The Glory of Tri-X

bmattock

bmattock

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I thought I'd put form to function today and go out and shoot a few frames of Tri-X, soup it in D-76, and do a little scanning.

I took my Voightlander Bessa R and the Canon lenses (50, 85, 135), and my Olympus RD, which hasn't been out much lately. I made a mistake with the RD, and left the ASA set to 25! Fortunately, between the glory of Tri-X and Vuescan to scan the negs, no real harm done.

Thougtht I'd share a few things with you - this makes me happy.

First, a shot of an impatient child at the Wilson Amtrak Station...
 
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That was a full frame - no cropping. Now, let's see what Tri-X can REALLY do! Here's a crop out of the middle. This is with the Bessa R and the lens is the famed Canon 50mm f1.4. I believe the exposure was something like 1/125 @ f11, yellow filter, Tri-X...
 
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Grainy, yes, but look at that detail! OK, next shot - this was taken with the Olympus 35 RD. As I mentioned, I made a mistake and set the exposure to 'auto' and left the ASA set to 25 (Tri-X is nominally 400). I didn't catch it until I had finished souping the negs later on...oh well.
 
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Nice shots, Bill, and they make the case that Tri-X is still a super film. I still use it a lot (though I'm coming to really like Neopan 400 too).

I didn't take this today -- took it last week but just got around to developing and scanning it. You guessed it: Tri-X (400) developed in Rodinal 1:50 -- Bessa R2, Summicron 40mm.

Gene
.
 
Cool, that Summicron is so sharp I could cut myself on it!

I also like Delta 100 a lot - and TMAX 400 is pretty grainless - but I'm playing at getting back to basics for awhile, so just Tri-X and D-76, y'know?

I do have some B&W coming from Freestyle, though. I believe it is the ultra-cheap Arista.edu stuff. No idea what it will be like. It was like $1.29 a roll or something.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks
 
David,

I like to think of Tri-X as a nice 'do it all' film. No matter what you want it to do, it does it pretty well. There is always one out there that is better at any one or two things, but I can't think of a better all-around film, you know? I can push it (or pull it). It's grainy pushed, but has nice edge detail, sharpness, contrast. And of course, the grainy look of pushed / greatly blown-up Tri-X is a classic look that many people have come to love and try to emulate! It's very forgiving, and I feel you can use it for portraits, weddings, reportage, landscapes, and all kinds of fine art shots - about the only thing I would NOT want to use it for would be product shots or interior architecture.

I also like Delta 100 - so creamy, so grainless, also very sharp. But something about Tri-X - I hadn't used any since high school (when that's all there was easily available) and that old standby, D-76.

Takes me right back to when I was pushing Tri-X to 1600 with a Canon FX and 50mm f1.8 in the cheap seats at a Styx/Thin Lizzy concert, getting a contact high off the illicit substances floating around and having a great time, trying to hand-hold 1/15th to get a shot of the stage with a 2x doubler!

Went home woozy and developed/printed all night - what a time to be young!

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks
 
LOL!! Sounds great! Contact buzz at the concert then darkroom buzz at home... 😉

I want to try Tri-X, but was in a hurry placing orders and bought a roll of FP4. Tri-X will be my next go around.

Do you dilute 1:1? Also, what times do you suggest? Thanks.
 
David,

I'm a real disappointment in the wild-cat world of development and firearm cartridge reloading. I follow the book with both. I have friends who feel confident taking things to the extremes and beyond, but not me. I just read the chart and try to follow it. I remember guys crumbling vitamin c tablets into their developer - weird stuff!

I use D-76 cut 1:1 and try to keep it at about 70 degrees F. That equates to about 8:30 or 9 minutes small tank, I believe, if you shot at EI 400. I don't recall what I used when I pushed Tri-X to 1600, but I can tell you that the grains were as big as golf balls!

