First of all, it's worth asking why one would want to convert a digital camera to InfraRed? We can buy IR filters for virtually any SLR lens for as little as $60 in some cases. Why spend more to permanently convert a camera?
Digital cameras use a sensor, the electronic part that replaces the traditional film as the spot where your lens focuses light for presentation and capture inside of your camera. Unfortunately, digital sensors are sensitive to IR light just as they are sensitive to "normal" visible light. This means that they would normally record every image with a red/pink cast as the IR light is merged with the normally visible light. To prevent digital cameras from universally producing pink tinted photos, they have an IR blocking filter installed inside the camera when you buy it. This lets the camera take the pictures that we expect from our normal cameras.
You can put an IR filter on your lens and take IR pictures on many(most) digital cameras. But since they also have that internal IR blocking filter, very little IR gets through. This means that you wind up shooting pictures, even on a sunny day, that have shutter speeds over a full second, often much slower. While this puts inexpensive IR photography within reach of most digital SLR owners (all you need is your camera, an IR filter, and a tripod) the slow speeds make it difficult to work with. As an added challenge, you cannot view through the lens on your SLR to compose the shot while the filter is on, and in-camera metering is essentially useless.
The IR conversion process is basically the act of opening up the camera and removing that built-in filter that blocks most of the IR light from reaching the sensor. It also can require adjustments to the metering and focus settings in the camera to compensate for the changes.
After reading up on several services that offer IR conversions, and seeing posts of happy customers in some blogs, I decided upon LifePixel to convert the camera I would be using.
The upside of converting an SLR are fairly obvious. Higher quality camera, variety of lenses, generally greater features in the cameras, etc. Essentially all of the same reasons one would choose an SLR over a compact camera to begin with. But compacts have their advantages too.
When using a compact camera, the focus adjustment aspect of IR photography is removed from the equation. No more adjusting focus settings manually to compensate. It's just a minor nuisance, but it's still a factor.
The other benefit of using a compact camera is potentially huge. I use Nikon digital SLRs, and while some other brands may have live viewing on the screen, my Nikons do not. (The new D3/D300 series is adding this but that's far outside my price range for this project). What this really means to me is that I'd be able to get a better view of the way the final shot will look while viewing the rear LCD, something I could not accomplish on my SLRs.
My goal with IR photography is to enjoy taking them, have fun with the pictures in my digital darkroom, and if I ever become so lucky, to sell a few to stock houses. Being as fun and accessibility are my key goals, I decided on a compact camera for sheer ease of use. Also, it's far cheaper than buying a fully featured SLR to send in for conversion. Sending an older SLR wasn't my preference as I wanted something with at least 10MP.
The last part of the equation is something I had to take a leap of faith on. How a specific camera reacts to IR photography in color mode.
Every camera has different color handling firmware in it. Simply put, this is the software that decides how the digital sensor interprets the images it sees into color photographs. Some software reacts well to IR images in color mode, and some do not. The perk of capturing the images in color mode instead of the camera's B&W mode, is that you can get some stunning images as a result of the camera's color software struggling to make sense of the IR images. The sample page at LifePixel has some great side by side comparisons that show how this effect works.
I looked through a wide range of compact digital cameras, scanning every brand and type I could fine for nearly 2 weeks. In the end I chose the Canon G9 for several reasons:
Digital cameras use a sensor, the electronic part that replaces the traditional film as the spot where your lens focuses light for presentation and capture inside of your camera. Unfortunately, digital sensors are sensitive to IR light just as they are sensitive to "normal" visible light. This means that they would normally record every image with a red/pink cast as the IR light is merged with the normally visible light. To prevent digital cameras from universally producing pink tinted photos, they have an IR blocking filter installed inside the camera when you buy it. This lets the camera take the pictures that we expect from our normal cameras.
