Efke IR 820

Efke IR 820 had a useful trick: real sensitivity out to 820 nanometers, in an era when most so-called infrared films stopped responding around 750. After Kodak killed HIE in 2007, IR 820 became the only commercial stock that still hit the deep IR range, and it stayed that way until Fotokemika collapsed and shut down its Samobor plant on August 30, 2012. Nothing has replaced it. Rollei IR 400 and Ilford SFX 200 are both extended-red rather than true infrared, and the wood effect on either is gentler than what IR 820 delivered with a Hoya R72.

The formulation came out of the old Croatian Adox-licensed emulsions and was also sold under the Maco IR820c label in Germany. Two variants existed. The regular IR820 had a thin anti-halation backing; the IR820 Aura skipped it. The Aura version is what people remember, because the lack of backing produced the bright haloed glow around highlights that became the signature look. Foliage went chalk white, water went black, skies went nearly opaque.

Shooting it was unforgiving. Box speed of ISO 100 was meaningless with any practical IR filter in place. With an R72 you metered at ISO 6 or thereabouts; with a Wratten 87C you dropped further. Most users rated through the filter and bracketed. The film was also a dust magnet because the base was thin acetate without a back coating, and any speck showed up cleanly in the IR-rendered sky.

Processed in normal B&W chemistry. Rodinal 1:50 gave good edge contrast; D-76 1:1 ran softer. No special bath required.

Freezer stock from the 2010-2012 production runs still surfaces on eBay and at estate sales. Expect base fog. Old IR film loses sensitivity in the deep red first, which is exactly where you bought this for.

Reciprocity exponent is 1.31. Zone Light Meter applies the correction past one second. A metered 30-second exposure becomes about 90 seconds at the negative. With the heavy filter factors stacked on top, IR 820 exposures past a second were the rule not the exception, and the math mattered every time.