1. Get a good DSLR. I use the Canon 1Ds, which is probably out of your price range, but there a lot of other really good DSLR models available. The Canon 10D, Nikon D100, and Fuji S2 are good 6-megapixel cameras.

2. Learn how to use Adobe Photoshop.

3. Get the Convert To B&W Pro plugin from thimagingfactory.com. You start with a color image, specify a lens filter (you have total control over color and density) film response, (there is a setting for T-Max and several other films, but you can make your own film response curve with the 6-band color EQ) and paper contrast. You can also adjust the negative exposure and print exposure. The bottom line is you can achieve any B&W look you want by changing the settings of the converter, including filters and films that do not exist in the film world. Here is an example:


Ten years from now, film will be to photography what horses are to transportation. Learning the power of digital now will increase your artistic flexibility (any darkroom technique can be done digitally, but not all digital techniques can be duplicated in the darkroom) and the marketability of your photographic skills.

Digital Outback just reviewed a BW plugin for PS which has a setting fro TMAX as well as Tri-x and a bunch of other films. You can download a trial to see if you like it. It will print, but is watermarked. I'm kind of impressed with it.

http://www.outbackphoto.com/workflow/wf_29/essay.html

Dan

As I sit here looking at comparisons of film vs. digital, I wonder if in twenty years I'll still be able to buy my favorite film, tmax 400? Maybe. Right now, I'm a photography student at the college of Santa Fe, and I've spent a semester shooting nothing but t-max, producing quite a bit of work in several different directions. I've come to depend quite a bit on the look of the films I use (tmax 400 & 3200 mostly). The specific way the tones are rendered on the film from real life works for me. Now the question: Is there a camera that I can use to reproduce this look? The main problem as I see it is that you couldn't really simulate the grain of either of these films, and that is definitely part of my style.
   I write with a certain kind of pen because I perfer the feel of it, and he same goes for my film- I use a certain type and develope it in a certain way (5 min at 75 degrees for 400) to derive what feels right. All of the digital work I've done thus far is way below par for what I do in the chemical darkroom-scanned slides converted in ps to black and white, scanned tmax, none of it "works" for me. What can I do? The best thing I suppose is what all of us should be doing: go out and shoot while I can. Pick up a used dslr and learn the feel of the digital image. Any suggestions?

I would suggest you expand your tools.  If you loose your favorite pen can you still write?  Or Kodak discontinues T-Max in the future, will you still photograph?  I certainly hope so.  If the school you attend offers digital courses I suggest you sign up for them and expand you choice of tools.  Perhaps contact your advisor and seek their advice on expanding your digital knowledge.  Good luck.

I was just working with a friend's shot from a nikon D2H (? the new one). It was shot at ISO 800. The digital noise was not at all unatractive, it was rather like film grain. We both agreed that noise reduction would in fact spoil the image, as would shooting at a lower ISO.

Matt, once you spend as much time in the digital darkroom as the chemical one, you'll begin to see results. If you hear anyone telling you that digital is easy, ignore them (or better yet, laugh in their face: a big huge guffaw). It is as tough to learn and make art with as chemical.

Recreating the look of T-Max would be a cool way to learn more about Photoshop. For example, I love Polaroid's Polapan film, but since they have discontinued (a sad day), it's been a little project of mine to try to digitally recreate the same look: those over exposed highlights, sharp contrasts, and wonderfully messy grain. (Yes, I love noise and grain.) There may be tools out there to do these looks for you, but if you rely on them, you'll never learn what they are doing. Besides, then your work will just look like someone else's idea of what the best features of T-Max is.