IR filter/advice?

Bryans12v

Happy New Year Everyone!

Im looking to dive into something I know very little about, something I prize myself on.

Ive always seen, here on Dgrin of course, very cool shots taken in Infrared. I absolutley love the effect as a landscape nerd. Although I love the effect, I know very little about actually shooting in IR. I do know the best way is to have a dedicated body modified to only read IR but Im not a rich guy and am looking to achieve the effect by spending a couple hundred dollars on a good IR filter.

What Im wondering is how effective these very expensive filters are and which to choose from. It looks as if some vary in degree of spectrum allowed to pass through the filter in wavelength form. Ill most likely be getting a 77mm glass to use on my oldie but goodie canon 20-35 and will be shooting with my 5d classic. Ive reaf that most canon dlsr have an internal ir cutoff that makes them not so useful when using an unmodded body with a filter attatched and was wondering if anyone could steer me in a better direction. I wouldnt want tpo drop $200+ on a filter for sub=par results. Maybe that 200 would be better spent on an older body and an IR conversion.

Any tips, tricks or info would be greatly appreciated!

NeilL

Some SW filters are an option (and not a compromise!)

Neil

ziggy53

Canon dSLRs tend to have a very strong IR cutout filter in front of the imager. Just adding an IR bandpass filter in the front will not make a very effective IR camera.

You would be much better served purchasing a camera and converting it to exclusive IR operation. I purchased a Canon XT that had an IR conversion and I am very happy with the results:







Note too that relatively few lenses work properly with IR cameras. The above were all shot with the Canon EF 17-40mm, f4L USM and it works very nicely. Many other lenses will produce a visible hot-spot at the center of the lens.

There are some old digicams that have a relatively weak IR cutout filter, and they do respond fairly well to adding an IR bandpass filter to the front. The Minolta DiMAGE 7 was one such digicam, as were the Sony F707 and F717 digicams. Many of those cameras can be purchased pretty cheaply, and they are still usable for visible light photography too.