While having a walk around the Schliersee, I took the opportunity to grab a camera (or two, with the second one being the NOPO135) and shoot my surroundings. I had a couple of rolls of Rollei IR400 medium format film quietly degrading in my freezer, which should have given me a neat effect with all the foliage around the lake. Rollei IR400 is a black and white film that is sensitive up into the infrared spectrum (to about 795nm). Together with a suitable red filter, this film stock shows foliage as very bright, making forests look snowy.

Silly old me took the right camera (the Fuji GW690 III is a practical choice, as the focusing is not done through the lens), the correct red filter, but forgot to take the filter adapters with him. With a roll already loaded into the camera when I was still at home, I chose to push forward and shoot without the filter. “Well, let’s just see what happens…”, was what I thought.

What happened is, that the film behaved like normal black and white negative film. I am unable to see any hint of brightened foliage, which leads me to believe that the visible light spectrum was overpowering the infrared spectrum.

The resulting images, thus, are black and white negatives with fine, modest grain and contrast that is on the heavier side. Nothing that I could not get from other film stock, which makes using Rollei IR400 this way somewhat wasteful.

Next time I go outside with this infrared-sensitive film, I will be prepared: I found the filter adapters in my equipment closet and attached them to the camera. And they will stay attached. Permanently. Forever! Muhahahaha!