[Leica] T400CN and gradation

[Myers Pete <MyersPete@aol.com>]

Hi to Steve and the Group - Happy New Year!

Steve, I have the same complaint about T400CN. After shooting it last summer
in all kinds of conditions in the high Sierra, filtered with yellow or orange
- - at various EIs, I am having troubles with it.

Yes, is does not show "grain", but it also seems to me to be lacking gradation
- - kind of creating a mid-tone sweep and not much else. I too feel that
delicate highlights are there in 'body', but lack 'soul'.

The move to T400CN and the resulting problems have made me go back to square
one and take a look again at film - on the theoretical level - and have
another go at picking a film that works for me. Gradation vs resolution/grain
seems to be the real root of the problem. I guess over the years, we have been
trying all sorts of tricks to try to optimize one for another. Perhaps the
T400CN is just further proof that no matter what direction you swing film,
information capacity of the film can only be divided up between gradation and
resolution/grain and there is no way around the theoretical 'wall'.

Perhaps I just have not found the magic touch with T400CN. Perhaps other
Lugnuts have had better luck or technique.

Pete