Print PDF
Favorite
Email
You've seen them in the back of magazines--heck, probably Popular Science--all your life: the crazy swirling paper X-ray specs, with the campy '50s pervert looking at the bloomers of a shocked gal. While we don't support such nefarious uses, you can make your own working X-ray camera, just by modifying a CVS Disposable. It won't give you Superman vision, but you should be able to see through one or two layers of paper and fabric (again, behave!) in the right light. Here's the catch: The key is in a hard-to-find X-ray conversion material called a beryllium window. PopSci got its sample from NASA during a visit to the Goddard Space Flight Center a few years ago, as it is sometimes used in satellites to block out cosmic X rays that might distort digital communications. The filter converts X rays into visible light by using an optical down conversion process to lower the energy of the photons. This will prevent your digital "film" from being overexposed by too many different wavelengths. And though it's technically not illegal, you can't buy the material from any reputable store. (We also wouldn't recommend bringing the stuff with you on your next trip to North Korea.) If you do manage to track down a small piece, here's how to mod your camera and give it superpowers.
Remove these ads by
Signing UpStep 1Building the X-Ray Vision Camera
Time: A Couple of Afternoons
Cost: Over $18
Difficulty: Hard
Parts List
- CVS Disposable Digital Camera (CVS Pharmacy; $18.00)
- X-Ray Beryllium Material (Google It)
- Wire, solder, glue, diffraction pattern sample (i.e., your hand)
| « Previous Step | Download PDFView All Steps | Next Step » |
This is fake it is pseudo-color image
(1) Beryllium is used as an X-ray window material as it passes X-rays but not visible light. It is readily available from X-Ray equipment suppliers. Without a special phosphor layer it could not act as a down converter.
(2) You also need a strong source of X-Rays; Solar X-rays aren't enough. Think about if X-Rays of any strength were coming from the sun it would make any form of photography virtually impossible.
(3) The lenses of a digital camera cannot focus X-rays. In fact X-rays are usually made as contact prints to avoid the problems of focus.
(4) The image is obviously faked, the bones are in the wrong places, the ring on the finger would appear black in an X-ray. I believe he deliberately wore it as a clue for the joke.
A good joke, have a chuckle and move on.
BTW The technique that ELF et.al. is referring too is using infra red or near infra red. This is an excellent area to experiment in with a converted digital camera. Despite all the rumors only a certain range of synthetic fabrics are completely transparent to IR. Nevertheless many food colorings eg cola drinks, soy sauce etc are transparent to IR as are many plastic coloring agents. It is also excellent for penetrating smoke and other aerosols.
It's usually a wasteproduct from the start and end of a roll of film.
See Link
Overexposed film, well... Go down to your local camera shop and ask for the waste from the developement. You should be able to get a "frame" (you know, normal camera film is a long strip with a "window" or "frame" for each shot) that is entirely black, or almost entirely black, and it's important that it's from color film, because I've read that B&W film blocks the IR light.
You then have to insert a small piece of this film into your camera, replacing the IR blocking filter, which is often located just above the CCD.