Sony A200 Infrared Converted - noisy images

Wirralpix

I've done infrared images before with the Sony F717 and always promised myself that I'd go back to infrared when I had the funds and as I've stayed with the "A" mount I've bought a new Sony A200 and had it converted to IR at ACS.

I've only had it back a few days and went out today to take my first images in Winter sunshine to test it out. Having just viewed them in Photoshop I'm shocked at the amount of noise in them considering they were taken at ISO100. The lack of sharpness and level of noise is something I had not expected when using a CZ 16-80mm on a tripod. I'm now worried that I may have wasted a lot of money as the images look no better than from the Sony F717 which I could have picked up for buttons.

Am I expecting too much from an IR converted DSLR or do you think my first images were taken under the wrong conditions? Perhaps the Winter sunshine wasn't producing enough IR light to give a good exposure and hence the noise.

Any advice from infrared shooters would be welcomed.

George

Andy

Not sure about the Sony chip but i got amazingly clean shots from my Canon 5D IR modification:

http://www.moonriverphotography.com/Photography/5D-Infrared-Mod-Samples/1380195_3ogr7/1/65171361_WWK9A

but then I also got amazingly clean files from my little Canon SD P&S cameras, too: http://www.moonriverphotography.com/Photography/SD-870-Infrared-Mod-Samples/5685508_LaVi8#350403537_8AUCg

So I ditched the big body in favor of a more portable take anywhere solution.

Sorry for the noise! Hope it's easy to troubleshoot.

Wirralpix

Andy wrote:

Not sure about the Sony chip but i got amazingly clean shots from my Canon 5D IR modification:

http://www.moonriverphotography.com/Photography/5D-Infrared-Mod-Samples/1380195_3ogr7/1/65171361_WWK9A

but then I also got amazingly clean files from my little Canon SD P&S cameras, too: http://www.moonriverphotography.com/Photography/SD-870-Infrared-Mod-Samples/5685508_LaVi8#350403537_8AUCg

So I ditched the big body in favor of a more portable take anywhere solution.

Sorry for the noise! Hope it's easy to troubleshoot.

Thanks for the reply Andy. I've been doing some research this evening and found this website http://www.wrotniak.net/photo/infrared/#NOISE and it looks as though I have the answer I was after. According to the author, there's more noise naturally occurring in IR images than under normal circumstances.

I suppose taking images in RAW with a converted DSLR for the first time is a little more difficult than in JPEG with the F717 and I should give the camera and myself more of a chance to master a technique.

George

Panther

Wirralpix wrote:

I suppose taking images in RAW with a converted DSLR for the first time is a little more difficult than in JPEG with the F717 and I should give the camera and myself more of a chance to master a technique.

George

Howdy George,

You might post some of your images along with the exif so we might be able to see what you're up to. I've been shooting IR for a few years<G> and have to say it's never a sure thing.

Also, if you're not shooting in pretty bright conditions, cloudy days and off lighting increases the chances of darkish or hazy images, especially if you're trying to pull out a lot of fine details.

I shot with a 717 for several years, came up through Sony Talk Forum, learned a lot from Andy about IR, and moved to a Modded Nikon D70S.

Also, not sure what Mod you've had done, but shooting in RAW sure helps out in the long run for being able to tweak things more.

I kind of hang out in the Other Cool Shots Forum, so put a few pics up over there, I'll bet it's just the newness of it and the learning curve.

Kindest Regards,

Craig

Tony Beach

Noise generally comes from underexposure. With my IR converted D200 I tend to heavily utilize ETTR (expose to the right) and then pull the shot in conversion. The problem is that the meter presumes visible light is reaching the sensor, and the IR light is only at best a fraction of that, so I'm typically in the +2 to +3 EC range (sometimes even more) for the meter. The toughest part is being able to review the histogram and know if you are getting an accurate representation of the exposure.

Wirralpix

Thanks for the advice everyone. I went out into the garden today to carry out some test shots based on your advice and the results were far far better. Gone is the noise that was plaguing the images and I'm getting much cleaner sharper images more in tune to what I was expecting.

The only problem still remaining is that I'm getting back focus by quite a margin. Typically, when you want to take a closer look the weather closes in and the rain arrives, but it may be that the cameras AF hasn't been adjusted following conversion. When the weather permits, I'll do some more testing with various lenses and if it's still there, send it back under ACS work guarantee for adjustment.

I'm now happy that this camera conversion will produce the images I was hoping for with more practice.

George

Wirralpix

First processed infrared images
After a few teathing troubles of my own making (lack of knowledge) I'm very happy with the Sony A200 conversion and it's delivering everything that I expected from a permanently converted DSLR.

My first images processed from jpeg are up on my smugmug site at http://wirralpix.smugmug.com/Art/Sony-A200-infrared/10815053_RpqyR/1/753972059_JszFy

They're clean, sharp and noise free and I'm looking forward to exploring infrared and post processing techniques during 2010.

Thanks for all your advice

George

ir robbie

Glad to know your problem are solved with images that you are happy with.There is lot of noise in Ir,What`s your work flow?
Ever tried Nik plugins?