is t-max the finest film availible?

[joe_hoyle]

hey guys.

 

i have been using kodak t-max 100 for a while and im pleased with the

results, but is there a film where the grain is even less noticeable?

 

cheers, joe.

[gary_s.]

Try Fuji Acros 100, its even finer than Tmax in my experience. I use it in everything from 120 to 8x10 and think its a great film.

 

Hope it helps.

 

Gary

[lee_shively]

Everyone will have an opinion on this.

 

Mine is that Tmax may be fine-grained but I've found nothing at all about it to make me think it's the "finest film available". I'm truly allergic to it--I hate the latitude and the tonality. I gave away the best part of a brick of the stuff in 35mm because I disliked it so much.

 

Now, to be fair, other people like it and get great results from it. It's just not for me.

[ivan_dzo]

It's very fine grained but not as sharp (or as attractive tonality IMHO) as Delta 100.

[leicaglow]

I also would sway toward Delta 100 for sharpness, though I use a lot of Acros. I prefer the tonal range of the Delta (I know others here don't like Delta at all). A lot depends on how you process it.

[gaius1]

Same film, bigger format.

 

Or a film with no grain at all, like XP2 Super.

[umut_arslan]

efke, adox 25 or 40 ASA. search Google, Technical Pan was a grainless film, take a look to Gigabitfilm.

[joe_s6]

NOT BY A L-O-N-G SHOT!

 

Efke 25 is remarkable....simply the sharpest film I've ever used. Fine grain, and brilliant tonal range. Efke 100 is a nice 2nd choice.

 

Acros does look nice in Rodinal as well (Rodi for the Efkes of course)

but it's not as sharp, and just doesn't have "it".

 

Fomapan 100 is the closest to APX 100, and the Fomapan 200 has tremendous latitude. Easily processed from 100-800 without having to compensate. Best results from Rodinal...let's face it, there's nothing else out there that comes close to the magic of it.

 

All of the T-Mud and Deltoid films are severely wanting IMO.

 

Try the Efke 25, you won't go back to anything else.

[frank.schifano]

Maybe Fuji Acros is finer, but I can't confirm that from personal experience. Since Fuji does not publish granularity figures for the film in their tech sheets, you can't tell from the numbers either. All Fuji says is that it is, "the world's highest standard in grain quality." Kodak publishes measured results. Fuji's statement does not claim that Acros 100 is finer grained than TMax 100. It simply means that in Fuji's opinion the grain structure of Acros 100 is "better" than Kodak's or Ilford's. No surprise there. Did you expect them to say, "Gee whiz fellas, our grain is not as fine as the other guys stuff, but not by much and we think it looks nicer?" I don't think so. Now don't get me wrong. Acros 100 is gorgeous stuff. I have a few friends who use the stuff and their work is stunning to say the least. No doubt about it, Acros 100 is a quality product.

 

 

TMax 100 may or may not be the finest grained ISO 100 B&W film currently available, but in reality we're splitting hairs that don't need to be split. Other factors like camera shake, lens abberations, etc. are much more important contributors to the overall image quality than small differences in grain size by the time you reach enlargement ratios where grain size becomes a significant contributing factor with any of the newer technology medium speed B&W films. Whether you prefer TMax 100 over Delta 100 over Acros 100 is another question and is one that open to endless opinions. Try them all and use the one that suits you.

[tripanfal]

Joe S, I'm beginning to think you are from Croatia :)

 

Seriously, Have you had any of the banding problems the larger format users have been having?

 

Just curious...

[zachariah_edwardson]

Each film has it own good points and bad points. I know some people swear by T-max, and I have seen their results and I agree that you can do amazing things with Tmax 100. I Personally do not use it on a normal basis, but I have a 100 foot roll of it in the freezer for me to play with one day. 90 percent of what a photo is is the person behind the camera, I can shock people on the photos my 60 year old folder takes, but give it to some other people, and a lot of posters on this board, and my results will be shameful to what the next guy can do. Some people want no grain, and some people love a little grain, and some people like a larger, pritty grain.

 

I Happen to use Efke as my 100 speed film, and have been quite happy with my results. But you may not like it, and if your pleased with T-max 100, then use it.

[sg_adams]

Run some tests for yourself. I did some the other day with Acros at ISO 64, and though I was slightly overdeveloped still, wow. I can't see any grain in my 4800 dpi scans, i get to pixels and or lens limitations before I see grain.

But here again, the finest film will be the one that you decide works best for you. And certainly film format is relative to grain. A 35mm image is only a thumbnail. On the other hand, a contact print from a 4x5 of a grainy film like HP5 can be astounding, and take a lot of enlargement before grain effects image quality or lens limitations. It's all so very subjective.

[al_divenuti]

Sorry, Joe S...

 

T-max 100 and Acros are both noticeably finer-grained than Efke 25.

 

If we were talking APX25 - it would be another story. But Efke R25 isn't particularly fine-grained for its ISO.

[rothelle]

This always come up from time to time and a very easy answer to your question is to buy a roll or two each of the 100 films and shoot the same subject in the same lighting and make prints to the size you think you want and then you will know what work for you. Tmax was the best out of my test but I pick Delta 100 for my outdoor portrait film. The rich tones were to great to past up. Also Fuji film is not bad. Evryone will have their favorite and you will have to do the test to see for yourself.

[jim_appleyard]

Sometimes grain is what we want it to be. I was fooled recently by one of my own photos. I had taken some shots of an old rusty, abandoned truck (6x4.5 neg)and made an 8x10 from one of the negs. I was amazed at how sharp and fine grained Efke 25 was. The problem was the image came from a 6x4.5 Fuji Neopan 400 neg! D-76 1+1. Whoops!

