Highlight control. I was doing a lot of mountain trips where the contrast range was extreme. Yet I wanted everything sparkly and well defined, gradation-wise, shimmering glacial ice clear down to dark pits in black volcanic rocks. That was in graded paper days. Having solved that issue with pyro, my main complaint with TMax 100 was its poor edge acutance - fine for portraits, unwelcome in landscape work. So I relied more on TMax 400 instead, or FP4 if the light was a bit softer. Then Quickload packets came out with ACROS in them, great for backpacking use - a film with about the same range and speed as FP4. The Kodak Readyload system was unreliable; it took them a long time to do correctly.
Nowadays I still use pyro for TMY400, FP4, HP5, Acros etc., but have switched to Perceptol 1:3 for TMX100. This gives me enhanced edge definition (unlike Perceptol 1:1). And modern VC papers give me more control over the highlights. The crucial role of TMX100 for me is in 120 roll film applications, where I need a film with a long straight line with excellent development versatility, yet fine grain. Once I get into sheet film sizes, grain is a non-issue.
Most of my D76 and older-version TMax development was actually for sake of Cibachrome masking, where a bit of an upswept curve was desirable. But nowadays, making for either color or black and white negs, I want almost a total straight line, yet of very low gamma. 76 won't deliver that. It's like power steering - gotta have a gentle touch. Ciba masking was more like using a sledgehammer. I don't use 76 for anything now.
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