Which developer for Tmax 100 & 400 film - Tmax or XTOL?

[Arjay]

I am planning to run film/developer combo tests for Kodak Tmax 100 and 400 films. I am looking for a developer for these films that offers box speed EI, maximum shadow detail/tonality, fine grain and good acutance (grouped by their order of importance from very important to nice-to-have).

Looking at Kodak's specifications, my developer choices will be Tmax and XTOL.

I am using a hybrid workflow, i.e. I will scan my negatives after developing and then do all remaining processing digitally. That means, I am preferrably looking for moderately flat negatives with a wide range of tonality values.

Which developer would you suggest for these films?

 

[scottyb70]

Try pmk pyro by photographer formulary.

 

[Tim Gray]

I've not tried TMAX dev at all. I've been happy with XTOL so far with TX and TMZ. I just started with TMY (TMX will be next) and it was very easy to scan dev'd in XTOL.

 

[Ronald M]

The film was developed with D76 a decade ago, B4 Xtol. Works for me and I can mix a quart at a time for about a $1 . Keeps perfectly for 6 mo in full sealed glass bottle.

Xtol will give a slight improvement, but not woth the effort to me.

T Max is just a rough developer with high local contrast and big grain. Xtol can go bad and give no warning. After it ruined a roll of unrepeatable pic, that was the end. I sent numerous packages back to Kodak. They replace with two new ones.

Rodinal works ok. You will think HC110 is good, until you try D76.