Response to TMAX 400 grainy negatives

Makis, You might try Kodak Xtol developer instead of T-Max. T-Max is a high energy soup that doesn't do much for grain. Long ago at RIT they had us print everything in 11x14. One reason was to quickly dissuade everyone that 35mm is suitable for professional looking 11x14s. Things have changed, and films like TMAX let us get much more out of small negatives, but you still have to have excellent technique. Shoot some T-Max 100 carefully and on a tripod. Don't overexpose it, as that will spoil sharpness. Print it and use it as a standard of comparison. You can do better with some more exotic combinations, but this should produce a very high quality 11x14 or larger print. BTW, I enjoyed you request for "reduce grain without any trade-offs..."!

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