Looking for a super versatile black and white film? Put Ilford SFX 200 on your radar and read on to learn why!
It seems like SFX200 flies under the radar for a lot of people. It’s become a favorite of mine. It can handle everything from landscapes, to portraits, to infrared black and white photography with aplomb. Curious how that all works? This review will also have tips I’ve learned and advice from my experience.
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The good
- Tons of exposure latitude
- Similar look to HP5+ when used normally
- Responds dramatically to use with red and infrared filters
- Super versatile
- Available in 35mm and 120
- Affordable
The less good
- Maybe a bit grainy for a 200 film
- There isn’t really much to dislike
Ilford SFX 200 — TLDR
Ilford SFX 200 is a medium speed, traditional black and white film. It’s available in both 120 and 35mm format. However, that’s not all SFX200 is. It’s also sensitive to light in the Infrared spectrum. This means you can use a filter like the Hoya R72 filter I used, and achieve some striking photography. Even just using a red lens filter will get you more dramatic results than most other film stocks.
In addition, Ilford SFX200 functions perfectly well as a standard black and white film. When you just want some classic monochrome, it delivers a very similar look to HP5+. It can also be pushed a stop or two to great effect. I always try to keep some on hand because I know it never disappoints!
Infrared with Ilford SFX 200
When paired with an infrared filter, Ilford SFX 200 really begins to shine. I’ve been calling it my cheat code to family vacation photography. Only out and about at cool locations in the middle of the day? Perfect, because that is when infrared photography is best done! SFX delivers rich, deep blacks, and blazingly bright whites in these scenarios. It makes for dramatic and compelling landscape photos.
For these examples, I used a Pentax 645 with a 45-85mm or 80-160mm zoom. I set my in-camera light meter for 6 iso to compensate for how dark the Hoya R72 filter is. Then, I composed my photo on a tripod, got focus and then backed it off just a hair (infrared light tends to front-focus compared to visible light). Finally, I put my IR filter on and took the photo using a cable release. I’ve since purchased this flip up filter mount which makes the process much easier!
I’ve seen others claim that their cameras are able to meter through the IR filter. However, my Pentax 645 wasn’t able to make that happen. If your camera is able to achieve metering through the filter, make sure to set it to match Ilford SFX 200’s box speed of 200 ISO. If you’re using a handheld meter, I found 6 ISO would compensate for my filter perfectly.
Quick tip:
(Note on focusing for IR: Many vintage lenses have a different colored IR focus mark near the distance scale. With these, you can focus normally and then line the resulting distance up with the IR mark to confidently achieve focus instead of guessing like I did. Another trick I tried was to keep my lens at f/11 or f/16 in order to get a deeper depth of field and keep things sharp.)
Image quality
When it comes to image quality, Ilford doesn’t disappoint. SFX 200 delivers beautiful contrast, a lovely, HP5-like grain, and oodles of exposure latitude. This applies both to normal photography and infrared photography, as you can likely tell from the image samples. Of course, with these being flatbed scanned 6×4.5 medium format images, the grain is somewhat reduced compared to what high quality 35mm scans might show.
If you were curious what the same scene looks like on Ilford SFX 200 with and without the Hoya R72 filter, this gallery above is just that! The regular images were metered for 200 ISO, and the IR images were done using the process I described before.
Ilford SFX 200 — Film characteristics
As for Ilford SFX 200’s other characteristics: it stays winning. It renders images sharply and with great fidelity. The film generally dries nice and flat. This makes it a breeze to get high quality scans. Also, it behaves well with my favorite black and white film developers (usually Ilfosol 3 or FPP-110). This is indeed a quite capable film.
One thing worth noting is that SFX isn’t a full-on infrared film. It can be loaded in subdued light, like any other film. This also means you’ll want to stick to a broad spectrum filter for infrared photography. Its sensitivity doesn’t go far enough into the IR spectrum to warrant using an 820nm or higher filter. For that reason, I suggest using a deep red 25A filter or an R72 filter as I have done.
Ilford SFX 200 — A rewarding black and white film
While this may not have been the most comprehensive guide and review out there, I hope it has been enough to get you interested in Ilford SFX 200. It’s an underrated film that rewards experimentation. I find that every time I develop a roll, the results encourage me to use it again. Once I stepped in with the Hoya R72 filter, this film really hooked me.
Of course, it isn’t the one film to rule them all. I’d push HP5 or get Delta 3200 for truly low-light situations. I still love the old school charm of FP4. Delta 400 has long been a favorite general purpose landscape film for me as well. However, armed with some SFX 200 and an Infrared filter in my bag, I feel comfortable walking into about any outdoor situation with this film. The possibilities are many and the potential for creativity is huge. I hope my little blog post encourages you to give it a try!
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