I'm sure that there are ways to tweak the life out of Tri-X and really make it stand up and dance, but I don't know 'em, I'm afraid. I'm such a fuddy-duddy! I alway figured that Big Yellow has had a lot of time to get their development times down pat - something like 70 years with Tri-X, right? So I just go with what they suggest and it seems to work pretty well for me.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks
 
Thanks Bill. Yeah I just learned with my FP4 that Ilfords recommended times were off my 3 minutes. Nice eh? I couldn't believe the grain I was getting from FP4!

Now, they look great.

Thanks! 🙂
 
Over the weekend I had all my varied relations asking what I wanted for Christmas. I made each one who asked write down the magic words "Kodak Tri-X" and said either 35mm or 120 would make me very happy... 😀

William
 
wlewisiii said:
Over the weekend I had all my varied relations asking what I wanted for Christmas. I made each one who asked write down the magic words "Kodak Tri-X" and said either 35mm or 120 would make me very happy... 😀

William
Click to expand...

Just for fun, I placed an order for this stuff:

http://www.freestylephoto.biz/sc_prod.php?cat_id=402&pid=6125

It just arrived - ten rolls of 35 and ten of 120. This should be fun to play with - cheap, too. We'll see how it stacks up to Tri-X, eh?

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks
 
I've got a bunch of it shot but haven't had time to develope it. You'll probably beat me to it at this rate! I'm curious to see how it does in Diafine; perhaps I'll find some time this weekend.

William
 
wlewisiii said:
I've got a bunch of it shot but haven't had time to develope it. You'll probably beat me to it at this rate! I'm curious to see how it does in Diafine; perhaps I'll find some time this weekend.

William
Click to expand...

I will most likely develop it in D-76, but in case I run out (I have 1/2 gallon left), I have some of the one-shot 1:36 generica Arista Film Developer to try.

I don't read much about Freestyle's Arista.EDU products online, good or bad. It's pretty darn cheap - I guess you and I will have to be test cases, eh?

I'm getting on an Amtrak train to Boston later this week - will try to get some decent shots and post 'em after I soup and scan 'em.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks
 
Bill, you may be onto something with that Tri-X at 100. That's pretty nice tonality in the second shot for 100 ASA and normal development.
 
oftheherd said:
Bill, you may be onto something with that Tri-X at 100. That's pretty nice tonality in the second shot for 100 ASA and normal development.
Click to expand...

Oh, you mean the one with the Amtrak porter helping the handicapped woman onto the train? That was an accident - shot in Olympus RD @ 25 EI accidentally, didn't notice until after I had souped the negs for both rolls with normal EI 400 exposure. I guess that works out to ISO 100? I always have trouble with the math!

I did notice the negs were thick / dark. I had to scan them with Vuescan set to color negs @ generic settings and then desaturate them in The Gimp (PS clone). I had the first roll (shot at EI 400, developed normally) scanned using Vuescan's B&W neg setting, I believe I chose Kodak TMAX 100 setting (they have no setting for Tri-X). The negative density appeared normal to me.

If I had noticed the ASA setting on the RD, I would have changed it - since I let it pick the exposure. And the dark negs I got seemed appropriate - overexposure by a lot. But I also know that scanning is not the same as printing - some people say over (or under) exposure is the way to go with scanning. I have no idea, honestly. I have enough trouble keeping my lens cloths sorted.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks
 
Freestyle's pricing is weird. I just compared the following prices:

Arista.edu B&W 400 36exp = $1.99/roll
Ilford HP5+ (3 pack) 36exp = $2.40/roll
Ilford HP5+ (bulk rolled) 36exp = $2.59/roll
Arista Pro (bulk rolled) 36exp = $2.69/roll

The Arista.edu film is out on it's own in terms of price. This film is sourced from Hungary and is made (?) by Forte/Foma and depending on who you read is either Fomapan or HP5 from England. The majority think the film is Fortepan/Fomapan.

But Freestyle are selling 3-packs of HP5+ that is per roll cheaper than their own bulk-rolled HP5+, which in turn is cheaper than their own Arista Professional, which is HP5+! Now that is a strange pricing policy!! 🙄
 
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