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My first attempt with SFX200

Paul Manuell

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I'm really chuffed with how these came out. Following advice in a very useful post in another thread on here, I shot these with an IR72 filter and set the shutter speed to 4 stops slower than the unfiltered meter reading at my chosen f stop (f11). There were a couple shots that I really wanted as 'keepers' so I bracketed a couple more on each of them, giving them 5 and 6 stops over the non filtered readings, but in these cases the 4 stops over was still the best.

All shots are straight out of camera except the one second from bottom. That one got a slight rotation to straighten the monument a bit and a slight lightening, but that's it.
 
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Those all look great. I never have used the R72 filter on SFX. You should try a medium red filter on a few frames, it has a completely different look, well not completely. But it is nice. Here is what it do:

SFX (Ilford) (red filter no.25;EI32) HC-110h, 18 minutes, 30 sec, 3 inversions per 4 minutes, 68 degrees
 
Thank you for the compliment on the photos. I don't develop my own films, but wouldn't a medium red filter lessen the infrared look compared to a full on infrared (IR72) one?
 
Paul Manuell said:
Thank you for the compliment on the photos. I don't develop my own films, but wouldn't a medium red filter lessen the infrared look compared to a full on infrared (IR72) one?
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Yes considerably. I have used a red 25 with SFX and what you get is the black or blackish skies and water such as blue sea will be similarly blackish. There may be just a little glow from whiteish objects but the "Wood effect" is virtually non- existent in my experience.

A red puts you in the more comfortable handheld speeds but from these scenes you took, 4 stops over were enough which is only one stop extra from a red 25. With say a 28mm lens on a 35mm camera of an MF equivalent lens your DoF will give you handheld speeds at f8

pentaxuser
 
The shutter speed for the majority of my shots was 1/15th, so borderline hand holdable with the wideangle (45mm) and standard (75mm) I used, but I always use a tripod anyway.
 
These are great! 35mm or medium format?
 
A very good result indeed. You just have to get the exposure and development contrast right and -----BANG! It all come together.
 
BMbikerider said:
A very good result indeed. You just have to get the exposure and development contrast right and -----BANG! It all come together.
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Thank you for the compliment. I'm happy with my exposures but am afraid I can't claim anything for the development as that was done for me by someone else.
 
Some nice results; I particularly like the 2nd to last one.

I've yet to try any infrared film myself.
 
Much, much better than I would have expected. You should be chuffed.
 
pbromaghin said:
Yes, definitely. Much better than I have so far produced.
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How did you shoot your SFX200? The thread I referred to in my op here was called something along the lines of 'Rollei IR400S - it's not HIE but WOW'. In that thread there's a post where the photographer provides comparison photos of exactly the same scene but shot at different exposures and with different filters. To actually see those differences proved invaluable, and it's that post that made me shoot my first roll the way I did, ie., 4 stops over the unfiltered shutter speed.
 
My first try was with 2 different cameras, a postwar Zeiss Ikonta 6x6 with a novar lens and a prewar super ikonta 6x4.5 with a tessar. Both were developed in d-76 1+1, probably with excessive agitation, at a low temp off the bottom of the chart so I had extrapolate the time. For each scene I did a reference with no filter, metered at 200 iso, then add the filter and shot 1 each at +4, +5, +6 stops. The 6x6 film came out just terribly grainy, the 6x4.5 came out slightly better. The woods effect was rather mild.

Since then, I put another roll through the 6x4.5, all at +4 stops, and had it developed by a lab that uses D-76 full strength. They came out much better but not near anything you did. If you go into my media you can see 4 shots near the top from the San Diego Japanese Garden.
 
I'm the OP of the thread mentioned above. I'm glad you found that post useful. Your photos on SFX 200 look good to me too.
 
Wonderful subject choice. Great results. Can you find out how it was developed? Developer,times and such? I'd love to see some big prints of #1 and 7.
 
Does anyone have development times of SFX and Rollei IR 400 for 35mm, 120, and sheet film in
  • stock XTOL
  • replenished XTOL
  • in XTOL in a Job Processor
  • replenished XTOL in a Jobo processor?
 
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