Has anyone converted a Canon Digital SLR to work only in Infrared mode?

Question

I own a Canon 30d and love it. I am really into infrared photography and have an Olympus camera that works really well, it takes great pics, but it's only a 4mp and while the images are great, I can't really blow those up to a large enough size to display. I am thinking of buying a used Canon Rebel, XT or XTi and have one of the companies that are converting them for IR use to convert it. I was wondering if anyone had this done...how it worked for you...and which camera and conversion company you used?

Answer 1

I've been eyeing this too.... when I get a new camera and my 30D is relegated to 3rd string, I might get an IR conversion done. I can't offer personal experience with the IR conversion, but I'd encourage you to check out lensrentals.com. They offer Canon DSLR's with IR conversions for rent, and you can try it out for yourself!

Answer 2

before you do it find out the sensitivity that the camera will have when they are done. Sense the sensors weren't being made with IR in mind they may not give you as great a range as you are expecting. I know Kodak used to make specialty IR digitals that had a sensitivity response for light between 420 and 1,000 nanometers... I've heard that some of the conversions end up with a much narrower band... if you want more modern tech Fuji's S5 gives you 380 - 1,000... not sure how hard core you are but just remember that a converted camera may not give you as good a results as you could get from one designed for IR.

Answer 3

You might find an article about digital infrared photography by Joe Farace in the Nov. 2006 issue of Shutterbug Magazine interesting. You can read it at shutterbug.com. If you type 'digital infrared photography' in the Search box you'll find all the articles they've printed.

The book "Digital Infrared Photography: Professional Techniques and Images" by Patrick Rice might be of interest also.