I will be in Fla. and the Bahamas in July and would like to try an opaque filter for infared with Kodak HIE Infared B&W. Any tips on how to set a manual Canon AE-1? I`ve used a #25 with good results at 1/60 or 1/125,F8 or F11.Thanks

-- Thomas Horan (fishman57@aol.com), July 05, 1998

Answers

Response to HIE B&W

Ooooh, and you're wondering about this just before you run off. Don't worry, figuring out film speed is easy if you're willing to toss off a roll, maybe two.

Well, right now, no matter what the weather is outside, (as long as it's light, though), go and take a meter reading without the filter, at your normal film speed. Put the filter back on and shoot a frame, then bracket up and down for the rest of the roll. The first bracket is +1/-1, then +2/-2, +3/-3, until you're out. Develop the roll. Note the frame that looks the best. That's your film speed. Thereafter bracket +1/-1, and you'll do fine.

What I do is I shoot five frames: nominal, +1/-1, +2/-2. Usually only the first bracket might be needed (usually not). Cloudy/rainy/"why am I out here with infrared" weather makes me glad I have the second set of brackets. I have one good scene I shot during bad weather. The +1 came out great with the clouds, and the +2 brought out the tree bark.

Ilford SFX with B&W 092 (really dark red, nearly opaque) comes in at about ASA 50 plus filter factor (8, or three stops, your choice). This means an overall speed of 6. (meter reading from a spot meter, my Pentax 6x7 doesn't have a metered prism)

Kodak HIE with B&W 091 (Wratten 29) (between 090 (Wratten 25) and 092)for me looks like about an ASA 800 plus filter factor. Of course, I can easily shoot with this filter on the lens. (meter reading TTL)

I shot a couple of rolls of Kodak and B&W 092 at ASA 1600, but I've been having too much fun with 120 Ilford and Konica to develop them.

-- Brian C. Miller (a-bcmill@exchange.microsoft.com), July 06, 1998.

And remember that your meter measures visible light, but you are photographing non-visible light, which may or may not be proportional to the visible light. This is where experience comes in.

-- Alan Gibson (gibson.al@mail.dec.com), July 06, 1998.

Forget about your filter. Shoot at 60th at f8 to f11. It will get you in the ballpark.

-- Jeff Rogers (jeff@jeffrogers.com), March 06, 1999.

use http://www.a1.nl/phomepag/markerink/hie_tmax.htm, and correct for the filtervalue to start with.

-- Lot (lotw@wxs.nl), March 07, 1999.