Some Thoughts About Converting a Camera for Infrared

by | Mar 16, 2023

Today’s Post by Joe Farace

 

I’m often asked about what kind of camera a photographer should choose to have converted to infrared-only capture. For me, that has always been a simple question: I pick the oldest one that I own and one that I use the least.

Having that old camera converted to infrared will give it new lease on life and while it may lack the newest features– more megapixels and better image processing chip—of a new camera, I usually compensate for this by shooting all of my infrared images at a modest ISO setting, typically 400 and capturing in RAW format. As far as white balance is concerned, I don’t obsess about it like some IR practitioners do—not that there’s anything wrong with that. You can read some of my thoughts on the process here.

How I made this shot: In fact, that’s the approach that I took with the above image when shooting an infrared-converted Olympus E-P1, a golden oldie that was launched by the company back in 2009.

The E-P1 is basically a rebodied E-620 Four-thirds system camera that was re-imagined for Micro Four-thirds use. The lens used was a borrowed Olympus 9-18mm f/4-5.6 that was adapted for use on the E-P1 using the Olympus MMF-3 Four Thirds to Micro Four-thirds lens mount adapter.

The image was shot at one of the picnic grounds at Barr Lake State Park, near Brighton Colorado. Exposure was 1/320 sec at f/11 and ISO 400. Image was processed in Silver Efex Pro then Color Efex Pro using the Glamour Glow filter to warm up and add some Wood Effect glow to the foliage.

 

Looking forward to infrared season: I’m excited about exploring LifePixel’s Hyper Color conversion and bought a lightly used Panasonic’s Lumix GX1 camera from Roberts Camera and had LifePixel convert it using this intriguing filter. I played around with it last year but plan to get more serious with it in 2023. The GX1 was introduced in 2012, so it’s an oldie too and I have another (non-converted) one that I love to take to car shows.

Life Pixel does a great job with IR conversions and they have done most of the conversions for my Canon DSLRs and all of my Panasonic Lumix G-series cameras. This is not a paid or sponsored endorsement, just my experience.

My book, The Complete Guide to Digital Infrared Photography is available from Amazon with copies available for $14.40 with used copies starting around ten bucks, as I write this. Creative Digital Monochrome Effects has a chapter on IR photography and is available from Amazon with new copies for $5.95 and used copies selling for around four bucks, less than the price of a Grande Starbucks latte.