Testing the Re-released Kodak T-MAX P3200 Film

When Kodak discontinued T-MAX P3200 film back in 2012, I had never shot any so didn’t really miss it. They recently brought it back so I thought I’d give it a try.

KODAK PROFESSIONAL T-MAX P3200 Black & White Negative Film is a multi-speed continuous-tone panchromatic black-and-white negative film that combines high to ultra-high film speeds with finer grain than that of other fast black-and-white films

Here’s a link to the T-MAX P3200 Data Sheet (pdf)

I shoot mostly indoors and that means using faster film whenever possible. T-MAX P3200 is rated at EI 800 when exposed and processed normally, but they claim that “Because of its great latitude, you can expose this film at EI 1600 and yield negatives of high quality…with only a small loss of shadow detail.” I like high-contrast, grainy photos so I decided to go for it and try shooting it at 3200.

I put a roll in the Nikon F3, set the ISO to 3200 and just plinked a few shots around the house. I processed it in HC-110 (dilution B) for 9 minutes at 70 degrees (F). I scanned it on the Pakon, then imported into Lightroom and applied minor contrast adjustments only.

At first glance, I like it. Of course it’s quite grainy but that’s expected and actually desirable to me. It’s wild being able to shoot indoors with very low light and still get the shutter speed up to 160 or more, even at F4.

Here are a few from my first roll.