Response to Milky negs with TMY, TMZ in TMax developer

I assume you are using fresh film and fresh developer. T-Max 3200 goes off rather quickly.

It sounds as if you have found what works for you -- XTOL -- so you are probably better off giving up on T-Max dev.

I do use T-Max dev as follows, all at 1+4 24 deg C:

TMY EI 160 5 minutes TMY EI 320 7 minutes TMZ EI 800 9.5 minutes

I rinse the film for about 30s between dev and fix. If you don't rinse or use stop bath, this could explain it.

Note that TMZ isn't normally EI 3200, despite it's name.

You should find that the area between frames and at the film edges are almost clear.

I don't understand "milky". This normally means the film has light patches/streaks/areas when viewed by REFLECTED light, ie put the film down on paper, with the light above it, and look down. If the film is white, this is milkiness due to inadequate fixing.

On the other hand, what happens when you look THROUGH the film? Is the film mostly clear, especially in the shadows (underexposed)? Or are the highlights light grey instead of black (underdevelopment)? The film at the beginning, that got thoroughly exposed when you loaded the camera: is it deep black?

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