TMAX is not dead.
TMAX is not dead.
I have been using Efke100 for a while. I do like Efke25 a lot better but my speed graphic sucks at slow speeds. Since I am broke I bought a box of Foma100 on friday. Will see how it goes.
I shoot a lot of foma 100 from 35mm to 8x10, is supercheap here in Europe and I like the results developed in Pyrocat-mc and 510-pyro. It has a bad reciprocity effect, but I never had any other issue.
Filippo
I really like the combination of Aristafied Fomapan 100 and Fomabrom N111 paper. Film is like playing the saxophone: put the time in to learn it and get outstanding results or don't take the effort and it comes out lousy. Either way its 95% photographer and 5% materials. Ilford has much better reciprocity rates than Fomapan 100 so I don't see Fomapan as being a replacement for Ilford, but rather another tool in my kit--a very useful & affordable (at the Aristafied price) tool!
TMY? TXP? Those are sentimental favorites but beware! Sentimentality can be very, very corrosive!
"I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority"---EB White
For 8x10 and 4x5, I use about 80% tmy2 and 20% (arista) fomapan 100.
Kodak tmy2 is amazing. Never a fault. Always perfect. Big brightness range, versatile developing, etc... I have used the film for 20+ years and have gotten to know it, so I think it's the film that's awesome more than me. But you do need to work with a film for a while to get comfortable with it. You can get tmax 400 at B&H right now in 8x10 or send money to Canham and wait.
Foma is capable of excellent images under certain conditions and is cheaper. It's also more prone to scratches and pinholes (which I have finally got a handle on with tf4 fixer), and as mentioned not so great for long exposures, but I don't do much of that. It's a fun film, but I don't have the faith in it's quality that I have with Kodak.
One can learn to deal with bad reciprocity, but how does one learn to deal with manufacturing defects? I suppose one could just learn to prefer defective materials, and then the defects become "attributes", or "character".
My preference for Kodak and TMY-2 might be sentimental -- I do feel very warm knowing the film will be the size and speed that's printed on the box, that the film in this box will be functionally identical to that in the last box and the next box, that there will be no manufacturing defects of any kind, and that the imaging characteristics are simply unmatched by any other film. My god, I'm getting misty.
here, have a hanker, chief!
through a glass darkly...
canham has the 400 kodak film at 88 buckaroonies a box
bh photo has tmy 2 at 73 buckaroonies
fomapan is for me now $225au for 50 sheets, so 45 a box of ten. so about half price of the kodak 400, guess ill be cracken this box wide open...
thank you for lending your learned ears.
i will, work towards deserving some kodak
through a glass darkly...
Very well put, I totally can relate to that statement. I've been playing around with cheap film recently and was very disappointed. If I put hours of work into creating an image, I don't want to see this endeavour to be jeopardised by defective film. How much is your time worth in comparison to a box of film? With Kodak, Ilford, Fuji, Agfa (deceased) I never had an issue ever. Can't say that about any other producer, unfortunately. The cheap films are great for playing and fooling around, but for serious work you always take a risk. I love the look of efke/Adox because it's quite unique. But I'm desperately awaiting a pro version of those films which come with a guaranty of no defects and consistent quality. It's only a question of QC and if the manufacturers would enforce the same quality standards as, say, Kodak, they would be nearly as expensive. So there's the catch: As long as we are willing to put up with defective film if it's cheap, there won't be much pressure to improve quality. Scanning and PS seems to dig the grave for quality film.
I only can hope that the dinosaurs like Kodak, Ilford, Fuji will stick around some more to provide us with quality materials. I don't want to be forced to go back to collodion (though it certainly is fun to play with it)
Peter
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