Hi I did some night shots with T-max 3200 but found the grain too large for street fotograpfy, it blurred the faces too much for my idea's. An recommendation of more fine grained film or to push T-max400 or fuji Neopan 1600.

regards Reinier

-- ReinierV (rvlaam@xs4all.nl), March 03, 2002

Answers

ive been shooting the tmz for about a year now, and just last week had the pleasure of meeting a pro who's been using it for over a decade...

i had been using edway fg7 1:15 with a 9% Na2SO4 solution, and the results were pretty good...

i just got some tmax develeper, and processed my first roll with that today, and the results seem better, but the film's still wet and i haven't had a chance to inspect it yet...

one thing you can do to reduce grain is to "effectively" pull the film, but don't think of it like that...

when you meter, meter to expose the darkest shadow where you want detail as middle grey... i use a hand-held seikonic, and just get a reading in a dark shaddow... expose at that (probably 2-3 stops more than what the in-camera meter says)

when you process the film, only develop for 60% of what the package tells you (e.g. kodak says that tmz exposed as iso 1600 should be developed for 8.5 minutes in tmax developer... i meter at iso 1600, but in the darkest shadow in the scene, and develop for 5 minutes, with good, albeit low-contrast, results)

-- colin lieberman (colinlieberman@hotmail.com), March 03, 2002.

Most of us go through this search at one time or another. For me I like the new Delta 400 in emofin (2 bath). It gives me 640 - 800 speed with the tight grain of a 400 t-grain film.
TMZ gives grain but when you start to shoot over 1250 or so then your choices narrow and you have to use TMZ and live with it...

-- Russell Brooks (russell@ebrooks.org), March 04, 2002.

T-Max3200 shot at EI1000 and developed in Microdol-X will solve your problem, if you can tolerate the lower speed.

-- Wilhelm (wmitch3400@aol.com), March 04, 2002.

I have had good results with Ilford Delta 3200, though I must admit it does better at 1600 (by which time the Delta 400 pushed to 1600 becomes a good option!).

-- Ed Hurst (BullMoo@hotmail.com), March 05, 2002.