You can put an IR filter on your lens and take IR pictures on many(most) digital cameras. But since they also have that internal IR blocking filter, very little IR gets through. This means that you wind up shooting pictures, even on a sunny day, that have shutter speeds over a full second, often much slower. While this puts inexpensive IR photography within reach of most digital SLR owners (all you need is your camera, an IR filter, and a tripod) the slow speeds make it difficult to work with. As an added challenge, you cannot view through the lens on your SLR to compose the shot while the filter is on, and in-camera metering is essentially useless.
The IR conversion process is basically the act of opening up the camera and removing that built-in filter that blocks most of the IR light from reaching the sensor. It also can require adjustments to the metering and focus settings in the camera to compensate for the changes.
After reading up on several services that offer IR conversions, and seeing posts of happy customers in some blogs, I decided upon LifePixel to convert the camera I would be using.
The upside of converting an SLR are fairly obvious. Higher quality camera, variety of lenses, generally greater features in the cameras, etc. Essentially all of the same reasons one would choose an SLR over a compact camera to begin with. But compacts have their advantages too.
When using a compact camera, the focus adjustment aspect of IR photography is removed from the equation. No more adjusting focus settings manually to compensate. It's just a minor nuisance, but it's still a factor.
The other benefit of using a compact camera is potentially huge. I use Nikon digital SLRs, and while some other brands may have live viewing on the screen, my Nikons do not. (The new D3/D300 series is adding this but that's far outside my price range for this project). What this really means to me is that I'd be able to get a better view of the way the final shot will look while viewing the rear LCD, something I could not accomplish on my SLRs.
My goal with IR photography is to enjoy taking them, have fun with the pictures in my digital darkroom, and if I ever become so lucky, to sell a few to stock houses. Being as fun and accessibility are my key goals, I decided on a compact camera for sheer ease of use. Also, it's far cheaper than buying a fully featured SLR to send in for conversion. Sending an older SLR wasn't my preference as I wanted something with at least 10MP.
The last part of the equation is something I had to take a leap of faith on. How a specific camera reacts to IR photography in color mode.
Every camera has different color handling firmware in it. Simply put, this is the software that decides how the digital sensor interprets the images it sees into color photographs. Some software reacts well to IR images in color mode, and some do not. The perk of capturing the images in color mode instead of the camera's B&W mode, is that you can get some stunning images as a result of the camera's color software struggling to make sense of the IR images. The sample page at LifePixel has some great side by side comparisons that show how this effect works.
I looked through a wide range of compact digital cameras, scanning every brand and type I could fine for nearly 2 weeks. In the end I chose the Canon G9 for several reasons:
- Raw file support
- Custom White Balance (essential for IR, we'll get into this another day)
- 12.1MP
- Large 3 inch rear LCD for previewing pictures.
You can read more about the camera at the Digital Photography Review website's G9 Review. I highly recommend them to anyone looking for info on specific cameras.
Unfortunately this last part will be a bit of a leap of faith for me. The G9 is brand new out on the market and I've been unable to locate any IR images captured through a G9. The shots I've seen from a G7 looked good, but that's not a guarantee. I'll post up some IR shots from it as soon as I get the chance.
So I purchased a G9 from Adorama (If I'd looked around I might have been able to save a few bucks elsewhere, but these guys consistently do well by me, including during a shipping SNAFU they paid to overnight me a lens I needed the next morning. I admit, I'm brand loyal when someone puts effort into providing me with good service.).
When it t arrived a few days later and I then shipped it off to LifePixel for conversion. It should be delivered back to me later today, and I'll continue with details when it's here.
So I purchased a G9 from Adorama (If I'd looked around I might have been able to save a few bucks elsewhere, but these guys consistently do well by me, including during a shipping SNAFU they paid to overnight me a lens I needed the next morning. I admit, I'm brand loyal when someone puts effort into providing me with good service.).
When it t arrived a few days later and I then shipped it off to LifePixel for conversion. It should be delivered back to me later today, and I'll continue with details when it's here.
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