I started using Tri-X pan film when I was 17 years old: that’s an almost-40 year relationship with, of alll things, an emulsion.
Kodak has kept TX amazingly consistent over its 5 decades in production. There have been incremental improvements in speed, shadow detail, grain et al., but there was never a wholesale disruption of the TX ‘look and feel.’
Kodak did bring B&W products called TMAX to market that were very different (and not, initially, much appreciated). Wise choice to leave TX be, IMHO.
I’m amazed you can still buy this stuff: but I also note that B&W photos seem to be gaining in popularity (mostly produced digitally). Most popular photo programs (iPhoto is one) feature B&W conversion.
At some point, I will have to write an ode, or an essay or something about ‘Tri X and me.’ At the moment, I am very tempted to put the M8 into B&W mode at ISO 400 (the Leica actually will set ISO 640 – the ‘European’ setting), load the Leica MP with TX, and shoot side-by-side, just to see what we get. Today’s gray skies are perfect for ISO 400…
As I took the bottom off the M8 after our walk this morning, I had a sudden fear that I was about to expose the film. Holy 20-years-ago, Batman! The M8’s SD chip is unlikely to be affected by inrushing photons, as a roll of un-rewound TRi-X would have been, once upon a time.
Funny reflex, I guess, caused by the ‘baseplate ritual.’ the Leica’s pop-the-baseplate system was old school and hard to use in film days much less in the digital era. I wonder how many times I opened a Leica while I was working as a press photographer? The M8 really is such a relative digital dinosaur, and its magnesium and brass chassis feels like a film camera.
The odd thing, it occurs to me, is that features (like an easy-to-access SD chip) on the earlier Leica Digilux 2 are missing on the M8. The designer really had to work to go backward to the film era models. Go figure…
So we took a short spin around the block while Linda was jogging this AM: our first outing in nearly 2 weeks. We are feeling better: the edema seems to be moderating: I can walk! Yay! We even took our trusty M8 on our short journey and snapped a couple of pix.
We are pretty weak thanks to the steroids and relative inactivity. We also restarted aggressive chemo last Tuesday, so we have the fatigue thing going on, and may wind up with mild anemia as well before things settle down. Quite a confluence of side effects: in retrospect, had we chosen not to do radiation therapy, we’d likely be in pretty good shape. But, then, how was one to know…?
But I’ll take the increased mobility, and keep working on improving strength. No sense crying over spilled milk: we’ll just make our way best we can. I’m hoping to get back to work on Monday… fingers crossed…