Tmax 3200 may be gone :(

nathanp said:
I have a roll of TMax 3200 in my Hexar at the moment - I know Rodinal would be less than ideal for processing, would ID11 be a reasonable choice?
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I agree that the TMAX developer is best. You get a noticeable boost in shadow detail from this developer and TMAX3200
 
Juan Valdenebro said:
Most of the wonderful reasons to use slide film disappear when going to 400... That's what in my opinion happens with provia400x by fuji... And that's why Kodak doesn't show too much interest in fast slide film... Or do you think they have no technical ways to make it? But that has no relation with them producing or not any black and white film, and I referred to Fuji's P1600 and Ilford's D3200: why would Kodak want to lose that niche totally? TMZ is a well respected film... And Kodak produces the best color fast film: Portra800.

Cheers,

Juan
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Twok does have a point. Kodak USED to make a couple of 400 speed slide films. One was a pro film called 400X, which make me laugh that years later Fuji took the same name for their pro 400 slide film.
 
You're right, Harry... And as someone explained in other thread before, cosmic rays are being stronger now compared to other years or decades as reported by latest NASA meterings from outer space, because cosmic rays become more intense when the sun has lower activity, which is happening some time ago... Looks like the sun itself absorbs more of those particles when it's more active...


Cheers,

Juan
 
No Chris, what he said is just not true... Kodak makes fast films. The ones they want to make. Both for color and B&W. Both wonderful. Kodak is not the company that only sells slow film.

Cheers,

Juan
 
I found some P3200 at last!

I'm testing a couple of rolls shot at 800, 1600 and 3200 incident in a sunny day's shadows, with three different developing times, to find one combination for normal exposure of the film and another emergency one for pushing it...

The first developed negatives look fine, and TMax developer is so linear! With a few more minutes of development it builds a lot of density... Soon I'll print contacts... With a loupe I can see grain, but less than I was expecting, and the film looks sharp... I'll have to wait for real enlargements, but what I see on negatives is nicer than what I've seen with Delta3200 in Microphen or DDX... I can't wait!

Cheers,

Juan
 
TMZ has lower sharpness, lower speed, and finer grain. Surprise!

Neopan 1600 is finer grained still -- at about half the maximum true ISO speed of Delta 3200.

Cheers,

R.
 
Well, here it's more expensive... But being that fast I wouldn't buy it through internet for personal mailing...

My first finding: for exposing it at 800 incident, I will use 9 minutes of TMax Developer 1+4 at 24º. Back to the darkroom...

Cheers,

Juan
 
Juan Valdenebro said:
Well, here it's more expensive... But being that fast I wouldn't buy it through internet for personal mailing...

My first finding: for exposing it at 800 incident, I will use 9 minutes of TMax Developer 1+4 at 24º. Back to the darkroom...

Cheers,

Juan
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That time seems REALLY long. At 1600 I think the time Kodak recommends is only 8 minutes at 24C for Tmax 1+4.
 
Chriscrawfordphoto said:
That time seems REALLY long. At 1600 I think the time Kodak recommends is only 8 minutes at 24C for Tmax 1+4.
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Thanks, Chris...

I usually find and use longer times than recommended. This is not for reflected in camera metering, and these are times for precise wet printing when base+fog becomes pure black, not just a dark gray... Those may be the reasons... Now I'll go see what happens metering at 3200 incident... That's faster than I have ever shot!

Cheers,

Juan
 
At last all contacts printed... For 3600 incident my time is 15 minutes.

At that ISO and developing time there's of course high contrast, but the overall tone is very nice for such an incredible speed, and skins are clean too... I never saw any other film/developer go on until this point, ever... This film is a true marvel!

Cheers,

Juan
 
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Pickett Wilson said:
15 minutes?! You must really like grain and contrast!
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I really like visible grain, yes... And these times are for flat light (in the shadows as I said before) so the final contrast is not crazy in any way... If the case was low light but with a source of direct light, that would be a contrasty scene, so I'd give the film more exposition and develop for a shorter time, of course...

Cheers,

Juan
 
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For those loving images more than words, there's an example of 15 minutes development in my new thread "Take a look at this..."


Cheers,

Juan
 
Harry Lime said:
Agreed. Delta3200 has the same problem. Believe it or not it is due to cosmic (background?) radiation. I kid you not.

So, freezing won't help. Maybe storing it in a lead case to shield it would help, but I'm not sure if even that will stop such particles.
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Probably not. Kodak stores TMZ raw stock deep in an old salt mine until it moves it into retail channels. That's about the only thing that will absorb gamma rays.
 
And even then, you don't block that many of them; instruments to map cosmic energy particle shadows are installed 700+ m underground.

Marty
 
Interesting thread, to which I think I can add some news:

Last week, I visited the PCP Roadshow, a mini fair hosted by Nikon, Canon Sony, Kodak and a number of photo accessory manufacturers currently that tours through various German cities. On this show, I visited the Kodak booth and asked their representatives about the poor availability of TMZ 3200. I told them I observed that TMZ 3200 is very hard to get, and if indeed I found some film, it was always close to expiry or already expired albeit only for some months). I got some interesting answers:

1. TMZ 3200 is not being phased out. It seems that Kodak only infrequently manufactures batches of this film and then offers it to their retail channels. It appears that they had trouble buying some of the raw materials needed to produce this film. I was told that they're working on a new batch which should be available later this year.

2. Kodak recommends to use the film within 6 months after purchase and to be very careful about storage conditions. I interpret this in such a way that the film's 'best before ...' period is very short, and that when film is indeed available again I will only stock up for supplies to last for 6 months so that my stock will be depleted before film quality inherently goes down.
 
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