the scan results.
In the darkroom, I always thought the T-grain technology went too quickly to blocked highlights. The price for the fine grain is a very tight silver pattern that can pass light with difficulty in higher zones. At least that was my experience ages ago. Mark's results with TMY have me taking a second look, and though my evaluation of the films won't be complete until I get my supplies next week and can get into the darkroom, my initial response, based on scans, is that the 400 may be very useful to me, with a beautiful tonal scale. I'm less sanquine about the100, which I exposed and developed according to Kodak's recommendations. My scanner, at least, does not penetrate bright highlights that should still be holding detail. Presumably lowering development times will help, but I am already agitating on the minute - my standard and successful procedure for decades) rather than every 30 seconds. The negative
looks great, but areas without, really, all that much density, don't allow the light from the scanner through, resulting in base white highlights, which I find ugly unless for a small specular detail.
So we'll see. Right now I have acros ordered for my 100. I already know how to work with it, and know it gives me what i want. Given my previous experiences with tmax, I'm unwilling to spend a lot of time lab testing. The 400, though, is so far a revelation, so it's not a matter of an old dog being unwilling to learn new tricks, just of an old dog being unwilling to spend a lot of time trying to learn a trick he didn't get the first time.
….nothing like film for B&W period!
I like how you think mate…especially when it gets my old grey matter going too.
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