One aspect of black & white that intrigued me was using Kodak Infrared film. However the film was expensive, difficult to locate, and hard to handle. Even when the results were moderately successful, the resulting prints were very grainy.
When I started experimenting with my first digital camera, a Nikon D70, I was amazed at its capabilities. With a little insight or research I was able to tackle just about any photo problem.
I bought the necessary equipment, a Hoya R72 filter for my lens and have been having a wonderful time ever since. The filter is extremely dense because it needs to filter out all the visible light in the scene and only expose using the invisible (to the human eye) near-infrared. This also means you see nothing in your viewfinder, and because the exposures are long, a tripod is a must.
I find that even the most mundane subjects become attention-grabbers when photographed using surreal infrared light.
Every camera manufacturer to some degree designs their cameras to be unable to see infrared. Some cameras are better at photographing infrared than others because of their built in filtration (or lack thereof). To see if your camera can “read” infrared, just point a TV remote control at your camera pushing the button as you take a picture of the IR lens. If you can see a white light on the remote, you can shoot IR with your camera. I also suggest going to Google and entering your camera make and model followed by the word infrared, such as "Canon 20D infrared."
Have fun.
Ken