Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1996/04/30
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]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