The Sports Photo Guy

After acquiring a D200, I had my D70 converted to a full-time infra-red (IR) camera which I have dubbed the “D70i.” This is accomplished by removing the IR-blocking filter (hot mirror) placed over the CCD and replacing it with a standard IR filter. Brave souls do this themselves; I had it done for $250 by the nice folks at Life Pixel. Turnaround was about a week and the camera works like a charm after conversion.

Don’t have a camera to devote to full-time infrared use?  Then try a standard screw-on lens filter.  The Hoya R72 is the most economical, and comes in all common sizes: 52mm, 55mm, 58mm, 62mm, 67mm, 72mm, 77mm, and 82mm, as well as some others.

Why a full-time IR camera?

• The biggest advantage is by putting the visible-light blocking filter in front of the CCD rather than screwing it on to the front of the lens, you get to actually see what you are shooting at through the viewfinder
• Closely related is the fact that shutter speeds are much closer to “normal” than with a conventional, threaded lens filter; this is due to the removal of the hot mirror
• The Life Pixel folks will also perform a rough calibration of autofocus for IR, as light at these wavelengths focuses in a slightly different plane than visible light

To see some of my images, look at the Infrared section of my portfolio.  The header on the Archives page also contains a selection of infrared images.