Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1996/04/30

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To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
Subject: Re: Some ===> Favorite films/processing
From: Eric Welch <ewelch@gp.magick.net>
Date: Tue, 30 Apr 1996 07:24:39 -0700

At 06:10 PM 4/29/96 -0400, you wrote:

>complement the properties of our Leica gear.  If you have any suggestions 
>as to how we might get similar results from them in a home darkroom, I 
>for one would be most interested to hear them.  HP5+ is really great 
>stuff, but if I would get that little extra bit of sharpness and fine 
>grain, I would probably go for it.
 
I keep remembering these things in spurts. The two most important things
about T-Max films is: DO NOT OVEREXPOSE THEM! And DO NOT OVERDEVELOP THEM!

Some black and white practitioners seem to have this idea that black and
white film has tremendous latitude. In truth, no film has latitude. It's
just that some, like Tri-X, and more so with color neg films, can give you
acceptable results even without optimum exposure and development. There are
safeguards built into them to do just that, but the problem is, those
safeguards also keep film from being more flexible and give the photographer
the ability to optimize them for whatever purpose he/she has in mind.

T-Max gave that up for flexibility. 

So agitation is very important. Don't overdo it, but don't underdo it
either. I do five inversions in five seconds every thirty seconds. No
continuous for the first 30 seconds or a minute, and no letting it sit for
minutes at a time. 

One factor that increases grain is wet time, so minimizing it is important.
And as a matter of fact, T-Max film in T-Max developer is optimized to be
processed at 75 degrees, not 68 like many other films. You get better
mid-tone separation at that temperature according to Kodak.

Do not use a hardening fixer at the end. Use a rapid fixer only. And a tiny
bit of pink in the emulsion is expected, and will wash out if you wash it
long enough (as long as it should be, not forver). But it wears fixer out
faster than Tri-X and other films, and it takes about five minutes in a
rapid fixer to do the job right. Lots of agitation while fixing helps. A
stop bath will increase the life of the fixer, but don't use too much acid,
because that will punch holes in any film.

And last of all, my apologies for such an un-Leica like topic carry on. I'll
stop and anyone wants to know more, just e-mail me.

==========================
Eric Welch
Grants Pass Daily Courier