Kodak P3200 TMAX Review - Photo Jottings

Kodak P3200 TMAX Review

I finally tried out the roll of Kodak P3200 Tmax I bought when it first came out, and below are some samples for you to look through.  At first glance I notice the film grain is quite fine and sharp for such a high speed emulsion.  Based on some of the shots where the sun is still out, but low in the sky, the film doesn’t like to be over-exposed too much, so don’t use it at ISO 3200 when the light is bright like I did in a couple of images below; it’s not like color print film where you can over-expose by three or four stops and the picture still looks fine.

Some people are thinking this is ISO 3200 film, but it’s not, that’s the exposure index, not the ISO rating.  Ilford Delta 3200 is actually ISO 1000, and TMAX P3200 is ISO 1000-800 depending on the type of developer used.  The ‘P’ in the P3200 is ‘push’ which would be a two stop push for the listed EI.  If you have a lab develop this for you, make sure you tell them what you exposed it at.  The DX coding is 3200.

I used the excellent metering and sharp Nikon 35Ti camera in auto mode for the most part, except for the really dark shots; and for those I opened the aperture all the way to F/2.8 and used about a 1/15-1/30 shutter speed with no flash.

I’ve used Ilford Delta 3200 in a medium format camera, but for some reason I haven’t posted those pictures, however, I did include one at the bottom to show the differences.  The ‘Darkroom’ has a good comparison with Kodak P3200 and Ilford Delta 3200, see it here.

Get your Kodak P3200 film here, (B&H, Amazon, ebay)

Here’s some info from Kodak about TMAX P3200:

Below are some images I took while starting out on a late afternoon walk through the woods, and ended in town when it was dark.

I used the Nikon 35Ti and exposed at ISO 3200.  Scanned on a Nikon Coolscan 9000 ED.  Pictures are sized are 3000 pixels wide, and that’s about all the detail you’re going to get in 135 format.

Click pictures for larger versions.

Holt Avenue, the main drag through the ‘hood.  Some late afternoon sunlight hitting the trees, but no blow-outs, and the shadows are not too dark.

Cottage of content.  The sun has set, but it’s still bright out.  Auto exposure.

Here I used exposure compensation (+1-2ev) to get some shadow detail, and it’s blown out the highlights in the tree branches against the blue sky.

Ride-up Starbucks.  It’s pretty dark out, but the sky isn’t black.

Fudge laden ‘Ice Cream’ Shop.  Gross florescent lighting here, but no need for color correction, yes!  Probably F/2.8 at 1/30s.

Giant Tortoise roaming the sidewalks of this sleepy harbor town.

Deserted streets, and the cars are gone.  Here it’s really dark and the sky is black.

Old boarding house.  Street lamps are the primary light source here.

Just for fun I used the tiny flash on the Nikon 35Ti and this is how much it lit up the house!!  The place is really blown out and wrecks the shot.

Night scene, Ilford Delta 3200, F/3.5 at 1/30s handheld.  4000 pixels wide.  This scene was taken with the Fuji GW690III.  The 6×9 negative is much larger than 135, but there isn’t much more detail present here due to the larger grain of Ilford Delta 3200.

That’s is for this post; I only ran one roll through the camera, so when I shoot more I may write up a proper review.  Get your Kodak P3200 film here, (B&H, Amazon, ebay)

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