SFX 200 Ilford B&W Extended Red Sensitivity film

[colyn]

I just ordered a couple of rolls from Freestyle.

Any comments, experience, etc??

 

[Chris101]

No, but I am curious to hear yours. This is an intriguing film.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Good stuff. I've been using it since before it came out (I have friends at Ilford...)With a deep red filter it's like more dramatic HP5 (and grainier) and with a visually opaque filter (T50 715nm or so) set your hand-held meter to EI 3 to EI 12: you can get some true IR effect (white foliage, very dark skies, etc.)

Cheers,

R.

 

[niblue]

I used it quite a bit a decade or so back and one of my film cameras actually has a roll loaded at the moment. I quite liked it - it's not as IR sensitive as Kodak HIE however with a red or, preferably, deep red filter it still gives an IR look and often at hand-held shutter speeds.

I don't have that many shots scanned and online however here are a couple of examples:

These were taken about 11 years ago and I can't now recall whether I was using a normal red or a deep red filter.

 

[mr_phillip]

It's an interesting film. It doesn't really show any IR effects unless you use a proper opaque IR filter (I use a Hoya R72). Even then the IR effect is less pronounced than a proper IR film would be, but the Ilford is far easier to handle and live with than any IR film (you can load/unload the Ilford in daylight for one thing).

If you shoot it with no filter then it just looks like a grainier HP5+ with slightly compressed tones – more than acceptable if you suddenly spot something that you want to shoot without any wacky effects.

FYI, I don't know how you plan to develop it, but I find it works really well in DD-X.

Some examples from my Flickr stream (all with the Hoya filter):

 

[titrisol]

Xcellent film, get a 720nm filter to get full effect

Since that filter is opaque RF cameras are ideal to shoot IR

I prefer DDX as developer, even though Amaloco AM74 produced very good negs that I have not yet scanned though

 

[rich815]

Nice shots mr_phillip! I shot some of this years and years ago and was disappointed (bland and grainy!) but later found it was because I did not use the right filter. Now I've won a few rolls and the proper filter in a recent photo contest and am almost done with the first roll. Was thinking D-76 for development but I do have some DD-X too. Can those here talking about using DD-X with this film give me some times for development? I shot it at EI 12 with the deep red filter Ilford sells to use with this film. Thanks.

 

[colyn]

Xcellent film, get a 720nm filter to get full effect

Since that filter is opaque RF cameras are ideal to shoot IR

I prefer DDX as developer, even though Amaloco AM74 produced very good negs that I have not yet scanned though

I have the Leitz Rm filter which I will be trying with this film.

i ordered DDX from Freestyle since none of the photo shops here carry it. It's supposed to be here Monday..

 

[colyn]

Good stuff. I've been using it since before it came out (I have friends at Ilford...)With a deep red filter it's like more dramatic HP5 (and grainier) and with a visually opaque filter (T50 715nm or so) set your hand-held meter to EI 3 to EI 12: you can get some true IR effect (white foliage, very dark skies, etc.)

Cheers,

R.

My film arrived today along with the DDX developer and I plan to give it a try this weekend.

Is the Leitz deep red Rm filter the same as those you list above??

 

[titrisol]

Awesome, with a 720nm fillter (Wratten 89 or equivalent) the factor is about 4 stops so meter as ASA 12 for shooting
Bracket +/-1 for the first roll and evaluate after development.

I don't know if you camera has TTL metering, but it is almost useless with IR filters.

 

[mr_phillip]

Nice shots mr_phillip! I shot some of this years and years ago and was disappointed (bland and grainy!) but later found it was because I did not use the right filter. Now I've won a few rolls and the proper filter in a recent photo contest and am almost done with the first roll. Was thinking D-76 for development but I do have some DD-X too. Can those here talking about using DD-X with this film give me some times for development? I shot it at EI 12 with the deep red filter Ilford sells to use with this film. Thanks.

Thanks. Those shots were all souped in DD-X 1+4 for 10 minutes (which I think is Ilford's recommendation). Temp is 20 degrees, agitation is the usual constant for the first minute, then 10 seconds in every minute thereafter.

 

[Roger Hicks]

My film arrived today along with the DDX developer and I plan to give it a try this weekend.

Is the Leitz deep red Rm filter the same as those you list above??

Dunno. The last Leitz IR filter I has, I sold over 20 years ago (it was E36). The filters I'm talking about are visually opaque at first but if you hold them to your eye for 20-30 seconds, excluding as much other light as possible with your circled thumb and forefinger, you start to see through them (on a sunny day). If you can see reasonably clearly though them immediately, they're probably not dark enough to give white foliage effects (though you should get black skies).

Cheers,

R.

 

[colyn]

Dunno. The last Leitz IR filter I has, I sold over 20 years ago (it was E36). The filters I'm talking about are visually opaque at first but if you hold them to your eye for 20-30 seconds, excluding as much other light as possible with your circled thumb and forefinger, you start to see through them (on a sunny day). If you can see reasonably clearly though them immediately, they're probably not dark enough to give white foliage effects (though you should get black skies).

Cheers,

R.

You just described this filter. I can barely see through it after several seconds.