Would infrared light shined at cameras really affect the picture being taken?

Question

Would infrared light shined at digital cameras or regular 35mm film cameras affect the final picture outcome? I mean I'm sure it would affect the digital, but I'm not so sure about 35mm film.

Answer 1

I believe cameras have an infared light filter.

Answer 2

Not unless you're using infrared film. There are some 35mm cameras that use an internal infrared light as a film counter, in fact. It's recommended you don't use those to shoot infrared film, but it has no effect on regular film.

For a digital camera, you can pick up some infrared light. More on older digitals. There is a way to test if your digital can pick up infrared. Shine a TV remote towards your lens and take a picture. If the light shows up, your camera can handle infrared. I've tried with my Nikon D70, and gotten some really interesting IR pictures. But under normal use, like someone in the same room using a remote, it won't do much, if anything at all, to your digital images.

Answer 3

Digital cameras usually have a filter designed to minimize the effects of infrared light. Digital sensors are definitely sensitive to IR, which is what makes them good for IR applications with the right filters.

35mm film, well it would depend not only on the film but how much IR light.

Generally though, I don't think you'd see much of an effect. If you pointed a remote control at your digital camera and pressed a button while taking a photo, I doubt you'd see anything at all, for example.

The thing is, most IR sources also put out visible light at the red end of the spectrum, and that visible red light is going to cause all sorts of problems.

Answer 4

The short answer is no. Infrared light will not affect an image in any practical sense, so if your worried about it, relax.

Film requires a special formulation of the emulsion that is sensitive to infrared to be effected in any practical sense. If you stored regular film at 100 degrees Farenheit for long enough, you will get a variety of effects, including color shifts and loss of saturation in color film. If you stored infrared film under similar conditions, you would get fogged (exposed) film.

Digital camera sensors do respond to infrared light and are filtered for that reason. Most of them can be modified to take infrared photos.

Some digital cameras can be used to take infrared pictures without modification because their filtration is not as complete, but the exposures are very long. That means that under any practical shooting situation, the response to infrared is too low to affect the image.

Answer 5

No I believe the person who mentioned an infrared filter in the digital camera was correct.. It requires a special film and deep red filter to "capture" infrared images. The effect can be approximated in Photoshop. There is one specialized digital camera for true infrared photography but it can only be used for infrared. Its a rather expensive single-purpose camera. You can go to shutterbug.com and Search for infrared. They had an article about a year or so ago about doing infrared with digital.

Answer 6

This really depends upon the sensitivity of the film or sensor at the wavelengths you are using.

For example, the Fuji Superia Xtra 400 film datasheet shows that it is relatively insensitive at the red end of the spectrum, not even covering the full visible spectrum very well. So it is unlikely to react much to infra-red light.

I think you are correct about digital sensors. They generally appear to have a broader response, but I don't have access to a datasheet to check the specifics.

Answer 7

If iPhones were so easily hacked, JailbreakMe would still exist and the 6.1.3 jailbreak would be out by now. Obviously, they don't so it's not a hack. I'm pretty sure the volume buttons can also be pressed to take a picture, so yours is probably jammed.

Answer 8

go to howstuffworks.com to find out