Tri-x 400 and grain

Hi Mike,

 

Typically there is no advantage to distilled water for conventional developers, in fact, they have certain chemicals that entrap hardness and in the case of distilled or de ionized water, some frilling may occur because of that.

 

The new TMY really is very good, probably equal to TX in grain and sharpness, however, there are certain tonal differences which will make users prefer one over the other.

 

In the case of TX, I have always used ASA 200 for use with D76 1:1 and ASA 400 for full strength D76 (but be sure to use replenisher with the full strength even though the manufacturers always say that you can do several rolls of film per gal of developer, don't you believe it, the quality fails after the second roll. 1:1 D76 gives a slightly improved sharpness but with an increase in grain, while full strength is slightly finer grained. Frankly, I don't think TX is as good as it used to be since the new coating alleys were constructed, and I have used the stuff since it was introduced in 1954!

 

For all of the 400 speed films (I use Neopan, TMY, and TX in additon to digital) I prefer UFG developer with UFG-R for better sharpness, finer grain, and a significant inprovement in film speed.

 

Lynn

Thanks Lynn. Actually I scanned a few more frames from the same roll and didn't have the same level of grain as i did in the attachment. Obviously exposure, light, processing, etc are all coming into play here. I'll give the ISO 200/ D76 1.1 a try on the next roll. Thank you.

Hi Lynn, where did you get TMY-2 from? Would really love to test it.

Also: What is UFG / UFG-R; just doesn't ring a bell.

Finally: was your (old) TMY grainier than TriX in UFG or in one of the commercial

developers (which one)?

Cheers, Pete

Michael;

That isn't grain, it is reticulation as I think someone else said. I've been using TriX for about 50 years and never seen grain like that. The shape is wrong for grain. I don't know how you could have reticulated one neg in a roll but it does look like it. I'd like to see other negs in the roll at same magnification or prints from them.

 

As to distilled vs tap water, I have used tap water from all over the country, including Jersey city where the water is terrible and never had results such as yours. If you have too much minerals or dirt, rust, etc. in the water, get a filter system. It gets rid of a lot of garbage. I used a double filtration system with a large pore filter first and then a smaller.

 

Chlorine in water evaporates if left standing a short while. I used to remove chlorine like that for my fish. I think it was either 15 minutes or ? hour standing.

Michael