The bad, the ugly and my roll of Kodak HIE
The bad, the ugly and my roll of Kodak HIE

The bad, the ugly and my roll of Kodak HIE

Kodak High-speed Infrared film, also known as HIE, is a black-and-white film with extended sensitivity in the infrared zone. It was discontinued in 2007, and all that’s available for the last decade has expired a long time ago.

The problem with the expired infrared film is it goes bad quickly, and often it goes bad bad even when it is well cared for.

I was given a bag of some old, iffy cameras, and in the bag, there were a few rolls of film – Kodak HIE. I got very excited, but then I realized that the bag sat in a friend’s car for at least a week in high temperatures. A week shouldn’t destroy a film, but it certainly can’t help, and it probably wasn’t stored significantly better before that. That was a few years ago, and the film has sat in my fridge ever since, but the damage was already done well before. Also, I got it in a bare plastic canister, with an unknown expiry date. So, a Hail Mary roll.

And finally, I’ve shot the roll.

I shot it in a Nikon FE camera with a Tamron Adaptall-2 24mm F2.5 lens and a random 720nm IR filter, on a nice, sunny day in April in Maksimir Park in Zagreb. I rated it at 50 ASA and developed it in Adox FX-39 II, 1+14 dilution for 10:30 at 19.5°C.

The results are… interesting.

It degraded significantly. Like, dramatically. Thankfully, there’s still some of the landscape recognizable, so at least I haven’t wasted my time. With some dodging and burning, I even managed to get these somewhat presentable photos. Yay!

Interesting, huh? 😅

CameraNikon FE 🔗
LensTamron Adaptall-2 01BB 24mm F2.5 BBAR MC 🔗
FilterGreen.L IR 720nm; ⌀55mm
FilmKodak HIE
DeveloperAdox FX-39 II; 1+14 dilution at 19.5°C 🔗
ScannerPlustek OpticFilm 8100 🔗