HIE in T-MAX reversal kit

[Otto Giesenfeld <otto.giesenfeld@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello,

This weekend, I tried developing HIE in the Kodak T-MAX 100 Direct Positive
Film Development Outfit, something others have reportedly done with
success. I exposed the film through a B+W 092 filter (89B equivalent) and
metered with a handheld meter, bracketing with five exposures between EI
100 and EI 1600. For all seven subjects that fit on the roll, the EI 200 or
EI 400 shot turned out best.

Just to check the correctness of my processing, I also developed a roll of
T-MAX 100 in the same small stainless steel tank. All frames on that roll
were metered at EI 50, as recommended by Kodak. The resulting pictures were
perhaps a little bit underexposed, but all in all they came out very nicely.

Now to the problem: While the dark or unexposed areas of the T-MAX slides
are completely black (you can just about see the filament of a halogen lamp
through them), unexposed areas of the HIE film look gray when viewed in
front of a strong light source. And, most importantly, in practice, the
projected HIE slides look a bit dull due to the lack of density.

So, should I suspect a problem with the process and add sodium sulfite to
the first developer in order to increase contrast? Or shorten the first
development time and/or increase the second development time? Or has my
film simply suffered from fogging by infrared light? I must admit that this
is the first roll of HIE that I develop, so it is possible that, for
example, the bathroom where I loaded the films onto their spools let in
some IR light. (In which case it is natural that the T-MAX film was
unaffected.) Or the old Kindermann stainless steel tank I used may not be
completely IR-safe.

Could anyone who has some experience with HIE in this chemistry comment on
the maximum density to be expected--especially compared to T-MAX 100
developed using the same procedure.

Best regards,

Otto Giesenfeld
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