New T-Max 400 TMY - Scanning is much improved

Many photographers have said Film is Dead. Well, Kodak didn't get the memo. They have recently released an improved version of their excellent T-Max 400. I picked up a roll and shot it in the New Jersey Botanical Gardens.

Here is an example:


This was shot with a Canon Elan 7NE with the Canon 24-70 f2.8 L zoom lens. Center-weighted averaging metering. Developed with D-76, full strength.

Here is a link to Amazon.com for the Canon 24-70 f2.8 L lens. Check it out!

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM Standard Zoom Lens for Canon SLR Cameras

Although you can't tell from this image, the grain seems finer then T-Max 400, and a lot finer then Tri-x 400. I scanned it on the Nikon Coolscan V ED. This is the easiest scanning film I have come across. It makes me wonder if they made the changed to the film just to improve its scannability. Just awesome!

Check out the info on Kodak's page on the new T-Max 400, pick up a roll and give it a shot. You will love it.

Kodak Tri-X 400 35mm in D76 and Diafine

I have read a lot of information on the developers used with Kodak Tri-X 400 on the photo.net B&W Photo - Film & Processing Forum. Two of the most popular are D76 and Diafine. To see just what each can do I decided to test for myself.

All shots were from a Canon Elan 7ne with a 70-200 2.8 L IS. The lighting was from an Alien Bees 800 monolight. Exposure was at f9.5, 1/100 for a given ISO rating, the lens was set to 135mm. All film was from the same 35 mm 100 foot roll. For comparison, I am including some shots from my Canon 5D to see what a Full Frame digital camera can deliver.

Please note: Even though I loaded no more then 15 frames per roll for this test, the D76 1 to 1 development included 8 fluid ounces of D76 Full Strength and 8 fluid ounces of water. This is importand on full rolls to ensure that you don't exhaust the developer. I followed this practice here to ensure proper development.

All times were sourced from the Massive Dev Chart on digitaltruth.com.

Scanning was done with a Nikon Coolscan V ED. Settings were 4000 dpi, 16 bit gray, to a .tiff file.

Here is the full scene


Here are the crops

D76, Full Strength @ 400


D76, Diluted 1 to 1 @ 400


D76, Full Strength @ 1600


Diafine @ 1600


5D @ 1600


Conclusion:

If you are going to shoot Tri-X at ISO 400, then D76 1 to 1 is great. I think the image has more clarity then at full strength. If you want to shoot Tri-X at 1600, although the D76 negative looks pretty good, to me the Diafine image has a more gritty, B&W look.

It is interesting to see that the 5D can pull such detail out of a 1600 ISO image. Although a great camera, it does lack the dynamic range that film can deliver. Hopefully they will start looking to improve DR in the future instead of more megapixels.

And don't forget! If you want to have great film like this available 20 years from now buy some today and create some art!