This Film Friday is featuring our favorite low light film: Kodak TMax P3200. The P3200 is one of the fastest films you can load into your favorite 35mm camera and is perfect for a night out if the flash has to stay home, or just scratching that itch you have for superb contrast and graininess.

There are not many super-high speed options out there in film world. Ilford manufactures their Delta 3200 (in both 35mm and 120, no less) and Kodak has TMax P3200. Below that, you drop all the way to ISO 400 films. Back in the day we had Fuji Neopan 1600, but that is long gone. So the two 3200 films we have on the market fill an important role.

Kodak TMax 3200 (TMZ for short) was originally introduced in 1988 as the third member of Kodak’s TMax family of films, along with TMax 100 (TMX) and TMax 400 (TMY). The TMax films are noteworthy for their T-grain structure. Similar to Ilford’s Delta films, T-grain films are designed to produce a smoother grain structure that has less grittiness to it, as well as printing and scanning more cleanly. But honestly, you will never think of TMax P3200 as a fine-grained film, quite the opposite in fact. But that’s ok, because its grain is one of the features we like best about it.

A shot made by staff member Tracy Pitts, who is an avid user of P3200. Among other things, this image shows the beautiful and prominent grain of the film.

Let’s face it. TMax P3200 is grainy, but grain is the price you will pay for speed. Our recommendation is to embrace grain, learn to appreciate and even love it. Grain is the building blocks of analog images, it is an integral part of how the photo is made. Once you come around to this, your love of black and white films will only grow and grow. And if you are already a fan of film grain, there are few films out there that will please you more than TMax P3200. Buy this film for its grain.

Grain is not the only feature TMax P3200 has going for it though. It’s other big strength is its speed. The film is marketed as an ISO 3200 film. If you do any sort of research into this film you will quickly discover that it is really an ISO 800-1000 (depending on how you develop it) film. The “P” in P3200 stands for “push”, as in that is what you are essentially doing with this film when shooting it at 3200.

Our suggestion? Forget all of that. It just causes confusion. Think of P3200 as a ISO 3200 film, because among the many things it does well is expose at ISO 3200. Rate this film at its box speed, go out into the dark and odds will be good that you come home with decent exposures. This dependability at high speeds has long endeared TMax P3200 to us. As a contrast, while there are things we like about Ilford Delta 3200, we almost never expose it at ISO 3200, generally opting for a slower ISO 1600 or even ISO 1000 rating to help ensure decent exposures. With TMax P3200 though we have no fear of going for those higher speeds.

And speaking of higher speeds, TMax P3200 can actually go even higher. One of our own staff set out on a mission to see how high he could take P3200. He got it up to ISO 102,400 before he felt like the process (either the film’s sensitivity or his developing) was breaking down. While his results at those absurdly high speeds are grainy beyond belief and have crunched shadows, they do an excellent job of showing the versatility of this film for if ISO 102,400 is not your cup of tea, then rest assured that the film will handle ISO 6400 or even 12,800 pretty well.

Kodak TMax P3200 in all its ISO 102,400 glory. Word of warning, developing time on this roll was about an hour… with frequent agitation.

So you have grain and speed. The third element we love about P3200 is its contrast. TMax P3200 has noticeable contrast. It is a dramatic film. Pair it with dramatic light and the results will be eye-catching. The shadows and highlights on P3200 tend to go toward the extreme with shadows getting crunchy and the highlights slipping into bleached white. In good hands, these qualities make for great images, just be mindful that if the highlights or shadows are important to you to meter the image accordingly.

TMax P3200 in the harsh window light of a late afternoon.

Staff member Tracy Pitts likes making images that breaks his subjects down into “parts”. Often he does this by cropping most of them out of the frame but here he has used the high contrast light and TMax P3200’s own high contrast to obscure the face… — Staff member Tracy Pitts likes making images that breaks his subjects down into “parts”. Often he does this by cropping most of them out of the frame but here he has used the high contrast light and TMax P3200’s own high contrast to obscure the faces of these two, leaving just slices of their heads visible.

So that is our review of TMax P3200. It is a film we use when we know we need the speed (low light). Or when we have an itch for grain and grit (texture). Or finally when we are hoping for a bit more contrast in our images (drama). We love TMax P3200 and were heart-broken when Kodak discontinued it in 2012 and likewise elated when it was reintroduced in 2018. TMax P3200 was given a reprieve from death and all of us film photographers have benefited from it returning to the market. So make sure you have taken the chance to try a roll of it. Our only real complaint is that we wished you could get this stuff in 120. We’d love to put this through some medium format cameras!

To secure a roll for yourself today, hit up our website right here.

And that’s it, we’re outta here. Kodak TMax P3200.

Film Friday - October 25th, 2024. Kodak TMax P3200