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J-86 keeps two T-MAX 100 time rows under different product names

Shows that Kodak J-86 December 2017 publishes two different development-time rows for T-MAX 100 under the labels “T-MAX 100 Professional” and “PROFESSIONAL T-MAX 100” in the same T-MAX Developer and T-MAX RS tables, that those rows disagree at overlapping temperatures, and that F-4016’s matching T-MAX Developer and T-MAX RS cells for current PROFESSIONAL T-MAX 100 Film agree only with the PROFESSIONAL-named rows — so a quoted “J-86 T-MAX 100 time” has to name which product-line label the row carries.

Published by AnalogFixer ·

Kodak publication J-86, KODAK PROFESSIONAL T-MAX Developers, December 2017 (Revised 12-17), does not give one T-MAX 100 development-time row per table. In the small-tank and rotary tables for T-MAX Developer, and again in the small-tank table for T-MAX RS Developer and Replenisher, it prints two film labels:

  • T-MAX 100 Professional
  • PROFESSIONAL T-MAX 100

Those labels are not aliases for one shared time set. At the same exposure index and temperature they publish different minutes. Film sheet F-4016 for current KODAK PROFESSIONAL T-MAX 100 Film / 100TMX (June 2018) matches only the PROFESSIONAL T-MAX 100 rows. This article compares that split. It is not a development recipe, and it does not decide which label names which emulsion.

The two labels on one developer sheet

On page 10, under Small-Tank Processing (8- or 16-ounce tank)—Rolls for KODAK PROFESSIONAL T-MAX Developer, the EI 100/200 lines read:

Label on J-86 68°F (20°C) 70°F (21°C) 72°F (22°C) 75°F (24°C)
T-MAX 100 Professional 8 7½ 7 6½
PROFESSIONAL T-MAX 100 7½ 7 6½ 6¼

The same page’s T-MAX 400 block does the opposite documentary thing: it merges the two naming styles onto one row — T-MAX 400 Professional and PROFESSIONAL T-MAX 400 — with one time set. For T-MAX 100, J-86 keeps the names apart and keeps the times apart. The sheet does not say that one label supersedes the other, that the emulsions are the same, or that the emulsions differ. It simply prints two rows.

The bold cells in J-86’s tables are the sheet’s suggested starting points. On both of these EI 100/200 lines the bold figure sits at 75°F: 6½ under the legacy-style label, 6¼ under the PROFESSIONAL label. Even the suggested starting points disagree.

Table showing two T-MAX 100 development time rows under different product names in J-86.

Rotary times reverse the direction of the gap

Page 11’s Rotary-Tube Processing—Rolls table for the same T-MAX Developer repeats the dual labels. At EI 100/200 the gap does not merely persist; its sign flips relative to the small-tank table:

Label on J-86 68°F 70°F 72°F 75°F
T-MAX 100 Professional 6½ 6½ 6 5½
PROFESSIONAL T-MAX 100 7¾ 7¼ 6¾ 6¼

In small-tank work the T-MAX 100 Professional row is longer than the PROFESSIONAL row at every overlapping temperature above. In rotary work it is shorter. That is a published, method-specific disagreement between the two labels on one sheet, not a single offset a reader could absorb into “the old name ran a bit longer.”

T-MAX RS repeats the split

The earlier small-tank table for KODAK T-MAX RS Developer and Replenisher (page 3) uses the same two film labels. At EI 100/200:

Label on J-86 68°F 70°F 72°F 75°F
T-MAX 100 Professional 8 7 7 6
PROFESSIONAL T-MAX 100 8 7½ 7 6¼

Here the 68°F cells match. The 70°F and 75°F cells do not. The dual-row pattern is therefore not an artefact of one T-MAX Developer table layout; it appears under both products named on J-86.

F-4016 matches only the PROFESSIONAL rows

F-4016 June 2018 titles the product KODAK PROFESSIONAL T-MAX 100 Film and identifies it as 100TMX. Its small-tank and rotary tables do not reprint the older T-MAX 100 Professional label. Against J-86’s EI 100/200 PROFESSIONAL rows, the F-4016 cells examined here line up:

Method / developer on F-4016 68°F 70°F 72°F 75°F Matches J-86 label
Small tank, T-MAX (1:4) 7½ 7 6½ 6¼ PROFESSIONAL T-MAX 100 (Developer)
Small tank, T-MAX RS 8 7½ 7 6¼ PROFESSIONAL T-MAX 100 (RS)
Rotary rolls, T-MAX (1:4) 7¾ 7¼ 6¾ 6¼ PROFESSIONAL T-MAX 100 (Developer, rotary)

None of those F-4016 rows matches the T-MAX 100 Professional times at the temperatures where the two J-86 labels disagree. F-4016 does not point to J-86; the match is cell-by-cell identity under the PROFESSIONAL naming, not a cross-reference that resolves the dual rows. The CI targets on those same J-86 starting-point tables are a separate claim-class problem; see Contrast Index, BETA, and average contrast name different targets.

What a citation has to carry

Anyone quoting a T-MAX 100 development time “from J-86” is quoting one of two published product-line rows unless the citation names the label. On the December 2017 J-86 sheet, T-MAX 100 Professional and PROFESSIONAL T-MAX 100 are separate rows with different minutes in the T-MAX Developer small-tank and rotary tables and in the T-MAX RS small-tank table; the T-MAX 400 block on the same sheet shows that Kodak can merge both naming styles onto one time set when it chooses to; F-4016’s current PROFESSIONAL T-MAX 100 Film tables match only the PROFESSIONAL-named J-86 rows.

No sheet in the sources examined here explains why the two T-MAX 100 labels keep different times, states that one row is obsolete, or authorises substituting one label’s times for the other. Treating the labels as interchangeable, averaging the cells, or importing a T-MAX 100 Professional minute into a PROFESSIONAL T-MAX 100 / F-4016 citation goes past the documents.

References