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I am thinking of getting a second body and taking out the IR filter to make it dedicated IR but I am not sure what I should pay....

Isn't that essentially what the Canon 20Da ('a' for astro) is all about?

Cheers,

i have not heard of that....

Hmmmm might have to look that one up.

But there is the issue that i want to beable to use my nikon lenses....

When converting a digital camera for IR, you can choose two paths:

• Remove the IR-blocking filter and replace it with clear glass (to compensate for the refraction of the filter). That way you need to introduce an IR-pass (or visible-blocking I suppose) filter on the end of your lens to take IR shots.
• Remove the IR-blocking filter and replace it with an IR-pass filter inside the camera. With a DSLR this means the filter is behind the shutters, and you can still use the viewfinder to compose/focus with visible light.

The Canon 20Da is geared to astrophotography use where they wanted to give the astronomers the most fexibility in choosing filters (I think for some work they want both visible AND IR light.
For more-traditional land-based IR photography I prefer the arrangement with an internal IR filter.

olrac, were you intending to do the modification yourself? You'll see a new thread in the Bargains forum where I'm advertising the fact that I offer this as a service, including sourcing the appropriate glass filters and adjusting the camera's focus system.

Hope you have a good understanding of Japanese... the Canon 20Da is only available in Japan.

When i get the second hand d70 i was planning to do this myself...

I was going to replace the IR filter with wratten 89 or equivilent filter.

Is this the same replacement you make?

Do you have more details of what you actually do ( i want to know if it is too hard for me to do)

Nnnnsic wrote:Hope you have a good understanding of Japanese... the Canon 20Da is only available in Japan.

B&H sell it in the USA...

olrac, I generally prefer to use an #87C, although some people like the results of the #89 or 89B. Which one is "best" can vary a bit dependent on the characteristics of the sensor and the Bayer filter array on each camera model. I have both #87C and #89B filters, and haven't yet decided which is best on the D70, although I suspect my preference is the #87C. The #89B lets in a little more visible light, and that gets affected by the Bayer filters. While some people like the false colours that can result, it does reduce the effective resolution of the sensor.
With IR light that passes through all the R/G/B Bayer filters almost equally, you end up with a monochromatic camera with a very high resolution indeed.

There is information around on the net about opening up the D70 and removing the filter, but I don't think there's any one resource that will tell you all the bits involved in getting a good result (including adjusting the focus so you don't have to focus with visible light and then adjust the lens for IR [how many lenses have IR focus marks these days?]).
Yes I am biased in saying this, as I obviously want people to pay me to do the hard work!

I am currently using a r72 hoya filter and dont like the visable light that gets through, I was under the impresion that the wratten 89 blocked all visible light.

Correct me if I am wrong...


Your price is very competitive and if i get a d70 body cheap enough i will use it, but for this foray into IR i want to get away with not spending thousands

So I might have to do the leg work myself