Bloke Loc: Waynesboro, Pennsylvania

I just had the email to say that LifePixel has completed the conversion of my T4i to 'Super-colour infra-red', and it is awaiting pickup by UPS! Not bad, as it only arrived there Monday evening, and they estimated a 10-day turn-around time.

Not that we have exactly the ideal weather conditions for it, but I am looking forward to having a play...

PixelStan77 Loc: Vermont/Chicago

Have fun with it when you get it. Life Pixel converted a D300 and lens for me.

lev29 Loc: Born and living in MA.

Awesome. Are you going to do a daily countdown for the Hog till it arrives? Can't wait for that! 😏
I see you picked the Super-color filter. Which part of the visible light spectrum does that one filter out? If I convert another camera, I think it'll be dual spectrum: all visible and near-IR light. 😀

Bloke Loc: Waynesboro, Pennsylvania

Not due until next Thursday, unfortunately... :x

The conversion for what they call Supercolour is at 590nm. It gives the option of processing in false-colour, or modifying into B&W, which seemed to be the best combination. They have one called Super Blue, which lets more of the visible light spectrum through, but warn that it can cause a lot of colour fringing around foliage.

I also get a free 30 minute one-on-one 'lesson' from one of their people, but I haven't decided what I want that to concentrate on...

lev29 Loc: Born and living in MA.

Bloke, were you born & raised in the UK or some British Commonwealth nation? Just curious, given your consistent respelling of terms from a U.S. merchant.

I take it you checked your lens with respect to that list of "good" and "bad" lenses for IR compatibility? If you're unaware of this, check also Kolarivision's website. I can't remember which one has this list.

Have you shot digital IR before? I've done some, but am far from being any sort of "expert." Presently, my only converted camera has a cut-off at 650 nm, called Color IR by DSI.

Bloke Loc: Waynesboro, Pennsylvania

Yes, I am a transplanted Brit. I have been in the US for 25 years now, but I refuse to change how I spell the Queen's English... :-D

LifePixel will either set up a camera to focus consistently with a user-supplied lens, or else they provide a 'universal' focus, which works with Live View only. That was what I went with, since I like a lot of wide angle shots in my landscape stuff. I didn't want to be limited to just a single lens...

I haven't shot digital IR before, but I did run a few rolls of IR film through my old A1, back in the 80s somewhen...

I have thought about doing this from time to time, and was finally in a position to get it done.

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

You'll probably have a lot of fun with it. I have a converted Pentax K-100, to 665 or 667 or whatever nm. Though I think if I ever get another IR camera, that I will go for a 880 nm so it will look more like B&W IR. There are a few IR processing tricks you may want to learn about, such as colour channel swapping. I have a lot of older lenses with an IR focusing mark on the lens, but "digital" lenses don't seem to have those or actual click stops.

sueyeisert Loc: New Jersey

[quSupercolor is 590nm. ote=lev29]Awesome. Are you going to do a daily countdown for the Hog till it arrives? Can't wait for that! 😏
I see you picked the Super-color filter. Which part of the visible light spectrum does that one filter out? If I convert another camera, I think it'll be dual spectrum: all visible and near-IR light. 😀[/quote]

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Post some shots. You'll like it better when there's more green on the trees.

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

With 590nm you can always add on a secondary filter on the outside, eg a 750nm to make it more classic IR like. But the 590 gives you flexibility... good choice. :thumbup: :thumbup:

I went a step further and just put in clear glass and all filtering is screw-in. IR is a fun diversion indeed. 8-) notice the IR filters on this emoticon?

Bloke Loc: Waynesboro, Pennsylvania

They have a bunch of videos on their website. They explain the channel swapping quite well, although I couldn't figure out why they don't use a PS 'action' to achieve that - seems like it was made for it, total repetition of the same steps every time.

By using their 'universal focus' option, it takes the lens focus issues out of the picture. You focus using live view only, and that is supposed to work with whatever lens you use. A lot of my landscape stuff is with the 10-18mm, and that lens has such huge DOF that distant focus takes care of itself!

