Tmax100 speed and development tests in TmaxRS

[Donald Hutton]

I've pretty much standardized on Tmax 100 for B&W so thought I should go to the trouble of doing some detailed film speed and development tests. My process is: develop in a Jobo 3010 drum on a CPP2 processor (speed setting 4) in Tmax RS - used as 'One shot' and my starting point was Kodak's recommended 7 3/4 minutes at 20deg C (for rotary processing)... I followed the test procedures outlined by the late Barry Thornton on his website. My results indicate the following:

1. Actual film speed is very close to 100ISO 2. The film appears to be overdeveloped by about 30% at 7 3/4 minutes - this seems a long way off, given that the tested film speed, for once, seems very close to the stated speed.

Does anyone else have some experience with this film, developer and process combination and would like to share some of their findings?

[Tom Westbrook]

The usual recommendation for that film/developer/processor combination is to use TMax RS 1:9 @ 24C. I get an EI of 80 at 7 min with that set up. That's with a 5 min pre-rinse as Jobo rcommends. There's an article from John Sexton on Jobo's site that descibes the whole procedure: http://www.jobo-usa.com/jq/jq9403.htm#UPJS (the times are for the old film, so be sure to test things yourself.).

[Paul Butzi]

My times for TMX (the new version) in Tmax-RS 1+9, 24C -

N-2 5:15
N-1 6:15
N 7:30
N+1 9:30
N+2 12:00

-Paul

[Paul Butzi]

Whoops! I should mention, my times are for a Jobo 3010 drum, 5 minute prewet.

My normal development film speed is 64.

[ramin]

X-Tol at 1:3 for 17 minutes at 20°c tames down the highlights of TMX. 1:3 dilutions yields full ISO 100 speed but don’t expect more than 5 stops of effective dynamic range from this emulsion. I develop in a Combi plan T tank with inversion agitation method twice every minute. People have always talked about RS being a hard developer for this film so I never tried it.

Good luck

[George King]

I had very good luck developing TMax 100 in TMax RS in an arkay one-gallon tank line. When I tried the same combination in a Jobo I got the worst dichroic fog I have ever seen. My experience is that TMax RS likes a minimal amount of agitation, which is not what you get in a Jobo processor.

[Tom Westbrook]

I believe the dichroic fog problem was related to processing sheet films in plain Tmax developer, not TMax RS. That's why Kodak now recommends against developing sheet films with plain TMax. RS is the recommended substitute. I've gotten good results with RS in a Jobo, anyway, with never a hint of fog.

[d burdeny]

Im using TMax RS 1:9 @ 24C. I get an EI of 64 at 7 min. Jobo cpp2 and expert drum. 5 min presoak etc. I get great scans from them. BTW has anyone done Fuji Acros with RS in a Jobo?

[Paul Butzi]

Toyoguy-

Yes, I've done Acros in Tmax-RS in a Jobo 3010 drum. Development times are quite short at 75F/24C.

Full details at http://www.butzi.net/articles/tmxacros.htm