any digital infrared shooters? sony

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joe mama - 30 Aug 2006 17:20 GMT

hi,

i have a DSC-V3 and notice that if you set it to "night shot" mode, you are
in effect, removing the ir blocker in the camera. of course it's way too
bright to get a pic like that in daylight, but i do have an old wratter 87
filter that i put in front of the lens and it works...kind of.

the image gets way too blown out in the highlights (foliage), even though
the sky darkens nicely. it seems that the only way you can shoot this way is
in program mode, so all i can do is try to reduce the exposure a little with
the compensation. it really doesn't do all that much. even throwing a red
filter in front of the 87 didn't do much to alter the highlights.

anyone in here shoot IR with these Sony cameras, and have an answer for me?
I guess i could double up on the filters, but that seems a tad redundant.

thanks

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Craig - 30 Aug 2006 17:41 GMT

"joe mama" <dmoss74@hotmail.com> wrote...

> hi,
>
[quoted text clipped - 14 lines]
>
> thanks

I'm not sure about the V3, but for the F717, a lot of folks do IR with a
R72 and neutral density filter combo.

See: http://www.pbase.com/catson/infrared_world

My examples: http://home.att.net/~wpyr/sony/DSC-F717--IR.html

Check the DPR Forum (or join and ask for help):
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/forum.asp?forum=1009

or ask about the V3 and infrared:
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/search.asp?query=v3+infrared&forum=1009

Have fun!

Craig

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joe mama - 30 Aug 2006 17:43 GMT

> I'm not sure about the V3, but for the F717, a lot of folks do IR with a
> R72 and neutral density filter combo.
[quoted text clipped - 12 lines]
>
> Craig

yep, the minute i sent my post i went and grabbed a polariser, and it did
the same thing. i guess a two stop--at least--ND would do the trick?

thanks

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Unclaimed Mysteries - 30 Aug 2006 22:26 GMT

> hi,
>
[quoted text clipped - 13 lines]
>
> thanks

I've shot IR with the F717, now the F828. Try a strong ND filter in
addition to the IR pass filter. Even better try a - get this - a Hoya X1
or similar GREEN filter.

Consider: We've already selected visible light out and IR in, now we
need to control the amount of IR that gets to the sensor. Turns out that
the green filter I tried is much more efficient than a 2 or 3 stop ND
filter at just that task.

A downside is the need to have a blob of filters stacked up front. This
causes vignetting at the wide end of the zoom range. Using polarizers
gives more fine control but adds even more filters to the front.

With Sony's refusal to let their firmware be modded to give full
exposure and shutter speed control under "NightShot" mode, we're limited
to f2-ish and 1/60sec. limitations (1/30 for the 828 -grrrr).

But it's still a neat camera to take IR with. No need to remove the hot
mirror, and full use of the live *preview* including histogram.

http://www.unclaimedmysteries.net/digital_images.php#infrared

Corry

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David Ruether - 31 Aug 2006 14:14 GMT

[...]

> With Sony's refusal to let their firmware be modded to give full exposure and shutter speed control under "NightShot" mode, we're
> limited to f2-ish and 1/60sec. limitations (1/30 for the 828 -grrrr).

Sony priggishly tries to prevent "X-Ray" photos - but
IR does a VERY poor job of "seeing through clothes".
I've taken some wonderful landscape footage with an
old TRV-9 Mini-DV camcorder and IR+red filter
(before Sony crippled this great feature in late TRV-9s).

> But it's still a neat camera to take IR with. No need to remove the hot mirror, and full use of the live *preview* including
> histogram.
>
> http://www.unclaimedmysteries.net/digital_images.php#infrared
>
> Corry

Nice images. I found I couldn't get sharp IR images with
my Sony 707. I guess your idea of stitching several images
together (thus reducing magnification) is a good one for
getting nicer-looking images.
--
David Ruether
rpn1@cornell.edu
http://www.ferrario.com/ruether

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