Efke 820, educate me please!

PeteZ8 · Apr 26, 2012

I took a trip to photography mecca last week (B&H) and picked up a few rolls of Efke "Aurora" 820, one 35mm and 2 120 to play with. So someone give me a crash course please. How are you shooting/developing these?

There is a lot of "data" on the web, but it seems most of what I see relating to exposure never references development. I've seen suggestions to rate the film anywhere from 1.5 ISO to 25 ISO with an R72 filter. That's 5 stops difference, and ??? how development affects that. I have D76, HC-110, Diafine, and Perceptol in stock. I'm not particularly concerned with exposure time as long as it isn't into minutes.

I'd love to hear some of your experiences with shooting and developing this film. At $13/roll I'd like to minimize the experiments!

wildbill · Apr 26, 2012

the massive development chart has times for many developers. you'll need to run your own tests though as you're going to get dozens of suggestions and we don't know how you're printing it.
I rate it at 1.5 in bright sun. Bracketing is for sissies.

djhopscotch · Apr 26, 2012

Time of year and location will vary amount of ir, guess n'test is the only real option.

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PeteZ8 · Apr 26, 2012

Thanks for the quick replies. So those that have shot it find the MDC times and ISO's to be accurate? I realize one has to bracket unless one has a lightmeter actually modified for IR, but I plan on shooting mostly in bright sun so IR levels should be reliable.

gmay · Apr 26, 2012

I haven't used the film very often, but I did find the emulsion unusually sticky and dust-prone after development. I suspect that I was careless and let the temperature of the wash get too high, but I have also read that a hardening fixer might help.

Where I was able to clear the negatives, though, the results were very satisfying.

DWThomas · Apr 27, 2012

So far I've used one roll of the 120 non-aura version. Using a 720 nM filter, my results pointed toward using an incident reading at ISO 100 and increasing exposure about six stops (about ISO 1.5). I developed in HC110 dil E (1+47) for 9 minutes at 68ºF. This was just a quick follow-up after running several rolls of the Rollei IR400 on a little project. I have some more EFKE 820 in the fridge that I'll get back to "sometime this summer."

I believe the aura/non-aura is just a matter of antihalation coating, so development should be the same.

EASmithV · Apr 27, 2012

1.5 with a R72. MDC is right on. In bright sun, maybe iso 2 if you want to keep some of your highlights, but seems IR shooters don't like em...

bsdunek · Apr 27, 2012

With the R72 filter, I find that one second at f16 is about right in bright sun. I don't try to use a light meter as they don't read IR.
For developing I've used Ilford Ilfosol 3, diluted 1:9 for about seven minutes. I too had trouble with dust with the EFKE film, but the tonality is great. I tried Rollei IR, and had no problems, but I don't think the IR effect is quite as strong. It is a nice film though

PeteZ8 · Apr 27, 2012

Thanks for the replies everyone. The more intense IR effect of the Efke was why I chose that over the Rollei.

wildbill · Apr 27, 2012

I don't own an IR modified meter.
While I've read about them, my results don't require one at this point. Don't forget about reciprocity after 1 second. That's been covered elsewhere.

LJSLATER · Apr 27, 2012

I heard ISO 25 somewhere, too. I shot a whole roll at ISO 25 with an R72 and got nothing but blank film.

I did try a couple of shots at ISO 100 without a filter, and those turned out perfectly.

I'm going to try ISO 2 next time with the R72--I like to shoot with larger apertures and shorter shutter speeds. I think some have reported lower ISOs because of reciprocity failure.

Rhodes · Apr 27, 2012

The kodak guide fo IR film gives 1/25 at f/8 for distant scenes and 1 sec. at f/22 or 1/10 at f/6.3 with kodak filter Nº 25 (A) and with no filter 1/50 at f/16, but this is for kodak infrared film, do not know if it's the same for the aura.

MattKing · Apr 27, 2012

Rhodes said:
The kodak guide fo IR film gives 1/25 at f/8 for distant scenes and 1 sec. at f/22 or 1/10 at f/6.3 with kodak filter Nº 25 (A) and with no filter 1/50 at f/16, but this is for kodak infrared film, do not know if it's the same for the aura.

The Kodak IE film was singular - way more sensitive than anything else.

For anyone who wonders why there is so much uncertainty:
1) the human eye cannot see into the IR range;
2) almost all light meters are not sensitive to IR;
3) the amount of IR present in ambient light varies considerably according to a number of factors which are difficult to analyze and predict;
4) different subjects reflect different amounts of IR light, and it is hard to predict results; and
5) different films have different amounts of IR sensitivity.

But it is fun to experiment!

eclarke · Apr 27, 2012

I measure the ev of the green I want to affect at 320 iso. A very little trial and error gave me my times. At an ev of 9 with the B+W 092 it's f22.5 for about three minutes. At ev of 16 it's f22.5 for 25 seconds. It's fairly linear between these values. My go to developer for it is FX37, 1+3, 68 deg. in a Jobo, 5'15" to5'30". I use lots of the Aura...

polyglot · Apr 28, 2012

Dead Link Removed.

Efke 820, educate me please!

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