Specs for Tmax 100 v. 400?

[Ed Richards]

Shot some Tmax 400 recently (Xtol 1:3) to get extra speed for hand held shots at the Shrimp and Petroleum Festival. I was surprised at how little grain I saw in the negatives, and the tonal range was very good. I did not shoot any comparison 100, but will get to it. I am curious if the larger grain in the 400 makes much difference in 4x5, at least in prints of 20x24 and smaller. Has anyone done much testing or have the resolution specs handy?

The hand held worked great. I have a Technika IV with a modern 90mm Rodenstock 6.8 that I cammed. With the bright southern Louisiana sun, exposures were in the 1/250/F16 range and negatives are very sharp. With no mirror slap and the mass of the camera, it may be easier to hand hold than 35mm - until your arm gets tired or the light goes down.:-)

[Dan Jolicoeur]

A little off topic but, how do Shrimp, and Petroleum, go together for a Festival?

As far as the grain in the 400 speed with around a 11x14 you should be fine if it looks good on the negative. Print some off and find out, or do you have to depend on someone else?

[Ed Richards]

> how do Shrimp, and Petroleum, go together for a Festival

Morgan City, LA, is in the heart of the coastal area south of Baton Rouge which is the home of the LA shrimp fleets and the offshore work boats for the oil rigs. The festival is normally on Labor day, but that was when Katrina was in town, so it was postponed. Sadly, many of the shrimpers were lost in the storm and all of the offshore boats were working on repairing the rigs.

I printed up a 16x20 (tiled, my printer only goes to 13x19) and it looks good. I am just curious about other's experience. I sure like have the extra 2 stops of speed, and I like the look of the tonal range.

[Dave Moeller]

I haven't done any formal testing, but I can tell you that the grain is not intrusive in 16x20 prints (the largest I ever print) from TMY negatives. I'll mention also that TMX and TMY are, in my experience, very different films. Neither is bad, but the results from the two films never seem to have the "family resemblance" that I expect when I switch speeds but stay with the same film. TMY is my favorite of the two, but many people swear by TMX and swear at TMY.

The best way to find out if you'll appreciate TMX is to try it. It sounds like you're happy with TMY; you may or may not be happy with TMX. The grain on TMX is astoundingly small, but I just don't like the tonalities that I get with it. TMY, to my eye, is a more attractive film. (I also appreciate the extra speed when I use my Crown Graphic hand-held.)

None of this is scientific in any way, but it's all that I can tell you from my personal experience as I'm not really a densitometer kind of guy.

Be well.