Everyone gets captivated by IR photography, right? The wonderful inverted black and whites are just too cool. Traditional IR photography is a pain in the bum. You have to put this filter over your camera lens to filter out visible light so you only get IR. Trouble is your digital camera is designed to capture visible light not IR, and digital cameras have a hot mirror filter to deliberately block IR. In all, it’s a recipe for frustration. You can’t see to check your focus or to compose your shot and you have to take really long exposures so you have to use a tripod. Forget about capturing a scene with things that move.
But, the news isn’t all bad. This image was shot with a brand new (albeit without any warranty remaining) Canon SD870 point and shoot. There is no warranty on this camera any more because 5 minutes after I bought it I shipped it to Lifepixel.com who pulled it apart and rebuilt it as an IR point and shoot. So, it captures IR, not visible light. And, because the camera is customised and only captures the light you’re wanting to capture, you can focus it, compose your shot in the viewfinder, adjust ISO and shoot moving objects – how amazing is that? I’ve only had a few minutes to test it so I took it down the road to shoot the hills and some farmland. I’m taking it to Mexico this week too.