One of the reasons I chose the super-colour conversion option was that it allows the false-colour view, but is also relatively easy to convert to the B&W IR appearance. I didn't want to be tied to just one or the other...

Bloke Loc: Waynesboro, Pennsylvania

Yeah, you really need lots of sun and green foliage - neither of which is available too much right now... I'll be all set when Spring finally rolls around, though.

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

Yes, that is the same reason I chose the 665 nm filter, false color. But in the end I mainly prefer my B&W conversions. Actually if I want "deeper" IR I can put one of several "Film" type IR filters over the lens and have LONG exposures but go all the way to 850 or 900 nm. I have several from my film days.

I think one reason I did not have the "Universal focus / live view" done on my camera is that my K-100D is so old that it either does not have live view or the technician suggested that that would not work well with my particular camera. Again, they could have set it up to "work" with only one AF lens. So I have to either "adjust" the focus for IR or as you suggest you often will do, use a wide angle lens with lots of DoF. In fact I've found that my old "IR" Pentax is very tricky to use with a telephoto lens. With older "film" lenses I use the IR mark on the lens. I might want to experiment and see if I can "manually" adjust the back or front focus of the camera to compensate more or less for the IR. Note, Pentax cameras have their AF in the body, not the lenses like Canon and Nikon. With a few exceptions of lenses such as premium Pentax DA* SDM lenses that focus by two methods.

In any case you have your camera set up or modified to be the easiest for you. I know other photographers who have Lifepixel conversions and they do a great job. LifePixel used to anyway, also sell pre-converted Canon or Nikon cameras. And seems to prefer both those brands. Converting a Pentax or Sony is more hit and miss it seems. A converted PnS camera can shoot IR really conveniently!

My ancient K-100D (only 6.1MP) seems sharper once converted now that it does not have an AA (or hi or low pass) filter. Actually I bought the camera used to have it converted so I did not shoot much with it as a "normal" camera, but comparing it to other 6.1MP cameras I've had, it is way higher in resolution than I would expect. That might be something to explore for a "full spectrum" IR-Visible-UV conversion.

Yes, you probably could set up an Action with Ps to do the channel swap. I've found after swapping the RED with BLUE I need to adjust the GREEN a bit to get the yellow to white foliage the way I want. But you have a different filter and camera so perhaps you'll need to make different fine tunings.

You sound like you have a good handle on the "uses" of IR already. Not everyone realizes only certain "things" reflect IR significantly, such as green foliage. Dead plants don't. In fact I once realized an indoor "plant" in a building I used to frequent was an artificial plastic plant due to an IR photo I took including the "plant". It was otherwise a fairly accurate fake plant. It had even fooled me, a biologist, up until then. LOL :?

I should stop barking now and let you get your camera in the mail and post some results. :-) :thumbup:

lev29 Loc: Born and living in MA.

dpullum,
I've though about getting a "clear glass" internal filter, which means, as you know, that UV light will also "expose" the sensor. But when I looked up the purposes for UV-only photography, I find the major applications for it to be in flowers, Dermatology, and Astronomy. My point is that for landscape photography, UV exposure is analogous to "fogging," and I'd hate to add a UV external back on just to take care of an ever-present "problem." That's why my next conversion would be dual, not triple, spectrum.

But I'd like to know what your experience is with your trip-spectrum camera.

Bloke Loc: Waynesboro, Pennsylvania

I had thought about buying a used camera specifically for the conversion, but after my recent spate of new equipment, could I really justify owning *another* DSLR? I had kept hold of the T4i because of the articulated screen - a lifesaver in astro or ground-level shots! I also recently invested in a camranger, so now I am able to handle focus at impossible angles using that. This seemed a decent compromise, all in all.

It's also a bit smaller and lighter than my other gear, which is useful for a camera which has to be held at arms-length for live-view focusing. I probably won't put the battery grip back on it, for the same reason. After all, after my first couple of outings with it, I can't imagine shooting hundreds of IR shots in a session!