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New TMax 400


bill_jones17

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<p>Hi, I used the new TMax 400 film for the first time and after I developed it, the negatives seem lighter than any of my negatives using the old style TMax 400 film. Is this normal? The detail looks pretty good they just seem a bit light to me. I developed them for 7 1/2 min at 68F in D76.</p>
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<p>The development time sound good. When you say they look light do you mean the negative itself or the scan/print? At what ISO did you expose it at.? I've found the New Tmax 400 to be a true 400 speed film in Tmax developer and in D76.</p>
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<p>No, the density range of TMY2 is pretty normal.</p>

<p>Ummm, this is <em>undiluted</em> D76 for 7.5 minutes right? Maybe the solution's gone off.</p>

<p>I developed Tri-X and TMY2 in the same tank a few times, Xtol 1:1, 9.5 minutes at 20degC. If anything, the TMY2 was a bit denser for about the same in camera exposure.</p>

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<p>No, I haven't found that TMY-2 negatives are less dense than films of comparable speed. It's possible that your D-76 has gone off a bit. You don't mention its age, nor its storage conditions. What's equally likely is that your processing temperatures are lower than you think. Thermomters can be notoriously inaccurate, and don't forget that the developer can loose a degree or so of heat merely by pouring it from the holding vessel to the developing tank. If the developing tank is colder than the processing temperature, that is surely the case. I like to temper the tank in the same tempering bath that I use for the chemistry to minimize the problem. A plastic tank will float in the bath and you don't want that. Weight it down with something (I use 1/2 paving brick that I had laying around) to prevent that.</p>
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<blockquote>

<p>I mean the negatives themselves look lighter ...</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Right, I know what you mean, but correctly developed TMY negative basically looks like any other B&W film - density ranges from transparent base to completely opaque black.</p>

<p>The one time that I got a set of very light negatives back was due to my screwup. I had somehow used only enough Xtol for a two reels in a four reel tank.</p>

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<p>I checked the data sheet for you and your time is actually a minute longer than recommended, so if anything correctly exposed negatives, all other factors normal should have produced more than sufficiently developed negatives. Since you were using fresh D-76 and assuming the time and temps were correct, my guess would be an error in-camera, like maybe you forgot to factor a color filter in, or maybe thought you were at 400 and were at 800 or 1600? Just ideas. Here's the link to that data sheet:<br>

<a href="http://www.kodak.com/global/en/professional/support/techPubs/f4016/f4016.pdf">http://www.kodak.com/global/en/professional/support/techPubs/f4016/f4016.pdf</a></p>

 

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<p>Matthew, I looked at the data sheet you linked to and I think when you referenced 7.5 minutes being one minute too long, you were in fact looking at the time for T-Max 100 in undiluted D-76 at 68F. That same chart lists 8 minutes for TMY in undiluted D-76 at 68F. Of course, all of the times on that chart Kodak lists as "starting times."</p>
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