After receiving several mostly polite tongue lashings last month regarding my lack of interest in doing my own film and develper testing, my left brain has kicked back in and I have decided to bite the bullet. I am planning on testing tri-x and t-max 100 with t-max rs developer. I may also do HC-110. HC-110 is regularly diluted, but I have yet to stumble across anyone who has diluted t-max rs developer. I can figure this out on my own, but don't really want to put the time in if some of you have found that diluting t-max rs doesn't work. Have any of you done this exercise and if so, any advise on starting dilutions and times? For a first shot I thought I would just go one to one on the stock solution and double develping time.

PS Does this thing have a spell checker somewhere ?

-- Paul Mongillo (pmongillo@thurston.com), April 01, 1999

Answers

Paul,

I try never to dilute and one-shot everything. Tmax RS is one of my tested developers. You'll notice the times don't allow for much contraction. This is when i change to perceptol. Just Me. Tri-x looks absolutely gorgeous in RS. I expose it from 320 to 200 and tray develope in undiluted RS for a minimum of 5 min. at 68f a good place to start. Large format is worth the waste. Start with one developer and hammer it down then go to HC-110 and test it. Don't chase your tail. Good luck

-- Trib (linhof6@hotmail.com), April 01, 1999.

Hi Paul

I use T-Max 100 4x5 film with T-Max RS developer. I regularly use different dilutions depending on whether I want N-2, or N, or etc. type development. I do not mix a stock solution, but instead mix my one-shot working solution straight from the syrup concentrate (which has the RS packet contents poured and mixed into it). For 5x7 tray development @ 24 Celsius (75 Fahrenheit), I use

Development T-Max RS Water Time N-2 (1-19) 50ml 950ml 15m30s N-1 (1-9) 100ml 900ml 9m20s N (1-9) 100ml 900ml 12m40s N+1 (1-9) 100ml 900ml 17m30s N+2 (1-4) 200ml 800ml 12m10s

Hope this helps as a starting point.

http://risky.wcslc.edu/pers_pages/c-cline/cline.html

-- Christopher A. Cline (c-cline@wcslc.edu), April 01, 1999.

I'm going to try the table one more time:

Development T-MaxRS Water Time

N-2 (1-19) 50ml 950ml 15m30s

N-1 (1-9) 100ml 900ml 9m20s

N (1-9) 100ml 900ml 12m40s

N+1 (1-9) 100ml 900ml 17m30s

N+2 (1-4) 200ml 800ml 12m10s

-- Christopher A. Cline (c-cline@wcslc.edu), April 01, 1999.

I aggree with Chris Cline's recomendations. Many people complain about T-Max "blocking" which is an incorrect description because it is such a straight line film. The problem is really too much contrast, by diluting you are slowing down the process and making it easier to tame the contrast. Diluting the developer allows for longer development times and also allows larger errors in development although I would suggest trying to be as percise as possible. I could also use a spell checker.

-- Jeff White (zonie@computer-concepts.com), April 01, 1999.

I use T-MAX RS developer almost exclusively for one-shot development in Jobo and tubes. It is wonderful for TMX, TMY, Tri-X and HP-5+. I use it by first mixing in the additive (lots of mixing because the bottled chemistry is syrupy) and then processing from the bottle in either 1:4 or 1:9 with water, depending on the subject brightness range and what I want to end up with. I don't use N + or -, but I can get the equivalent of N-3 to N+2. For real contrasty conditions I switch to that Photographers' Formulary TMX developer. But TEST, get it over with, and then forget it and shoot.

-- Rob Tucher (rtphotodoc@juno.com), April 05, 1999.

Thank you all for taking the time to help me out. I began testing last weekend and have sent my first batch of negatives out for density readings. Wish me luck.

-- Paul Mongillo (pmongillo@thurston.com), April 07, 1999.