This Film Friday is very much the second part of a two-part series that started with a previous entry on TMax 100 and is concluding today with TMax 400. If you have not read our post on TMax 100, we highly encourage you to do so right here, as these two films are very similar in their many great qualities.

Tmax 400 came into the world in 1986, at the same time as its slower speed brother. You can think of them as near identical twins, in fact. Since its introduction, TMax 400 has helped define a whole new generation of black and white films with its tabular grain structure, high resolution, and sharp image details.

Excerpt from a TMax 400 wedding, shot in harsh light at that. Image made with a Wista 4x5.

Like TMax 100, TMax 400 uses a tabular grain structure that allows the silver crystals in the film emulsion to have more light-catching surface area without necessarily being larger in grain size. In addition, the film grains themselves are arranged in a smoother pattern, so even as the grain of the film necessarily has to get a bit larger to accommodate the faster speed, the smoother pattern means the human eye notices the increased grain size less. All of this works to create a very smooth looking film in both of the TMax emulsions. Here take a look at this sample image and the magnified crop from it.

Grand Central Station on TMax 400. Image made with a modified Holga.

A highly magnified crop of the above image. While the grain is visible, note how smooth its pattern is. TMax 400 has beautiful grain, so even if you do end up noticing it, odds are you are going to like it as an element of the image.

Along with the smooth, fine grain, TMax 400 also boasts excellent sharpness and extremely high resolution. We wrote in that previous TMax 100 piece about how good that film resolves and because of that quality it gets used frequently to test lens sharpness. Well, TMax 400 actually has the same 200 lines/mm resolving power as its slower counterpart! That is a pretty amazing accomplishment. The film is faster, and thus grainier, but it resolves just as well as a film two stops slower than it. So even if you are shooting it in 35mm, you can expect your images to have plenty of fine detail and will likely be held back only by the limitations of your lens and not the capabilities of your film.

Along with those aforementioned qualities there is a couple of other things TMax 400 does that you should know about. First off, it pushes up to ISO 1600 really well. Yes, you can expect increased grain and contrast, but the film is quite capable of stepping up when needed and nicely fills the speed gap between it and the ultra-high speed TMax P3200 (which itself can be shot quite nicely as low as ISO 800). In other words, if you have a roll of TMax 100, TMax 400 and TMax P3200 in your camera bag you could handle any situation requiring film speeds between ISO 25-12800 just through pushing and pulling of one of these three films. That is an incredible range of versatility that should not be overlooked. Break out of that box speed mentality!

Furthermore, TMax 400 comports itself quite admirably in the reciprocity failure department making it a very strong choice for long exposures. Per Kodak’s data sheets, you need to kick in 1/3 of a stop of extra exposure starting at 10 seconds. Put another way, you could forego any reciprocity compensation for up to 10 second exposures and not see any detrimental impact on your final images. After 10 seconds the film starts to need a bit of extra help and by the time you reach 100 seconds (roughly a minute and a half) you should be adding 1.5 stops. So that 100 second exposure becomes a 300 second exposure (five minutes). While not great, this is not bad either. Many films hit that +1 stop extra exposure needed benchmark much sooner than TMax 400 does.

Roughly a 15 second exposure with no reciprocity failure compensation calculated. Image made with a Pentax 67.

And that is our pitch for TMax 400. As we said at the beginning of this piece, call up the Film Friday entry on TMax 100 and treat it as a companion piece for today as these two films share many qualities and their biggest difference is simply in their effective film speed. TMax 400 is a great carry-around film that will allow you to handle most lighting conditions you will encounter, all the while giving you really smooth, sharp and detailed images. We sometimes like to bemoan the death of certain films and talk about favorite film stocks of yore that are no longer with us, but the truth is, we have some really amazing film stocks still available right now on the market that we should be using more than we already do. TMax 400 is one of those films. Overlook it no longer!

To pick up a roll of TMax 400, just follow this link right here.

Meanwhile, we will close this off with a few more images to get you primed even further.

That same harshly-lit TMax 400 wedding as the first image in this piece. Notice how well the film handled being used in open shade on a bright, sunny day. Image made with a Wista 4x5.

An example of TMax’s smooth tonality. Image made with a Rolleiflex 2.8C.

TMax 400 at Lost Lake in Oregon. Image made with a Hasselblad Flexbody.

Need fine detail emphasized? Get some TMax 400. Image made with a Rolleiflex 2.8C.

Film Friday - August 25th, 2023. Kodak TMax 400.