I thought about writing a summary of the origin and significance of the Retro IR Sensitive films as an aerial mapping film. But then I found an excellent history/summary by My Favorite Lens reviewing the Retro 400S. So check it out…………

Now we take up Part II of our IR Sensitive Film Tests. Here a comparison of Rollei Retro 400S and Ilford SFX-200 (My Standard). We again applied the IR 695 filter to both rolls. We know from our previous experience that this filter adds contrast to the Retro-films. So let’s jump in………

Images on the left are from SFX-200 and on the right from Retro 400S:

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We ca see the obvious difference in Contrast. But it this first image it works.

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Above, the contrast in the clouds for the Retro 400S makes it more interesting to me.

In the four images below,the lighter contrast (SFX-200) allows iu to see more detail.

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Agai, here I think you choice my depend on personal aesthetics. There are qualities I like in both images.

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S, we have determined in both cases that perhaps the Retro Films don;t really need IR-filter enhancement. So for our next test we are going bare. I’ll be comparing the Retro 80S with no filter to the SFX-200 with the IR 695.