[rob_ewers1]

I didn't like T-Max 100 due to the tonal range, then I saw a posting on the net from someone who said to try HC 110 at 1:64 ( I use a syringe and draw it from the stock bottle at 1/64 of the amount needed.) then use 75 degrees and agitate every two minutes for 5 seconds over 11 minutes. The results of this give you much better high light tones and more shadow detail. Just to take this a bit further, I do all my film this way, from ISO 50 to 400, any brand, all at the same time and temp. Works really well for me and is about as cheap as you can get for developing black and white film. One other thing is that the T-Max films are hard on your fix so use 10 minutes to fix at 75 degrees and check your fix often. hope this helps.

Rob

[willscarlett]

I really like Efke 25 but next time I'm printing, I'll be sure to compare the grain of Efke 25 and

T-Max 100 under the grain microscope when focusing the enlarger. From printing Delta 100,

I have to say that when focusing off and Efke neg, the grain was much less noticable.

[drjedsmith]

In my (obviously limited) testing of 35mm, T-Max 100 may be finer grained - just slightly. But Fuji Acros in Perceptol is very, very close, and has better tones. From past posts here, it seems that Acros in Microfine has equally fine grain as T-Max. The better tonality alone with virtually no grain penalty makes me shoot Acros instead. Not to mention Kodak's aparent apathetical disposition toward film production.<BR>

I will be playing around with Acros in medium format soon - 6x7 Fuji Acros should be amazing.<BR>

Jed

[akov]

Please do not forget that noise and sharpness are mostly depend on the developer you use. For example, I use Agfa Rodianl Special for tmax 100, it reveals more noise but the pics are very sharp.

 

Tmax 100 has astonishing look and tonal range if you find the right subject. I would say that tmax 100 has a bit of "technical" look, which makes it unsuitable for a lot of photographer.

 

For Efke 25, I use D-76 1+1. Although, this film is rated as ISO 25, you will get a reasonable amount of noise if you scan it.

 

When negatives scanned, even these types, you will surely get noise. However, this can be due to scanner's CCD operation and noise profile.

 

Let me put here an example that shows the look what I love about tmax 100.<div></div>

[robert_grasing]

Fuji claims a diffuse RMS granularity value of 7 with Acros. Kodak claims 8 with 100TMax. So it appears Acros wins. However, Fuji uses straight Microfine (equivalent to Microdol-X or Perceptol) for Acros, Kodak uses D76. With Fujidol-E (Fuji's version of XTOL developer), the Acros granularity value goes up to 7.5. Now, we know that XTOL usually gives slightly finer grain than than D76, so perhaps both films in the same developer would give the same granularity. (BTW, when Fuji was selling Delta 100 as Neopan 100 Presto in Japan, it claimed it had the world's finest grain for a 100 speed film).

 

In a Shutterbug article some years ago, Roger Hicks cited some testing by Ilford concerning Acros, 100TMax and Delta 100. The developer was TMax, 1+4 dilution. Acros was very slightly finer grained than TMax, Delta clearly lagging behind the leaders. In terms of film speed, TMax was 160, Delta 125 and Acros 100. Keep in mind those were the results with just one developer.

 

But go ahead and try Acros. You may like it for reasons other than grain.

[gene_e._mccluney]

Grain visibility is a function of your subject and sharpness. If you have an extremely sharp

image with lots of detail, the grain will be less visible. If you have a soft-moody image

with lots of out-of-focus areas, then you will see more grain.

[brucecahn]

Rolleipan 25

[wirehead]

If you are splitting hairs and worrying about the difference between T-max 100, Delta 100, Acros 100, Efke 25, and APX 25, you need to get a larger format camera. :P

 

Personally, if I want a fine-grained B&W film, I reach for Acros. Excellent reciprocity, fine-enough-grain, and I can develop it in my bathroom (unlike XP2 and BW400)

[aaron_muderick]

Although you won't be able to shoot it without a 4x5 camera, Polaroid 55 is arguably the finest grain B&W film in production.

[profhlynnjones]

Hello Joe and all,

 

I might as well get into this to. I've done the practical sensitometry on our favorite films and have used them all! GBar of .50, Zone 5 net density of .70, #2 paper of DS 1.00.

 

I shoot Ilford Pan F+ at 32 with Rodinal, Tech Pan at 64 with Rodinal, Delta 100 at 64 with Rodinal, Tmax 100 at 80 with Rodinal, Neopan 100 Acros at 100 with Rodinal, and New Plux X Pan at 160 with D76 full strength. Sensitometrically, I lose film speed with all of the films except Acros and gain speed with Plus X.

 

Tech Pan is officially discontinued, sharpness of TP is lens limited and PanF+ is pretty close to that. For various reasons these films are not easy to use.

 

D100-barely visible grain at 18X (18"x27") Great general purpose film.

 

TMX-barely visible grain at 20X (20"x30") Great film but be careful, exposure and development are critical

 

Acros-barely visible grain at 20x to 22x, middle tone separation is so smooth that many times you don't think it is sharp.

 

PlusX-barely visible grain at 24x, best general purpose film that I have seen. For the first time I dont cry about the loss of Verichrome Pan!

 

What do I shoot?, D100, TMX, and PXP, with 400 speed films I use

T Max 400 (TMY) since Kodak changed the manufacturing and I no longer find any reason to use the New Tri X. TMY with full strength D76 gives me barely visible grain at about 12X (12"x18") and tolerable grain at 24X (24"x36").

 

All of the above evaluations with Condenser Beselers on glossy Ilford MG IV RC.

 

Lynn