A Review of the Kodak TX400

Every time I read photography related forums on the internet, there were always people who claim that Tri-X is their favorite film ever and suggest everyone use it. To fulfill my curiosity, I bought a roll a year ago but slide film was always chosen to be loaded in my cameras.

Then I learned more about street photography and I found that it is more suitable to use black and white film. Finally, I loaded my LC-A+ with the Tri-X and rated it at a higher speed than the box speed and so I went shooting.

The results I got from Tri-X were high contrast and far from a fine-grain look but these characteristics make me like this film a lot. The grain looks nice and the film still can capture the details on the highlight and shadow even when I only used available light during the night. The other characteristic that I like about this film is that you can push the film beyond what other films cannot handle really well. When pushing/shooting the film at a higher speed such as at 800, 1600 or more, smaller opening setting of the aperture is possible, thus create greater depth of field. In other words, even if you forget to set the focus properly, the pictures will still be sharp and well focused. That is what I rarely got from shooting ISO 100 or ISO 200 slide films.

Fortunately for me, local camera store here sells Tri-X in bulk (100feet roll). Combine this with developing the film myself, I can save a lot and shoot more. Some photographers swear to use this film until it is no longer produced. I think I will do the same.

This article was written by Lomographer nerdcist. Create a LomoHome and follow fellow analogue souls.

written by nerdcist on 2010-03-07 #gear #black-and-white #review #grain #high-contrast #pushed #kodak-tri-x #400tx