Someone told me that Tmax 100 does not respond well to colored filters and that agfa 100 repsond much better to filters. Has anyone expirenced the same?

Dave

-- David Sacco (dcscc@mindspring.com), March 18, 2001

Answers

I can't say I have experienced anything like that, but I haven't used T-Max 100 much for quite a while. I looked at Kodak's information on the T-Max films and found the following note: The blue sensitivity of KODAK T-MAX 100 and 400 Professional Films is slightly less than that of other Kodak panchromatic black-and-white films. This enables the response of these films to be closer to the response of the human eye. Therefore, blues may be recorded as slightly darker tones with these films-a more natural rendition.

-- Ed Buffaloe (edb@unblinkingeye.com), March 19, 2001.

What Ed says above is correct. The TMAX films respond almost like you are already using a light yellow filter. I have found, not that the films don't respond to filters (that's not really possible), but that they respond like you are using a stronger filter than you are. I have rarely used more than a light yellow filter with these films.

-- Ed Farmer (photography2k@hotmail.com), March 19, 2001.

Does anyone know how the Ilford Delta films behave in this respect (including the new Delta 400 if poss)?

-- Ed Hurst (BullMoo@hotmail.com), March 19, 2001.

A quick look at the data sheet on Ilford's site for Delta 400 (I assume it is the new Delta 400) does not show any deviation from normal sensitivity to filtration.

-- Ed Buffaloe (edb@unblinkingeye.com), March 20, 2001.

With the TMax 100 response to filters you might find you have to downrate the film a lot when using stronger orange or red filters to keep shadow detail in the film, especially when shooting outdoors with clear blue skies. The extra blue in the shadows coupled with the darkening of the blues with these stronger filters has the effect of wiping out all shadow detail. Experiment with exposure to find what works for you or you may end up with negatives with clear shadows... no detail at all. Ilford FP4 isn't as sensitive and in head to head testing the shadows are much better using the same filters under the same lighting conditions. Whether the rest of the exposure is where you want it on the negative is the question then. Just one more bit of information to help when you are choosing film.

-- Dan Smith (shooter@brigham.net), March 24, 2001.