# IR Filters, on DSLR question?



## benaccent (Aug 15, 2006)

I was looking for an Ir filter for my D50, and read that they will only work with cameras that have B&W mode. Is this true? or are there filters you can get that are ok to use with my camera to give the same effect

I am still pretty new to this so was just looking for a little help.


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## magicmonkey (Aug 15, 2006)

I'm using a Hoya R72 with my Canon 350D and it's fine, you will need to adjust your white balance etc. but other people have got them working with D50's no problem, have a look at:

http://dpfwiw.com/ir.htm
http://www.pauck.de/marco/photo/infrared/infrared.htmlhttp://www.pauck.de/marco/photo/infrared/infrared.html (good links here...)

Hope this helps


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## Tiberius (Aug 15, 2006)

The D50's low-pass filter blocks UV and IR light.  Even if you put on a filter, the camera eliminates so much of the IR light that you'd need to do very long tripod exposures even in bright light.  The Hoya R72's typically the reccomended filter, however, if you want to try.


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## AluminumStudios (Aug 16, 2006)

The D50 is great for IR.  I do a lot with mine, here's one from last weekend - http://static.flickr.com/86/214663137_b08f31b082_o.jpg

The Hoya R72 is the most popular and easy to use. Make sure you have a tripod too because you'll need .5-3 second exposures typically in sunlight depending on conditions. 

Make sure to shoot in RAW mode. The photo will come out all super-red saturated, but one click of the white-balance dropper tool in Rawshooter or the equivalend in Adobe Lightroom and the colors will come to life. If you shoot in JPG you'll be stuck with a bloody red image that you can't really do much with. some people use manual whitebalance by taking photos of grass - I consider this a pain and never got it to work for me (just shoot RAW, it's really easy that way.)

Shallow IR filters like the Hoya R72 (which passes 720nm on up) produce nice pseudo-color, but if you use a deep filter like an 87C (that doesn't start passing until 850nm) your image will come out purely monochrome. Anything darker than an R72 will be very hard to use on an unmodified camera and bump exposure times to 10 seconds or more in sunlight.

Hope this helps.  Have fun.


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## Arch (Aug 16, 2006)

yea, I use a D50 with my Hoya R72...... works great..... here's a link to my most recent pics.....

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=56984

Personally i prefer to use a custom WB...... and shoot in RAW anyway.... just cuz i find it better to preview the shot out in the field..... otherwise the saturated red can be difficult to check composition and focus..... but its up to you...... once on the computer i still use the rawshooter WB to 'clean up' the shot.
Have fun.


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## zedin (Aug 16, 2006)

AluminumStudios said:
			
		

> Shallow IR filters like the Hoya R72 (which passes 720nm on up) produce nice pseudo-color, but if you use a deep filter like an 87C (that doesn't start passing until 850nm) your image will come out purely monochrome. Anything darker than an R72 will be very hard to use on an unmodified camera and bump exposure times to 10 seconds or more in sunlight.
> Hope this helps.  Have fun.



Do you know if you get similar results using a d70s?  I just ask because most of what I have read involves getting the camera modified to shoot just IR.


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## AluminumStudios (Aug 16, 2006)

Yes, the Nikon D50, D70, and D70s from what I know all have very similar IR sensitivity - that is they can take wonderful IR photos with exposures in the .5-3 second range unmodified.

If you have it modified by replacing the hotmirror (the blue'ish glass in front of the CCD) with an IR-pass filter (essentially somethine like a Hoya R72), then eposure times drop to near-normal times.

In addition to a D50 I also have a Nikon Coolpix 990 and 880 that I modified (I replaced the hotmirror with glass and use an external R72 filter.)

I find photography relaxing and think it's fun setting up on a tripod to take a 3 second shot, so I'm not in a rush to mod my D50 which would render it incapable of taking "normal" color photos anymore.  When I want something fast I'll use one of my mod'd Coolpix's which can do 1/250" in sunlight at ISO100!

If you need more help feel free to PM me.  Digital IR has been a big interest of mine for a while.


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## benaccent (Aug 16, 2006)

many thanks for all your replys, im glad to hear that it is possible, many thanks.

Archangel--  it was your photos that inspired me to start looking at doing some IR work. cheers


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## fotogenik (Aug 17, 2006)

I do IR work with my D50 and the Hoya 72 filter.  The shots I have taken, not many so far due to lack of free time to shoot stuff I am not being paid to shoot or shoot for my portfolio, are great stuff even for just going and and shooting in full auto just to test the filter.  

I am planning to try and do some more IR work soon.  I want to go shoot IR in the local theme park, I think the dark look of the sky around it and the rides would be a pretty interesting look.


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