Req dev for HIE

Hi all,

My first roll of Kodak B&W High Speed Infra-red is currently residing in my fridge awaiting processing. Any recommendations for a film dev would be appreciated.

(I normally use Ilfotec DDX for my B&W, but this isn't on Kodak's recommended list. Any thoughts?)

Thanks in advance,

Frank

Frank, I haven't done any testing myself, but the Massive Dev Chart lists times for just about every developer besides DDX. Going from memory here, but I believe that when we shot it in my college photo class many moons ago we used Rodinal to develop it.

Thanks, Brian. I have already consulted the Massive Dev Chart (I even have a copy on my Palm unit!). As DDX isn't on it for HIE, what I was really after was a personal recommendation from someone who's tried a few devs with this emulsion and found one they really like.

Still, thanks for the reply anyhow.

Regards,

Frank

For 35mm, I use XTOL. I think Kodak's time in the HIE box was a little short (8-9 minutes? should be more like 10-12). I've heard to avoid Rodinal, and that PMK would be interesting. I only shoot in bright sunlight, 1/8" at F32 or equivalent.

Thanks for the advice. I don't like powder devs too much (I'm lazy!) so in the end I followed some advice I found on photo.net; TMax at 20C for 6.5 mins, agitated gently for 10 secs each minute. The results seems okay for a first go and I've learnt a lot from the whole exercise!

Thanks again,

Frank

Only shot a couple of rolls of HIE so far. But can recommend Kodak Xtol 1:1 to develop it. I used the times from the Kodak J-109 Xtol publication:

http://www.kodak.com/global/en/professional/support/techPubs/j109/j109TableRollFilms3.jhtml#table3

I think I used the times for the 0.65 contrast index (CI). Also, I took my photo teacher's advice and used a red #25 filter. Set the camera to F/11 at 1/250th sec and bang away. I also bracketed the speed below at 1/125 and above at 1/500. But more often than not the original 1/250th sec exposure was my favorite. Don't bother with the meter sice you really can't meter infrared wavelength anyway. Hence the bracketing... ;-)

A good book on the subject is "Infrared Photography Handbook" by Laurie White. She has some good recommendations for starting out like the red filter one above. Only three problems with HIE so far. One is that you will get "hotspots" or large differences between shade and sun. So a lot of burning in or dodging to make a decent print may be needed. Second is that HIE is only avail in 35mm (135) and in 150ft length of 70mm arial film sizes. No 120, 220 or sheet film anymore... :-( It's also very expen$ive at $11.00 at B&H the last time I bought a few. Last but not least you need to be extra careful not to expose the canister to light. Infrared can easily go through the felt light trap on the canister and fog your film. Either bring a film changing bag with you if you want to change your roll in the field or leave the film in the camera and wait until you get home or to a darkroom. A few shots I have with HIE are at:

http://www.photo.net/photodb/user?user_id=302315

"Church Tower" in Archetecture folder, "White Leaves" in Nature folder, "Baseball Players" and "On the Bench" in People folder.