I've used Tmax 400 (4x5) and thought it was a horrible film. I was sort of desperate at the time, and wanted to buy some B&W film, but the local photo place only had 400. I found it to be washed out and not very contrasty...as well as very grainy
Emre, TMax 400 certainly poses challenges, but it's also capable of producing excellent results if handled properly. What you've reported sounds to me like the consequence of exposure and/or processing error, not some problem with the film itself.
Emre,
I've shot 400 Tmax in 120, (my budget doesn't currently permit it in 4x5), and found it behaves very nicely in XTol 1:1, per the massive dev chart times. Your local shop probably just treated it wrong. You should just get a tank, (or a dark closet in which you can set up trays), and do it yourself. I have some cityscapes with very nice tonality from it, so it works for at least one person.
Unfortunately, black and white is one of those, "If you want it done right..." mediums. The good part is that it's not hard, and can be quite relaxing.
> Sad part is, I was so desperate that I bought a 50 sheet pack (because that's all they had). Now I have about 46 sheets left that I will probably never use
I would not give up too soon. Learn to develope yourself. Been a while since i have seen good B&W processing at a commercial lab. Not saying it isn't done (somewhere), but just haven't seen it much.
Another thing- Tmax film, believe it or not, the best devloper for it is not Tmax or Xtol developers, but plain old D-76. Pay close attention to both aggitation and temperature - almost like you are developing colour film - and you'll get good results out of it.
joe
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I've found T-max 100 in D76 1:1 to be a good combination.
T-max 100 has better reciprocity characteristics than Delta 100, but the best is Acros.
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