Rick Koo
27-Jul-1999, 05:20
Tapping the collective wisdom of the large format world....
Ansel Adams comments several times in The Negative that contemporary, thin emuls ion films lend themselves easily neither to heavy expansion/contraction, nor to contrast control processes that rely on developer absorbtion into a thick emulsi on (e.g., water bath, two soln. development). So, what currently available film and developer combinations can you vouch for going to true N+-2, 3, or 4 (as op posed to a situation where the change in slope isn't pronounced, and you're esse ntially pushing the whole characteristic curve up/left)? Is it common to vary de veloper concentration, holding time constant, to get there? Call it impatience, but I don't particularly look forward to standing in a pitch black room for 20+ minutes(!)
I've heard many good and bad things about T-MAX, depending on whether you call i ts behavior "sensitive to zone system controls," to paraphrase Kodak's technical literature, or simply erratic and difficult to make consistent, as others have regarding its development time/temp/technique sensitivity. I'd be particularly i nterested in responses from past or current users of TMX and TMY. Any opionions on Tri-X Pan Professional? And out of curiosity, is the TXT that's currently ava ilable even the same formulation that Ansel used?
Thanks for your help,
Rick
Ansel Adams comments several times in The Negative that contemporary, thin emuls ion films lend themselves easily neither to heavy expansion/contraction, nor to contrast control processes that rely on developer absorbtion into a thick emulsi on (e.g., water bath, two soln. development). So, what currently available film and developer combinations can you vouch for going to true N+-2, 3, or 4 (as op posed to a situation where the change in slope isn't pronounced, and you're esse ntially pushing the whole characteristic curve up/left)? Is it common to vary de veloper concentration, holding time constant, to get there? Call it impatience, but I don't particularly look forward to standing in a pitch black room for 20+ minutes(!)
I've heard many good and bad things about T-MAX, depending on whether you call i ts behavior "sensitive to zone system controls," to paraphrase Kodak's technical literature, or simply erratic and difficult to make consistent, as others have regarding its development time/temp/technique sensitivity. I'd be particularly i nterested in responses from past or current users of TMX and TMY. Any opionions on Tri-X Pan Professional? And out of curiosity, is the TXT that's currently ava ilable even the same formulation that Ansel used?
Thanks for your help,
Rick