Re: [Leica] B&W New generation films (To Tri x or not to Tri x)

[Mark Rabiner <mrabiner@concentric.net>]

To me the issue is whether one is going to put stock in the new technology that
has revolutionized first Black and white and then color films:
Tab Grain Technology. Both Kodak and Ilford have their own proprietary methods
of flattening and reshaping silver molecules so they become more sensitive to
light while delivering much sharper, higher resolution and grainless appearing results.
These new films: the Delta and T Max are less tolerant of mindless overexposure;
they require more care in processing.
They have less silver in them but the silver in them does a more refined job.
I resisted:
I spent the last 2 or three years shooting mainly Tri x but this last half of
the year i decided to  go with the Delta for a while. 
Go with the modern technology. 
I used to struggle way back with Kodak's T Max's glitches and the Delta has none
of those problems.
And it's not too thick and it does come in 220. It fixes in a humane amount of time.
So I'm being optimistic on what technology has to offer. 
In a few more months I'll know if it was a mistake and I need to  re-rethink and
go back to Tri X and Pan F. 220 Plus X.
But so far with Xtol the Delta films have refined my way of working in black and
white just in time for the big new thing.
Mark Rabiner
I will say that developing in Xtol has made exactly which film you use less of
an issue. Xtol makes any film certainly workable.

I feel the same about sheet film. Sheet film puts you so far ahead that I used
to think it was not necessary to worry about developing details: which developer
you used. It all seemed to come out great whatever you did. But that's the
opposite story.