Response to What is your favorite film for push processing?

Since the statement of the push performnce of APX-400, TrI-X and HP-5+ belongs to me, I feel somehow involved in this discussion. Of course, this is purely up to the photographer to choose the way of his or her work, i.e. the look of the prints, but I think there are some more or less objective characteristics. I absolutely agree, on the contrast issue. Pushing by 2 stops will lead to a gamma index of 0.75 to 0.8 and undaoubtedly some shadow detail will be lost. If a smoother tonal gradation is desired, the best choice for me would be Neopan 1600. I found that the grain is comparible to HP5?+ pushed to ISO 1600 with lower contrast. Underrating it to ISO 1000 gives me even better results. I should state here, that often I push HP5 or Tri-X not because more speed is needed (of course this does not hurt enybody) but because I just like the way it looks. Concerning T-grain films, many people, including me believe that they are slightly overrated, with the nominal speed of TMY for instance being around ISO 320. On the other hand it's also well known that all these have narrow expousure latitude particulary towards underexposure, so I think their push performance isn't that good. There is one thing clear, prints made from pushed old and new tech films will look different and finally it's all up to the personal taste.

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