infrared conversion

[andiwm2003]

I did it. Ok, I'm insane.

I opened up my perfectly good Sony DSC-W55 and removed the IR filter. Was quite an adventure. Now I have a infrared capable P&S. Now I have to play a bit with filters and wait for the summer to get good contrast with green trees and grass.

Here are some samples:

here is how it looked inside the DSC-W55:

 

[al256]

Try some low-light or no light photography. I have a friend who was able to get IR light off a planet in a dark closet. She was using IR film though.. Heck, maybe you can catch some ghosts now

 

[emorydunn]

You are indeed brave to open up you camera and do the modification yourself. I'd never dream of doing that. Now, did you instal a IR-pass filter in front of the sensor or are you using a filter in front of the lens?

 

[andiwm2003]

You are indeed brave to open up you camera and do the modification yourself. I'd never dream of doing that. Now, did you instal a IR-pass filter in front of the sensor or are you using a filter in front of the lens?

well, i did just remove the IR filter. i didn't have a fitting IR pass filter and I wanted to have the chance to try different IR pass filters (700-1000nM) and play around.

there are a few problems: there is no custom white balance so i have to do with the preset ones. also the filter at the front of the lens is more prone to flare than a internal one. also there is no real manual mode for long exposures (bulb mode)

taking the camera apart was not so bad. 9 screws and a bit wiggling on the lens assembly. i didn't have to disconnect any wires.
the IR filter is just loosely on the sensor with a metal clamp.

i don't have the right tools so i discharged the flash capacitor (highly recommended to discharge it) via my automatic egg cooker. i'm serious.
i was done in less than 30 min. i didn't care much about dust and it seems I was lucky.

replacing a HD on old powerbooks or MBP's is much harder, let alone replacing the HD on an eMac.

 

[emorydunn]

well, i did just remove the IR filter. i didn't have a fitting IR pass filter and I wanted to have the chance to try different IR pass filters (700-1000nM) and play around.

there are a few problems: there is no custom white balance so i have to do with the preset ones. also the filter at the front of the lens is more prone to flare than a internal one. also there is no real manual mode for long exposures (bulb mode)

taking the camera apart was not so bad. 9 screws and a bit wiggling on the lens assembly. i didn't have to disconnect any wires.
the IR filter is just loosely on the sensor with a metal clamp.

i don't have the right tools so i discharged the flash capacitor (highly recommended to discharge it) via my automatic egg cooker. i'm serious.
i was done in less than 30 min. i didn't care much about dust and it seems I was lucky.

replacing a HD on old powerbooks or MBP's is much harder, let alone replacing the HD on an eMac.

I guess that's good, I'd just be worried about damaging the sensor. Then again I have a DSLR which is a bit more complex.

Now that is an interesting way to discharge something, did you happen to cook an egg while you were at it?

And yeah, replacing hard drives can be tricky although the generation that had the removable keyboards were nice.

 

[andiwm2003]

well, have to select a different white balance next time and also work a bit on post processing. this is fun.

 

[andiwm2003]

well, getting the right whitebalance makes a lot of difference:

 

[acearchie]

Very nice pics!

Forgive my ignorence but what exactly have you done here? I understand you've removed the IR filter so does this mean that the sensor is seeing infrared light as well as the normal spectrum visible to the human eye?

Thanks

 

[emorydunn]

Very nice pics!

Forgive my ignorence but what exactly have you done here? I understand you've removed the IR filter so does this mean that the sensor is seeing infrared light as well as the normal spectrum visible to the human eye?

Thanks

Yes. Even with the sensor with an IR filter some IR gets through but removing the filter expands the range. And by adding an IR pass filter (which blocks visible light) the camera only sees infrared light.

 

[andiwm2003]

Yes. Even with the sensor with an IR filter some IR gets through but removing the filter expands the range. And by adding an IR pass filter (which blocks visible light) the camera only sees infrared light.

correct. ccd sensors are sensitive for visible light (400-700nm wavelength) and for infrared (up to 1200nm but NOT thermal radiation, body heat or so).

in order to avoid black cloth to appear brown or red due to their infrared signal the camera makers put a filter on the sensor that cuts 99% of the infrared light. i removed that filter. in addition to that i put a filter in front of the lens that lets only infrared light through (Hoya R72). everything has then a reddish tint. with photoshop or pixelmator and a good choice of white balance you can make the pics look like this. actually they look right out of the camera almost like this. green plants reflect infrared and show up white, black colors often are brown or red, red cloth sometimes are pink, sometimes white. this gives this strange gothic look. the contrast is usually very high since IR penetrates dust and haze.

you can simply use the Hoya R72 filter (~30 dollar) on almost every camera and get similar results. however you need the exposure times of 20-30 sec in sunlight. i need normal exposure times of about 1/50-1/200.


a good example: the red roses for my girlfriend look just white in IR.

 

[anubis]

Impressive

 

[andiwm2003]

while i was waiting for the tablet mac i made this......

 

[andiwm2003]

finally spring is coming and IR pictures get a bit more contrast. straight from the Sony DSC-W55. if anybody wants to play with post processing feel free. i'm eager to learn some tricks.

some PP

 

[funkboy]

If you're using an Adobe workflow (actually, I never tried to convert a JPG to DNG, hmmm), check out these links:

http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/DNG_Profiles:Editor#tutorial_ir
http://khromagery.com.au/ir_raw.html

Basically, DNG profile editor allows you to create camera profiles that can push the white balance correction much much further than the normal sliders.

I'm really tempted to pick up an older EOS camera & gank the filter off one of these days...

 

[stagi]

Wow you are brave! Would love to do that but too scared. Might just buy one already converted. Thanks for sharing