R-D1 and M8 infrared

wintoid

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Is anyone using either the RD1 or M8 with R72 filters to do infrared photography? Is it safe to assume that cameras which display synthetic blacks as purples are likely to be good options for infrared photography?
 
The real advantage of either camera is you only need to switch filters to switch from visual to infra red. Other wise you have to use a blad or Zeiss exchangable back camera to switch film.

Noel
 
wintoid said:
Is anyone using either the RD1 or M8 with R72 filters to do infrared photography? Is it safe to assume that cameras which display synthetic blacks as purples are likely to be good options for infrared photography?
I did lots of IR with the R-D1 and the Hoya R72. It works very well, though it's not particularly sensitive. Typical exposures would be around 1/2 sec at f4 at ISO 400. Since I only use the green channel of the RAW file, you can get a couple of stops more sensitivity by using the red channel, but the contrast and sharpness seem to be worse.

The best camera I had for IR was an Oly 2020z - it had a very weak IR filter and produced wonderful effects. Trouble was, it was only 1600x1200 pixels.

You can get very good results by ripping the IR filter out of any digicam (I have a friend that did it to his Fuji DSLR) and replacing it with a bit of plain glass of the same thickness. Quite a few repair agents will do this now.

Anyway, back to the original question - yes, both these cameras produce excellent IR images.
 
pfogle said:
RML - excellent shots! Great blog :)

Thanks, Phil. :)

Actually, I think my interest in IR was sparked by your IR work. I never good put myself to getting IR film but when Vivek Iyer (on P.nut) kindly gave me a filter (after using my R-D1 a whole afternoon to "test" its IR and UV sensitivity), I just had to give it a whirl. I'm glad I did. I enjoy doing IR.
 
would you dare to strip of aa and IR filter? hehe. I wish I'd be very experienced in electronics so I can play with D100 stuffs and welding one of those on Rd1 if things go wrong :D
 
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