Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1997/09/17

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Subject: Re: OFF TOPIC. Help with low light b/w and Tmax
From: Jeff Moore <jbm@instinet.com>
Date: Wed, 17 Sep 1997 17:59:39 -0400

adisoon@pl.jaring.my writes:
> Is there anyone who can help me? I have tried using T-max 400 under low
> light conditions, rated at 800 and developed in T-max or HC-110. The
> negatives I get have very course grain and also high contrast. I would like
> to have more tones in my prints. With regards only to Tmax 400, is there
> any way I can do this? 

H'mm.  If your definition of `very course grain' is similar to mine, this
sounds improbable, and I'd be looking for a chemical or temperature oddity, or
posting to rec.photo.darkroom-process-weenies for help;  but as to the film
choice...

It's been awhile since I did much with T-Max, but I suspect I'm not alone in
largely ignoring the 400 flavor.  T-Max 100 makes lovely negatives when exposed
at EI 50, and T-Max 3200 seems the ticket when slipping about in the dim WITH A
LEICA (back on topic?);  in fact, I seem to recall that T-Max 3200's intrinsic
speed is about 800, at which it produces negatives with decent shadow detail
and graininess which looked to me not too different from good ol' Tri-X. Does
`about like Tri-X developed normally in D-76 1:1' constitute `very course
grain' in your book?

[if my responding to the whole list with this is particularly offensive, 
 please send me private email and I'll cleave more closely to the charter in 
 future;  but the question of film, and the way choices of film stock, EI, 
 development, printing, and of course optics interact to create a ``look'' has 
 always been of interest to me.  For example, does anyone have clues about 
 habitual film/EI/development choices of, say, HCB or in particular Salgado?
 New thread?  Covered before I joined?]

- -Jeff