Have you Heard of this Film

[Saj]

Since there are no photo shops in Timmins, i was forced to look online for a place to purchase film for my new endeavours. As a result i've come across a make of film called "Rollei Infrared 120 Film". It claims:

"Special infrared film up to 820 nm. High sensitivity at ISO 400 without filtering. Excellent tonality, solving power by 160 Lp/mm. Special AURA effects by over exposing film."

I may be mistaken, but from what i've been reading here as well as other places this film seems ideal for astrophotography.

Any experience, opinions, etc.?

[hpcoolahan]

Radar is one of the film experts here , he will help you out soon id say mate.

Clear skies
Patrick

[Radar]

Hi Saj,

A well known astrophotographer says that it might be worth a try


But photo atavists will want to take note that Rollei has started making black-and-white film, and one of their products, Rollei R3, has some very unusual properties.

It is a multilayer film that can be used at speeds from ISO 25 to 6400 (they say) and its sensitivity extends into the near-infrared at 710 nm (which may cost you some sharpness with lenses that aren't optimized for wavelengths that long). It is on a polyester base similar to Kodak ESTAR, much tougher than traditional film, and the data sheet says that 120-size rolls tend to unroll themselves unexpectedly! (Hmmm...)

Reciprocity failure is not too severe, so this may be a film for astronomers to use photographing nebulae (if any of us haven't switched to CCDs yet).

[Note added Oct. 4: Reciprocity failure is less than with Kodak Tri-X Pan. It is still substantial compared to hypersensitized film or new-generation color film.]



http://www.covingtoninnovations.com/michael/blog/0610/index.html

I couldn't find any photo's taken with it though. Thanks for bringing this to my attention, I'm going to look into this.

Ray

[Saj]

Thanks Ray,

I figured either you would know something about it or it would give you something to look into.

I'll be doing my first experimentation with astrophoto with more known and common film to begin with to familiarize myself with the art. So if you happen to give this film a try it would be nice to here about (and see) the results.

Cheers.