Ilford SFX200

[bmac]

I bought a couple of rolls of this film on a whim today. I am headding out to "My Yosemite" Hunter Liggett, tomorrow afternoon and am going to play around with it. I've got my 29 red filter ready to go. Any other tips? I understand that focusing isn;t as hard as with regular ir film. Any thoughts?

 

[Nige]

Well if I had managed to expose the roll that's been floating around in my bag for the last year I might be able to add something useful... as it is, nope can't help

 

[bmac]

lol!

 

[Ed Sukach]

I bought a couple of rolls of this film on a whim today. I am headding out to "My Yosemite" Hunter Liggett, tomorrow afternoon and am going to play around with it. I've got my 29 red filter ready to go. Any other tips? I understand that focusing isn;t as hard as with regular ir film. Any thoughts?

I've used SFX with good results.

One of my next projects (If I can find some way of getting this mountain of "backed up" darkroom work off me) is to really "wring out" focusing with the current available IR films.
No one, it seems, has any trouble with focusing "far" VISIBLE red light, but increase the wavelength a *very* small amount, and, traditionaly, focusing seems to become nearly impossible. To me, there shouldn't be much of a difference.

I notice that on the latest crop of Hasselblad lenses, the red "IR" focusing index mark has been omitted. I wonder if that is because the "near-infrared" films currently in use do not require such a shift. Condsidering the last results from MACO 820 - lots of focus problems, although I meticulously used the "IR index" ... I need to do this "wringing".

 

[Robert Kennedy]

When I have used IR film, I just twist a bit to the right and stop down to around 8 or 11.

Worked for me with all the MF IR out there.

 

[bmac]

Well, I shot a roll of the SFX200 last weekend, and processed it Monday night. I haven't made a contact sheet yet, but the negs look good. They are just as thick as my normal hp5 negs. I processed it in Hc110 for 9 mins at 20c. I'll try to do a scan tomorrow if I get the contact sheet done tonight.

 

[docholliday]

BTW, did you know that the T* coating on standard Hasselblad lenses block all UV and IR light? Look at the Zeiss page for the 250SA...it talks about the reasons that the "specialty" lenses aren't T* coated.

See: http://www.zeiss.de/__c12567a8003b5...3fde0d?OpenDocument&ExpandSection=1#_Section1

(look under the "More>" section)

Anyways, with SFX...I found that the film doesn't respond to IR like HIE, Konica, or any of the other "true" IR films. I have found, though, that SFX is a great film for taking portraits of women. Makes their skin look smoother and silkier. Using a B+W IR filter with SFX didn't do what I expected. It's a rather odd film. Kinda like an extend red film (like Tech Pan) more than IR-like.

Oh, and don't get it too warm. The base fog goes way the hell up!

 

[Les McLean]

Anyways, with SFX...I found that the film doesn't respond to IR like HIE, Konica, or any of the other "true" IR films. I have found, though, that SFX is a great film for taking portraits of women. Makes their skin look smoother and silkier. Using a B+W IR filter with SFX didn't do what I expected. It's a rather odd film. Kinda like an extend red film (like Tech Pan) more than IR-like.

Oh, and don't get it too warm. The base fog goes way the hell up![/quote]

You're absolutely right, it's HP5 with extended red spectrum and is used in the UK in speed trap cameras.

 

[Ed Sukach]

BTW, did you know that the T* coating on standard Hasselblad lenses block all UV and IR light? Look at the Zeiss page for the 250SA...it talks about the reasons that the "specialty" lenses aren't T* coated.
!

This is interesting ... but I suspect that somewhere in this there is a product of "hyping" - overstatement for the sake of advertising. If the "T*" coating "stops UV and IR light" ... or whatever the statement was ... why do the "standard T* coated" lenses have an IR focusing index mark?

The T* coating by itself, might, indeed remove UV ... but the usual lens glasses do that by themselves.

Altogether, I sense the "over use" of superlatives ... "Perfect Correction" which is later modified to "corrected as well as possible" ... so that I'd be suspicious ... skeptical enough to cantact Zeiss and Hasselblad for clarification.