Well I removed the IR filter from my 350D :-)

[SpeedingSphere]

Well I went and did it.. I decided to convert my 350D to an IR camera and spent 3 hours taking out the filter and replacing it with glass. All went well with the mod.. It took forever and had me worrying at some points though. For anybody planning on doing it, unless you have very fine control of your hands, don't attempt it.

From what I've shot tonight, it feels like I have a whole new camera. Its alot of fun to see things in light you cant normally see.

Its cloudy out and its 1:44 am so theres not much to shoot. I'll have more photos up tomorrow. Heres a long exposure out my window into complete darkness(to the naked eye.. )

[livin4lax09]

this stuff kind of blows my mind. I guess if I had a better understanding of how the innards of DSLRs work, it wouldn't be as confusing, but it still amazes me. I don't really understand the tech behind IR shots.

[SpeedingSphere]

the sensor is capable of picking up light between high UV(350-400nm~) and up into the NIR(Near IR) range. The filter they place infront of the sensor acts like a mirror to infrared light and bounces all IR light off. If I were to take a photo of it with an IR sensitive camera in pure IR light, the filter would look either chrome-like or dark and reflective.

Putting the filter in cuts the range of color absorption to the sensor and just allows it to pick up colors that we see. Removing it allows the sensor to see the entire range it is capable of.

[livin4lax09]

hmmmm, interesting. thanks for the explanation.

[mjs1973]

This is pretty cool Mike. I have thought about having this done to my 300D, but I want to see how much use it now that it's my backup, before I have it modified.

[SpeedingSphere]

Here we go. I shot a bit today, it was slightly overcast out so Its not as IR-ish as I'd like. Going to go out and shoot some stars in a bit if the clouds leave me alone..

I didnt use a proper IR filter so thats most likely the cause of the fuzzyness in some pics. I cut a small piece of a floppy disk out and used it as the IR filter.

Click to enlarge:

lol my girlfriend and her sister were racing and then her sister lost and was sad..

[Greg McCary]

You need a Hoya 72. Check e-bay. There is a guy in Hong Kong that is very cheap and reliable. It will take a few more days to get one but I bought two and they were factory sealed.

[SpeedingSphere]

I was looking at the one on ebay. Is this the one youre talking about?

http://cgi.ebay.com/IR-77mm-77-Filte...QQcmdZViewItem

"IR 77mm 77 Filter Infrared Infra-Red 720nm 720 NEW"

nevermind, he's not from hong kong.. which one are you talking about?

Its going to be a wonderful piece of equipment when its actually shooting through a glass filter vs the plastic junk I'm using now..

[SpeedingSphere]

I'm going to buy a 43mm or some small IR filter, remove it from the ring, and use a glass cutter to cut it to size of the sensor and replace the glass with the IR filter. Does anybody have any recommendations on cutting the glass? will it cut any differently than regular glass? Worst comes to worst, I'll just toss the glass back in and count my losses for the filter..

[SmartWombat]

Why not have two filters?
One IR-pass filter that cuts out all normal light.
One IR-cut filter that passes ordinary light.
Then you can shoot as a normal or IR ?

[SpeedingSphere]

That would equal about $250 in filters of proper size and quality.

I'm really just looking to use this as an IR only camera for shooting in bright daylight and a little astrophotography.

Also with an IR-pass filter, you can't see through the lens while shooting, which equals alot of guess and check work to get your focus correct.

[SpeedingSphere]

PHEW! bought a 62mm filter which cost me $35... 62mm gave me just enough for two tries..

I cut it in half for the two possible tries and then cut out the proper sized filter piece and all went well with the first try. It was slightly off score line so I took a fine grit grinder to it and it chopped it all up and destroyed it.. Took it slower the second time, got 3/4 perfect scores and one was off by a bit. I took the grinding a bit slower and it came out perfectly! All went well and I'll be installing it to the sensor tonight for the final mod to this 350D. :-)

Cutting the glass was more nerve racking than opening and removing the IR filter infront of the delicate sensor of the 350D.. cost me $35 for the stupid piece of glass.

Anyway, the glass I used was OEC Camera's filters and they are of amazing quality if anybody is looking to buy IR filters.

Ill post some shots tonight of full pure IR glory. :-) woot! very glad I didnt roast the camera.

[SpeedingSphere]

well im in the middle of waiting for the glue to dry the filter to the sensor frame so I figured I'd post. Here are some shots of what things look like right now.. 350D with its insides all torn out, sensor and original IR filter inside bag.. thats about it.. Now I have a nice IR filter to do whatever I want with, and a few other shards of the 62mm 720nm cut filter lying around..

[SpeedingSphere]

sorry for the quad-posting.. lol.

All done and working beautifully! I'm going to have to work on my focus tomorrow in the daylight so it should get looking a bit better as things move along. Heres some shots I took tonight! the IR spectrum is so much more sensitive to stars than the visible. I'm waiting for the full moon to go away before I shoot with any long exposures. The ones below are 4 seconds, ISO1600 at F/3.5 to 5.6, and the indoor ones of the wallet, mp3 player, and IR filter are something crazy like 1/200th F/20 at ISO 200 due to a non ttl nikon flash on a canon body..

[SmartWombat]

Also with an IR-pass filter, you can't see through the lens while shooting, which equals alot of guess and check work to get your focus correct.

I was assuming you were going to be shooting mainly static/tripod subjects and you could focus and compose before adding the filter.
But with astrophotography, that's out.

[SpeedingSphere]

With infrared, if you focus and then add the filter, the focus will be off due to the IR spectrum focusing a bit farther into infinity than the visible spectrum.

I'm toying with the focus adjustment now. Hopefully I regain autofocus to the IR spectrum and things sort out and then I can get some photos!