Existing stock of HIE - ways to deal with base fog

[TheFlyingCamera]

I just ran shot and processed two rather old rolls of HIE - they were at least eight years old if not older. The one roll had been refrigerated/near-frozen the entire time. The other was shot back in 2004, put aside and forgotten until today. Both had a very obvious level of base fog. What's the best way to deal with this on subsequent rolls (I have six left)? Would benzotriazole work, if I'm souping in Pyrocat HD? Any other thoughts? All input and feedback is much appreciated.

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

More exposure, shorter development, and then try a restrainer like benzotriazole.

 

[TheFlyingCamera]

Well, after scanning my test roll and comparing it to the roll that was shot back in 2004, I'm pretty sure using that old HIE now is a losing proposition. The old stuff was at least very sharp. The roll I just shot is not only mushy but grainy as hell (noticeably more so than the old stuff).
(old stuff)

(new stuff)

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

I can't tell from the scans, but are you sure the "mushy" issue isn't just a focus problem? Did you remember to compensate for IR focus shift (after the long hiatus from IR)?

 

[Vincent Brady]

I'm shooting out of date HIE for the last few years and am still happy with most of the results that I get. I rate the film at 640 ISO and bracket either side of that by 2/3rds of a stop giving me exposures at 400, 640, & 1020 ISO. I develop the film in ID11 (1+1) for 13 minutes. All 3 shots are printable but I usually select the one that requires least effort. You can check out my work and see what you think.

 

[TheFlyingCamera]

I know I'm getting some sharpness loss in the scans from the curl of the film and the fact that I don't have 35mm Betterscanning film holders - I'm just using the Epson holders. But yes, I did focus shift - that was part of the reason for getting the RTS III - all the Contax prime lenses have the focus compensation mark on the barrel. But there is a huge difference in the image quality between the pano shot and the standard 35mm shot that may not be as apparent from the JPEG files as it is when viewing the hi-res scans. I'll re-scan them and post again at higher resolution so you can see better what I mean.

As to exposure, I set the meter at 800, shot through a Hoya RM72 filter, and tried not only exposing on auto, metering through the filter, but also manual exposure using someone's suggested 1/125 @ F11 or thereabouts (I forget what it was now, but it was fresh in my mind at the time I shot). The 1/125th exposures were super-thin and obviously wrong. The auto-exposed negs look pretty good from an exposure point of view.