Whatever the purpose was when the film was first manufactured, nowadays, it's mainly used to achieve a pretty unique look in b&w photography. You don't usually have to use a special camera for IR shooting, just some modern cameras won't work too well because they use IR LEDs to count frames. These LEDs fog IR film pretty badly. IR film requires special care in handling, and you should read something about its use, or you will almost certainly screw up your first roll(s).(posted 8521 days ago)Regards, Thomas Wollstein