D50/D70 infrared convertion

quilmore

Hi
Do you know if IR convertion for old Nikon DSLR's can be done in Dublin?
Any ideas on cost?
Thanks

FX Meister

doubt there's anyone in ireland doing it. Probably have to send it off or get a kit to do it yourself

njburke

Hi Quilmore,

Theres a company called lifepixel.com can supply either the filter or provide a conversion service.
I've done this type of conversion on some industrial CCD cameras for applications like laser beam profilometry, it was pretty straight forward on that type of body as the're easy to disassemble and CCD alignment is made easier by machined flats.

I recently watched a mate convert Canon A70 to IR (cut filter swapped for a piece of 35mm exposed film) and it was much more involved, the disassembly is lenghty. I wouldn't reccomend it for the faint hearted.

From what I've seen of the work instruction on life pixel, the D70 conversion is more like my expereince with the industrial CCDs cameras.
Give the cost of a secondhand d70 these days compared with return shipping to the US, fitting the filter yourself seems the way to go.
If you do go that route, watch out for the Flash resevoir capacitor.


Niall

quilmore

Thanks
have you done it before? I don't know where to start looking
a kit should be OK

quilmore

Thanks Niall
yes, I've read about the kick of that capacitor

CabanSail

The only ones I have heard of have been done at Life Pixel where the cameras have been sent over to the USA.

On the website it gives quite a lot of information about how to do it yourself & the risks involved. When I looked at it I was sure that I could do the job myself. I do not know which filter I would get though.

I was wondering if you had a piece of glass that was the right size completely even transmission then you could put the relevent filter for the effect you wanted on the front of the lens. I have not explored this at all though.

njburke

Hi Quilmore,
I found another link that outlines the work involved in removing the IR
cut filter ,http://www.astrosurf.com/~buil/d70/ircut.htm, a quick look at that may help you decide whether you feel up to the challenge of fitting the
filter yourself.
Apart from modifying those industrial CCDs I haven't converted my camera to
IR, I have ordered a cheap split prism focussing screen for it which
I'll fit if its of good quality.

Cabansail, the same thought occured to me, remove the IR cut filter and
don't put anything back in its place then filter at lens entry.
But I think the IR cut and Anti Alias filter are stacked together on different sides of the same element and what livepixel provide is an AA filter with formulated spectral response that extends into IR. Blocking the IR from camera might also degrade the performance of the other optical sensors in the path, the AF sensors in particular.

quilmore

Thanks