O, Tmax RS, Where art thou?

[John Kasaian]

I've got a box of TMY in the freezer next to the lahmajoons and the mahi mahi filets. It is my favorite film for night photography and I've always souped it in Tmax RS with great results. The last batch I souped in D-76 and it still looked pretty good. My problem is Tmax RS is hard to find in my town. Well, impossible. None of the shops stock the stuff. It isn't even in the Freestyle catalog. I'm pretty sure it hasn't been discontinued (though I wouldn't be surprised, being Kodak and all....) My problem is that I haven;t experimented with TMY in other developers except for that once with D-76 and that really isn't enough to draw any conclusions from. So for all you TMY shooters: Is Tmax RS the optimal dev for getting the most out of TMY, or are there others out there that do as well? I'm not interested in staining here, I just want the best results in regards to TMY's excellent reciprocity characteristics---or does the developer not have an effect on results when pushing the reciprocity envelope?

[Mark Sampson]

TMax RS is still listed on the Kodak website. I don't know who's retailing it, though. But since D-76 is the de facto world standard, it should follow that EK made sure that TMY would work well in it.... I don't use TMY, so that last is pure speculation; but I'd try D-76 1:1 and see what happens. I'd just avoid HC-110 and TMY, based on tests made long ago.

[Terence McDonagh]

Can't help with your main question, but B&H shows the powder TMAX RS in stock, but not the liquid.

[BradS]

I've always liked TMY in HC-110 dil. D (1+39) very, very much. D-76 is also very good - actually, hard to go wrong with TMY and D-76.

Here's an example of TMY in HC-110....

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/41/112172617_1946a74bf6_o.jpg

[David Karp]

John,

I recall (I hope I am not mistaken) that John Sexton told us at a workshop that Kodak designed TMX and TMY for optimal image quality in D76. Which, as mentioned above, makes sense since D76 has been the defacto standard. Never tried it with TMY myself.

[Pat Kearns]

I've bought Tmax RS from B&H. My last order from them was within the last year.

[Arne Croell]

T-MAX RS is my standard developer for TMX. Calumet (despite having reduced their darkroom offerings considerably) carries it in at least 2 bottle sizes, I bought my last batch a few weeks ago.
see http://www.calumetphoto.com/item/KP03006/, http://www.calumetphoto.com/item/KP03007/

[Sal Santamaura]

Can't help with your main question, but B&H shows the powder TMAX RS in stock, but not the liquid.Never heard of T-MAX RS powder. Here's the B&H page for 844 6163 liquid ("to make 1 gallon"):

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/29117-REG/Kodak_8446163_T_Max_RS_Developer_.html

and Kodak's data sheet corroborating the Catalog No.:

http://www.kodak.com/global/en/professional/support/techPubs/j86/j86.pdf