Are you tired of at looking at the world in boring, ordinary colors? Upset about the limitations of your eyeballs to perceive light between 400 - 700 nm? Odds are you have a perfectly good infrared imaging device sitting around and you don't even know it. Here's how to modify your average digital camera to unleash its full infrared capacity. All you need are some lighting filters, a small screwdriver, and steady hands. In no time flat you'll be taking dreamy, surreal IR pictures.
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So here's the thing about infrared. The CCD on your average ordinary digital camera absorbs infrared light quite effectively, so much that camera manufacturers try their hardest to block IR from ever reaching the detector. Digicams have an IR-blocking filter behind the lens that mops up most (but not all) infrared from getting through. Therefore, possible ways to take an infrared picture are (1) exploit the low IR sensitivity of an unmodified digicam by placing a filter in front of the lens that blocks out everything *but* infrared, or (2) enhance the IR sensitivity of the camera by taking it apart and physically removing the IR-blocking filter.
Option (1) is certainly easier, and a number of instructables use that principle:
Infrared Ir Webcam
Take Infrared Pictures With Your Digital Camera
A better diy infrared filter
But there are some drawbacks to using an unmodified camera. Typically the exposure times are so long (1 second or so) that you need to use a tripod. Option (2) is more effective and you can take better IR pictures, if you're willing to take your camera apart.
Here's the catch. This project isn't difficult per se, but it involves handling a lot of small and fragile camera parts. There's a very real chance that one little slip up could turn your nice digicam into a very shiny brick. So don't try this on a camera unless you're willing to accept the risk of breaking it. I got this used VuPoint 3.1 MP camera at Ritz on the cheap. Used cameras also tend to be very inexpensive on eBay. If you have an expensive digital SLR you want to convert, you might consider paying a professional (like this place) to do it for you, which costs ~$300.
You will also need a lighting filter to block out all visible light except for red and longer wavelenghts. For this I am using "Congo Blue" (Lee #181 or Rosco #382) available from B&H for about $10 after shipping.
Option (1) is certainly easier, and a number of instructables use that principle:
Infrared Ir Webcam
Take Infrared Pictures With Your Digital Camera
A better diy infrared filter
But there are some drawbacks to using an unmodified camera. Typically the exposure times are so long (1 second or so) that you need to use a tripod. Option (2) is more effective and you can take better IR pictures, if you're willing to take your camera apart.
Here's the catch. This project isn't difficult per se, but it involves handling a lot of small and fragile camera parts. There's a very real chance that one little slip up could turn your nice digicam into a very shiny brick. So don't try this on a camera unless you're willing to accept the risk of breaking it. I got this used VuPoint 3.1 MP camera at Ritz on the cheap. Used cameras also tend to be very inexpensive on eBay. If you have an expensive digital SLR you want to convert, you might consider paying a professional (like this place) to do it for you, which costs ~$300.
You will also need a lighting filter to block out all visible light except for red and longer wavelenghts. For this I am using "Congo Blue" (Lee #181 or Rosco #382) available from B&H for about $10 after shipping.
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Question:
If one removes the IR filter inside, behind the lens, and uses the blue lenses on the outside, infront of the lens, would it matter?
The loser was whoever actually caught one. ;-)
Damn I miss the 1980s.
made the mistake one when cleening sand out of my optical zoom.
NOT FUN!!!
Can some one link me to something like an ebay link?
Also i live in europe so the closer to europe the better cause P&P can get pretty high.
I used five pieces of the Rosco 382 gel, thinking that the camera might be better at accepting IR low light situations with 5 instead of 6 pieces. I need to test it in daylight, but from preliminary testing inside tonight, I think I maybe should have gone with six pieces. The mod went well for my camera though (Samsung S700 Digimax).
The most difficult part for me was cutting the Rosco 382 gel to the right size - not too small, and not too big - all the while, not getting fingerprints on it! Cotton gloves might have been handy...
Congrats on the great instructable! Even if it probably doesn't match the disassembly of anyone else's camera, the general idea is all which is needed!
For what it is worth, my camera has zoom and autofocus, but I have not experienced any focus issues at all after removing the IR filter and installing the Rosco 382 gel.
I still remember the pain of getting the electric shock when was trying to hack a camera. I was old enough to know that it is a capacitor, but still too young to know the size of capacitor matters, alone with the voltage and the capacitance......
HDR will balance the lighting, but it only works if you can change the exposure or at least bracket. Try EV compensation -2, 0, and +2.
...just to be sure, when you say "slide film" that's any photography film, right? for example a Fuji ISO 400 color film... _°