Shooting Infrared with large format...

[Bob Carnie]

PKM-25 where do you get this film and what developer are you using and also filters??

[Andrew O'Neill]

How are you getting along with the Efke stuff?

I shot a few rolls of it in 120 about 4 years ago before they updated it and horrible coating defects. The reason I like the Rollei stuff is that the grain is tight, it is sharp and does not halo, great if you want the tonality of IR but not the HIE grain and look. The only thing I am not enjoying with the Rollei in 4x5 is how darn thin the base is, what a pain to load!

PMK-25, I have no problems with Efke IR. I'm not using the halo stuff. I did like the fineness of Rollei, but didn't care for the ultra-thin film base. I don't know how many times I loaded two sheets into one side of a holder! And, I had a box once that as you worked your way into it, the notch codes gradually disappeared! One more thing, Rollei 4x5 at that time was $90 a box in Vancouver (Beau Photo). Efke's was waaaaay cheaper.

andrew

[PKM-25]

PKM-25 where do you get this film and what developer are you using and also filters??

Bob,

I get my Rollei IR 400 from Freestyle in Los Angeles. I have been using the 120 version for some time with a Hoya R72 filter, it knocks it down from ISO 400 to around 6-12. I have just been using Rodinal 1:50 as per the Massive chart, you can see a couple of nice examples of it in my gallery.

Some people also use the Efke stuff which looks more like Kodak HIE but can be problematic in terms of quality control. The Rollei stock is more fine grained, imparts the stark tonality I am looking for and has still evident IR characteristics that I am looking for in this project.

The one downside is the super thin base in 4x5, I have only done a few test sheets thus far but in using my Mod54 inset in my Paterson tank, I have had sheets move around during pre-soak that got stuck together for the whole process. I am going to try to only do 4 sheets in the tank today instead of my usual 6, hopefully that will work. If I feel like I can use a more gentle agitation and get away with 6 and have them not stick, then that will work too.

The Rollei stuff is a nice film for going big but beware that the 4x5 version is super thin...

[PKM-25]

So I made a 4 layer Mylar IR bellows coat, did a two sheet test in which I set the camera out in blazing sunlight, sun to the left. I did one exposure after about 5 seconds from pulling the dark slide, one with exposure two full minutes after dark slide out, both came out perfect, no base fog.

Since this gizmo is essentially a bag bellows, no pleats, I have to make two of them, one at 6" ( 65mm-135mm ) and one at 10" ( 150mm-300mm ), the longest extension I could see using with IR. I made the small one first, will do the other tomorrow.

It looks funky, but it works...

[eclarke]

Could we see a picture? What color mylar? Thanks, Evan Clarke