Infra Red Results

Scan from Rollei 35mm IR film, spring scrimmage at UT, April 5th.


Scan from 35mm contact of frame 15, Efke film tests, Nikon N90s, modified with #87 filter (note light blooms from inaccurate cutting of #87 filter).


I’ve shot Infra red film off and on for most of my 35 years shooting B&W. I loved the Kodak film, liked the Konica, and that was about it. The Ilford is OK, but not as good of an IR effect.

I ordered the two most recommended films from Freestyle. I've shot at least two rolls each of Efke/MACO IR820 and Rollei IR.

Of the two, Rollei is the easiest to use. The results are nice, good "Woods" effect, enough speed to be able to hand shoot without a tripod. I shot a roll with it in a Yashica Electro-35 and most failed to turn out because I had the exposure way.. WAY off with the IR720 filter. The next roll, in the Yashica Lynx 5000 turned out nicely.

I modified my Gossen Luna Pro with a piece of #87 gel filter so it'll read the scene for a better exposure. A test with it at 100 ASA and a roll of Efke showed almost perfect exposures, if a bit long. f/22 at 30 seconds. But the results shows this to be a good exposure. Setting my Nikon at 6 and placing a filter Between the Film Rails didn't work out too well, but relying on the Gossen showed better exposures. The example above shows a scan of a frame shot with the Nikon. 25 second exposure at f/22.

Processing data was a slight push to an adjusted pre-filter ASA of 50, then add in filter factor and get a result of about .5 ISO. Quite slow.

The Rollei, shot in the Yashica at a football scrimmage on a bright sunny day showed a decent ASA of about 4 with a 2 stop push in processing. Hand held exposures were good, most at f/8 at about /60th shutter speed.

My conclusions are mixed. I like the effect of the Efke, but the load in darkness and horrible curl to the 120 loads make it hard as hell to work with, and the extra speed of the Rollei is better for hand held work even if the IR effect is a bit more muted. More tests to follow with different filtering techniques.