Infrared Experiments, Part 1

Today, we'll be trying Infra-red photography.
Well, not today, as I don't have my film yet. But we'll go over the basics today, and I'll continue when I do have the materials I've ordered.

In my case, I've ordered:

• 5x rolls of ILFORD SFX200
• Hoya R72 filter, 52mm

ILFORD SFX 200 is the ILFORD offering for infra-red film. It was brought back into production recently after much consumer lobbying, and has regained it's popularity. Especially in 120 format, it has been very welcome.
It has extended red sensitivity, so it can be used as a normal everyday film without the filter in place, rated at 200ISO. With a filter in place, it's extended red sensitivity allows a variety of Infrared effects to be taken advantage of.
It's infra-red sensitivity peaks at 720 nanometres, and extends to 740nm.
That's where our Hoya filter comes into play, the R72 filters out all light below 720nm, allowing for the most dramatic IR effects attainable with this film.

SFX200 can now be obtained from all the regular channels once again. It was discontinued when Ilford went into receivership in 2005 and was reformed under HARMAN imaging, but it's been put back into production as of 2007. If your local store insists that it's been discontinued, they are wrong. It does command a premium, but as a specialist product it's bound to.

The filter will be fitted to the 50mm f/1.8 Nikon lens on my FM2n, and we'll see what happens.