Feb 1, 2012
Street photographers are reverse paranoids - they think they are following someone.
Jan 23, 2012
No reward for a photograph equals the experience of making it.
June 29 11
Looking at dressed-up Weimaraners is like being punched in the eye with a twinkie.
23 Jan 11
Forget art; it is your passport picture which will lead to the identification of your dead body.
16 Jan 11
Mediocre photographers have trouble editing their work because all of it has equal merit.
23 Dec 10
At an exhibition opening always praise the chicken for laying eggs; you can always wring its neck later!
8 Dec 10
You don't take a photograph, You ask, quietly, to borrow it.
4 Dec 10
I start a lot of photo projects but never seem to ---
1 Nov 10
I'd like my coffin to be camera obscura so that I can see what is going on outside.
30 Sept 10
As our cameras get more intelligent, their users become dumber... Bill Jay
12 Sept 10
If I need a brain transplant, I want the donor to be a cell phone photographer because I want a brain that has NEVER been used!
1 Sept 10
Pictures of SUNSETS are too easy, like clubbing baby seals... Bill Jay
Infrared Atelier's Infrared Photography Blog 
I”m not sure what happened, per my message yesterday, but I received a shipping notice for my camera today from Clarence…
Best regards,
Ron
Great!
Mark, Thank you. I took your advice and sent a camera for full spectrum conversion to Spencer’s Camera in Utah, much as you suggested. I have a question:
I sent my camera on June 19; after many attempts to contact Spencer’s for a status update, they responded on July 11 that my camera was done and would ship the next day. After that, no contact at all. They don’t answer their phone or respond to emails, whatsoever. Early in July, there was a fire in their area that forced them to evacuate, but that problem appeared to be over by mid-July, according to the one very nice voicemail I did receive.
As you’ve recommended them to me, do you know if they are still in business? They have gone completely silent, whether by phone or email and I simply don’t know how to get even the most basic response after many attempts to reach them. Have you spoken to them lately? I assume they are in dire straights and I don’t want to add to their obviously quite serious problems. But it would be good to know how to work with them. Any thoughts?
No, they are still doing cameras. I am sorry for your stress on this. The BEST way to contact them is to TXT their phone number!!
Hi Mark,
Will send you unprocessed image sometime this week.
Regards,
Owen
Hi,
Just read your comment saying that you cannot make in IR image with a filter less than 720 on an unconverted camera. I used a 650 filter with a Nikon D50. I did a custom white balance from the grass and fired away, did the channel swap, curves, and hue/saturation in PS. I was fairly pleased with the results.
Check it out on link.
Owen, thanks for the info! My experience has been that 590nm on an unconverted camera gets poisoned by the visible light portion. Perhaps this is camera dependent as your images just look perfect! I would love to see the unprocessed image that you get out of the camera though after your white balance! Good work!
I also just checked out your web, very nice! Please consider sharing your unprocessed IR image as well.
Mark,
Your work is inspired and has been an inspiration to me. Based on your blog, I had an NEX5 converted (LifePixel–their 590 conversion) and the results have been superb. But I am confused—I have also tried a B&W 090 filter on three other cameras: Fuji X1 Pro (the optical viewfinder makes IR a real pleasure–more so than the hard to read LCD panel on the NEX5), Olympus OMD-5 and an NEX7. Files from the Fuji (uncovered, using external filter) are OK but with duotone color blotches that need heavy hue/saturation work to fix. The NEX7 files, however, are monochromatic with little or no color information at all–ditto, the Olympus. Even with extensive post processing, white balance correction in Silkypix, lots of PS work, the files still look awful. Nothing like the NEX5 converted camera or even the Fuji X1Pro. Where I’m mostly confused is by the NEX7. I would have assumed that an eternal B&W 090 would yield results similar to the Nex5, but there is no similarity whatsoever even though the cameras come from the same family.
Any thoughts or suggestions? I don’t want to have the NEX7 converted to IR but do want to use it with external filters. I’ve taken dozens of shots, varied internal white balance techniques and post processing techniques and nothing seems to yield much other than a monochromatic image (various shades of red (pre-processing) or blue (after channel mixing). Yet, the same filter used with the Fuji yields pretty acceptable results. Your thoughts here would be most welcome.
Thanks for the kind comments Ron! I am glad you got the NEX converted. 590 is a great choice!
Your other problems are common. You cannot really use an IR filter lower than 720nm on an UNCONVERTED camera. There is too much light poisoning and the image is ruined. For the unconverted camera stay with 720nm or higher.
For the NEX 7 why don’t you have it converted to full spectrum IR? This will allow you to us ANY external IR filter you desire including some of the stranger ones like the UG1 and 047B (Super BLue) which would not ever work on any other type of camera. PLUS.. You can put on an external LDP CC1 filter and the camera is now back to normal color! Dual purpose at its best!
You need to remember that the Fuji X Pro 1 has a VERY WEAK UV/IR blocking filter installed and it will allow much greater IR energy into the camera. Even with this reduced hot mirror you will still not be able to use it well below 720nm and it just will NOT white balance which is ok since you can correct that in post processing. I have tried my X PRO 1 with all of the IR external filters and was very disappointed with the results below 720nm and even then the white balance issue made me angry…
Mark,
Thanks. I don’t want to convert the NEX 7 because I use it with such a large variety of lenses that a full spectrum conversion would be impractical–buying filters for each lens.
I have used my unconverted Fuji X1 Pro on a tripod with a 720 and a 590 filter and the results weren’t so bad, though the frame lines disappeared due to the filter in the optical finder but a fair amount of blotchy color artifacts (not sensor noise–rather, duotone blotches) that I could reduce via hue/saturation adjustments.
I have been disappointed that the Fujis and the NEX5 can’t be in camera white balance corrected, but i’ve worked around that in post. Per the Fuji X1Pro, I’ve also experimented with manually setting a custom white balance to the lowest setting, 2500, and the results were helpful, even though I mostly needed to correct in post, too.
What do you think about my converting my Fuji x100 to full spectrum? I’m looking for something that has a usable optical viewfinder (I’m going to Spain in June where it will be very bright and where a viewfinder would really help) for framing. Would the x100 work as a full spectrum converted camera? How about a Sony a55 (pellicle mirror)?
Ron
Ron, I understand about the NEX cameras. They work at IR but not easily. I too have played with my XP1 in IR but find that at anything lower than 720nm the visible light overwhelmed the exposure system and gives very poor results.
As for the X100, I am playing with the thought of having it converted to IR as well at Spencers Camera in Utah. I have not decided on which conversion at this point. If you do go that route keep me in the loop!
I know nothing of the Sony A55 other than good color comments!
Help! I’ve been hunting for a 590nm filter in 58mm size to no avail.
Can some kind soul tell me where to find/buy one?
I’ll be thankful, overjoyed, appreciative, and tranquilized for any help provided.
Thanks in advance,
Martin
B+W 090 from amazon.com for about 30.00!