Thursday, April 21, 2005

Near IR filters for video


These are infrared pass filters that can be used with some older DV cams with a nightshot feature- essentially they block out most visible light and only allow IR to come in. Sony eventually modified their cameras so that this wouldn't work as well, due to concern that people were using it to (ohmygod) sort of see people's underwear if they were wearing thin clothes in direct sunlight. Beyond this stupid trick though, near IR photography produces interesting effects. Foliage appears white, and things take on a kind of alien affect. I happen to have a camera that this will work with, so I'm considering picking up one of these lenses. You can test the sensitivity of your CCD camera to IR by operating your IR remote controller in front of it. If you see flashing on the remote controller where IR transmitters in it are, your camera is somewhat sensitive to IR light.
Link

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I have never tried this myself, however i have read in an optics manual that you can make an effective IR filter out of two layers of non-exposed and developed slide (E-6). You often get these pieces for free as end strips in a box of developed slides - I don't know if there is some image degradation but it is far cheaper than the kodak brand IR gel filter