> Does this go by another name today? Kodak's web site does not list any
> film named Tri-Pan-X.
I'm assuming he meant "Tri-X" which happens to be a panochromatic
film. In otherwords, not an orthographic film. Unfortunately, it's not
really what I would consider to be a high-resolution film. The grain
does respond well to manipulation via developer, though, and will give
excellent edge-detail.
> The highest resolution B&W professional film
> listed there is Kodak Professional T-MAX 100. Very good resolution
> (looks to be about 125 lines/mm at 50% contrast) but it would likely
> require studio conditions and massive camera support to take advantage
> of it.
I personally prefer Ilford Delta 100 over T-Max 100 due to the way it
handles highlights and the extended toe and shoulder. What may seem
odd to some is that Delta 100 resolves better than Pan-F, but the
tonalities are quite different.
> Of course, with film you also have the option of (cheaply) going to
> larger formats. You could use the more pedestrian T-MAX 400 (closer to
> 35mm size digital in resolution) and still beat 35mm digital on total
> image detail using 2-1/4 or larger... assuming you're not shooting at
> f/64. :-)
Tri-X in 4x5 is glorious stuff. However, it's not about resolution,
but tonal gradients. Pan-F in medium-format is a marriage made in
heaven. For the B&W landscape photographer, that is one of the best
combinations ever.
Resolving ability? Many of you will remember a photograph from a few
years ago of this old abandoned farm house on a hillside. The 35mm
verson on HP5 shows these stain marks on the wood where the nails are.
The 4x5 on Delta 100 version reveals the rust pattern on the nails
themselves. And that was from a poor Kodak lens on the Crown Graphic.
The discussion of diffraction limits is pretty fascinating. I will
admit that I run up against the diffraction limits on FILM, but not so
much on DIGITAL. It seems that the diffraction limits are partially
obscurred by the AA filter and even at that, the same type of
sharpening used to counter the AA filter is also useful in providing
enough false resolution in countering the lens diffraction. But the
other problem I run across with film, which is a total non-issue with
digital is halation blurring. This look a lot like diffraction, but
occurs where colors or highlights will bleed into neighboring dark
areas. As mentioned before, Fujichrome Provia 100F is simply aweful
when it comes to halation blurring. Another film I have always
struggled with in this regard is Ilford HP5.
AG
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