Learning analogue: Tri-X vs T-Max

There is absolutely no reason to blog about analogue photography. You can go to your local library and borrow a 50-year-old book: almost nothing has changed since then. I worked exclusively analogue for around 20 years and exposed and developed several hundred films. What else is supposed to happen? And yet I'm really enjoying rediscovering analogue photography in a completely new way.

Plus, it's a lot more fun to try things out yourself than just relying on what you've read and heard. Doesn't matter, how trustworthy the sources are. So I took the classic reportage film and my current favorite film, both mounted in my two old Leicas and tried to compare the films with each other. Although everything is already in books anyway.

Two popular Kodak films in the test: Tri-X vs T-Max

The Tri-X 400 has been on the market for over 60 years. The most famous news photos were taken with him. A classic black and white film based on silver halide crystals with the appropriate grain and large exposure latitude. In the other camera the T-Max 400, a newer flat crystal film with great sharpness and an absurd amount of gray tones. I always took photos with the same lenses at the same apertures and exposure times. Both films were developed in HCD-50 by Spürsinn, who brings the gray tones wonderfully to life without completely forgetting the highlights. Since both films require different development times, I couldn't develop them together. I tried to minimize the resulting errors in the sensitivity of the films by scrupulously adhering to the development time and temperature. I think I succeeded quite well.

The results correspond to what was to be expected from the literature: Tri-X has slightly more contrast and grain, T-Max more sharpness, more gray tones and a very fine grain for ISO400. And what does it look like in pictures?
First of all, the comparison using a gray card and a color chart: you can actually only see the difference if you know where to look 🙂

As small as the difference seems here, it is clearly visible under real conditions.

The T-Max has enormous potential, especially in the shade area. However, the steeper gradation curve of the Tri-X ensures a more honest image because the highlights and shadows appear more natural here.

Next test: the sharpness – or better: the resolution.

Because of course both films are sharp if the photographer doesn't mess it up 😉

I tried it recently to compare analog with digital material. I have now repeated this and placed my loved one with a dark shirt in front of a dark background and illuminated the whole thing with a strip light.

So far so good. No surprises. Both films function at a high level. The rest is certainly a matter of taste. When it comes to naturally occurring harsh contrasts, aka sunlight, the T-Max is certainly slightly ahead. Likewise when it comes to resolution.

But I still have a little test up my sleeve.

I don't even know how to properly describe it with a keyword. Based on my previous experience, I knew that the films could display at least as much dynamic range as digital cameras. But how does this work in real life? How much information is contained in a negative that is not photographed optimally? Luckily, one of my two cats found a nice sunny spot that was barely bigger than herself. I learned that I should expose for the shadows. Anyone who regularly works with digital cameras will now cringe: cat with lots of white fur in the sun and I'm exposing the shadows with a handheld light meter. Nothing can come of it...

I did it anyway. With both films and the results were very similar. I'll show you the Tri-X without exposure compensation.

The exciting part now comes: apart from the fact that I could have saved something here through a different development, I have now corrected the exposure in post-processing. I had to pull the controls down a full 4 stops. But the result is impressive.

It's amazing how much information is still available in the silver. It certainly helps that I have an outdated but still very good scanner in the form of the Coolscan 5000. To complete this test, here is the result with the same "test setup", but with the T-Max 400.

In this series of tests, it wasn't easy to find subjects that made it possible to photograph the same thing with two cameras. But the results were worth it for me. I now know how to continue experimenting to get black and white photos to my liking. My clear recommendation is: just try it out for yourself. Anyway, I learned a lot...