X-Pro1 Infra Red

[Chris Dodkin]

Whilst looking into dark glass (ND Filters) - I came across a number of examples of metering anomalies with the X-Pro1, that suggested to me that this camera was seeing infra red light, as well as visible light.

This would be an exciting revelation, a camera that does IR out of the box, without requiring permanent internal filter modifications would be an great tool for a whole new field of photography.

One quick way to find to - buy an IR filter, and try it out.

Well, today my Hoya R72 filter arrived - a rather specialist filter designed to block visible light, and allow IR wavelengths above 720 nm to pass through to the sensor.

In practice, The R72 hits 50% transmissivity at 720 nm, just inside the Near Infra Red (NIR)

I screwed it on - set ISO at 400 and the aperture at f8 for some DOF - and put the X-Pro1 on a sturdy tripod.

IR exposures can be long - there's not much illumination getting through even on a sunny day like today!

Here are the initial test shots from the front patio:

Success!

You can see that plant-life goes white - so leaves etc glow in a nice ethereal way - Skies have super contrast, as if you used a CPL.

Focus seemed to be a non issue for the X-Pro1, as the camera was focussing using the contrast in the image - so issues with different focal lengths for the different wavelength of light do not seem to matter using this system.

The original files are deep brick red in color - I'm going to see if I can set a custom WB setting to give me false color IR shots from the camera - as well as the processed B&W shown here.

Very exciting stuff - and the good news is the Hoya filters are not expensive.

 

[Larry Bolch]

Fascinating. How long were these exposures?

 

[Chris Dodkin]

Between 2.5 and 5 secs Larry - ISO400 f8

So you could probably go high ISO and wider aperture and shoot hand-held even!

The rear screen was very usable for composition and AF.

 

[Chris Dodkin]

Larry, here's an out of camera JPEG

I reckon I can custom WB to get decent false color IR OOC

 

[Larry Bolch]

Excellent! I recall IR film I shot was profoundly grainy—much more so than the XP1 at ISO25,800—so this sounds most interesting. I am also curious how a custom white balance would work with the filter. Part of the charm of IR colour film was that the results were quite unpredictable.

 

[Darren Bradley]

That is awesome! Funny that Fuji never talked about that. Great news.

 

[Hamish Gill]

That's pretty cool!
bit of a hotspot in the middle of the jpeg, but nothing to drastic eh?

 

[Pete Askew]

Interesting and very effective Chris. It would be nice to see what it does to skin tones too. It is very similar to the output of the M8 (which required IR filters for the lenses to reduce its sensitivity). I wonder if the hot-spot is due to the AF-assist kicking in)

 

[Hamish Gill]

As I understand it it's to do with lens coatings and internal reflections not being geared up to dealing with the longer wavelengths.
But I aint no scientist

 

[Brian Moore]

What film did you say it was...? Really excellent Chris!

 

[Pete Askew]

He's had his chemistry set out and been fiddling with that roll of Velvia I reckon!!

 

[Chris Dodkin]

That's pretty cool!
bit of a hotspot in the middle of the jpeg, but nothing to drastic eh?

That's the only frame I saw it one Hamish, so not sure what's happening.

Then when I converted to B&W it blended right in...

Will try some more tests and keep an eye open for it.

Have also been advised that using a CPL and R72 filter can be a good combo - so will try that.

There seem to be some PP tricks to getting various false color IR looks, swapping color channels etc - a whole new world of stuff to learn!

 

[Hamish Gill]

yeah, switch the red and blue channel makes the sky deep blue so there is at least one element of real to the photo
I was messing with it here
http://www.realphotographersforum.com/content/333-first-go-ir-photography.html

 

[Chris Dodkin]

That's the ticket - will have a play when I have shot some more scenic images

Only so many shots of the patio that people can take!

 

[Hamish Gill]

camera profiles is one way to do it if you think you are likely to shoot a lot http://www.realphotographersforum.com/content/616-camera-profiles-tutorial.html

 

[Dan Cattermole]

Whoa!! Good stuff chris!

 

[adrian jordin]

This is excellent stuff.

I had a look at doing this myself but I read somewhere that most modern cameras have a prtty effecient IR filter on the sensor.
The older digital cameras are better apparently. One suggested test was to point the TV remote at the camera and check on the camra live view whther you can see a light appearing when you press a key on the remote.

My Olympus doesn't see anything at all but the old Canon G10 seems to.

You might also chek this link out. The author is an expert on IR photography and there is a section on adding colour to the sky using PS at the end of the page.

Deborah Sandidge: Infrared Photography

 

[Pete Askew]

Actually, most sensors, even when fitted with and IR filter, have sensitivity extending into the near IR so I would just give it a go.