Tmax & Xtol

I hear you, and you got it right. The right speed for your tastes. That's the whole point of any discussion about film/dev/timing combos. Which is basically any thread in which I participate...hmm...
 
kaiyen said:
Delta 100, too. The t-grain and e-grain films excel at these because of their extremely short toe and shoulder. They have such straight curves (oxymoron alert!) in just about any developer.
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I can't interpret all the charts too well. If I understand you correctly, such films have short toe/shoulder. That makes them more contrasty and less forgiving?

When I read the TMAX dataseet, it says the film has good highlight" seperation and would cope well with overexposure. I already experienced how well TMAX films push (supposedly works well with long toes).

All I can tell is that I like pushed TMAX better than classic grain, but at EI 100/400 it looks so strange.
 
I just compared the log-density curves of plus-x, delta100 and TMX. delta 100 and TMX have a short toe and zero shoulder, plus-x has a longer toe and shoulder. comparing TMX and plus-x is easiest since they use the same charts. I'll post images later, and think about it for a while.

TMX is supposed to cope well with overexposure. in D76 it copes less well than plus-x, and in TMAX it seems to be totally unforgiving.
 
Kaiyen, I'm sorry I'm getting old, so I have to read your information filled posts carefully. I do agree with you again about stand development: compressed tones and contrast.
 
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Yes, the new emulsions (t-grain for kodak, e-grain for ilford) have almost no toe or shoulder. Think of the toe and shoulder as areas of non-linear response to exposure. Most film has a toe and shoulder in any developer. Theoretically, if you give film X exposure, it will have Y density. If you give it X+n exposure (where n is just some positive number), then you should have Y+n density. It should be linear. Increase one, increase the other.

But the toe is the area where it's not linear. X+n still gives you Y. The longer the toe, the less response you are getting even though you are increasing exposure. That's different film has different film speeds in different developers (remember that H&D curves, or response curves, are film & developer dependent, not just one or the other). If it's got a long toe, it will be slower since it takes more exposure to get to good shadow detail (out of the toe).

The new emulsions have almost ridiculously linear responses. This gives a wide, even, and arguably unnatural tonality. But technically it's just really, really even tonality.

And films with little to no shoulder are _not_ tolerant to overexposure in general. Think about it - if you overexpose, and the H&D curve is linear even to the top (ie - no shoulder), then it just keeps giving you more density as you expose. It's easy to get to maximum, solid silver as you go up.
 
Kaiyen, again I've read it four times, I'm definitely not complaining. It is like when I first learned calculus. You are trying to find what is happening at any point on a curve or in this case a straight curve (as you say oxymoron). Thanks again, keep posting. I think I'll copy this last one, and read it when I'm totally clear of mind.
 
Xtol was designed by Kodak to work with T-grain developers and is now the recommended developer for TMAX films.

I find that xtol works beautifully with most films. Acros and FP4 really shine in it.
 
good to hear that XTOL works nicely as well. I got to understand more about shadow detail and film speed.


Tried a roll of Delta 100 in Amaloco AM50 link, boosted background contrast. I like it very much, must make a great combination with XTOL. I can dilute to 1:1 or more to compress contrast a bit.
Tried Tri-x EI400, and agitated a bit more because I was afraid the contrast would be too flat. should have reduced development a bit, because I need to scan the negs at about -1.5 :/

otherwise XTOL looks very pretty. fine-grained and sharper than HC-110 B
 
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