First IR Roll

Infrared photography has always been a fascination for me. That is, since I've known about it. I started reading into into late 2006, about four months after I got my first digital camera, the Panasonic DMC FZ-30. November 23 I bought my first Infrared filter, rated at about 850 nm. It was advertised as being a "medium" infrared filter, maybe for like a cloudy day. What I didn't account for was that the filter was "medium" for any camera without the IR blocking filter. Regardless I played with taking 60 second exposures at 400 ISO and getting dim, grainy, magenta images.

This barely deterred me because a few weeks later I already ordered a Hoya R72 filter. R72 because this filter cuts off at around 720 nm, instead of 850 nm. This difference is enough to see by naked eyes (it is possible to see an interesting red world through the 720 and not a 850 filter). Soon I bought the Nikon Coolpix 950 just for its great ability to take infrared shots (at a still acceptable 2 megapixels).

Well, long story made too long, I shot my first roll of actual infrared film. I shot it with my handed-down Olympus OM-1 and a Tamron-F 1:2.8 28mm lens. I threaded the Hoya R72 (using a macro-coupler ring, not the best setup but the only way for me to attach a 55mm filter to a 52mm lens). The film was Kodak HIE High Speed Black and White Infrared. I've been waiting since February to shoot this film and it has been worth the wait.

I should also mention, now that I know, that Kodak has discontinued their production of KIE-135 film and this will probably be the first and last roll of HIE film that I will have ever touched.

More on this later...but for now, enjoy the gallery page here.

06/18/2008