I've read a few guides on IR photography... and I would really like to get into it, but apparently I need something like a Hoya R72 IR filter. Now, is there anything such for, say, an Olympus SP510UZ? Or am I going to have to improvise with mounting the filter on the lens?
Does your camera/lens have female thread on the front? If not, some cameras have an adapter which allows for screw mount filters to be attached.
Holding my R72 on my SE k810i with my hand works fine :mrgreen:. You could make a custom filter if there isn't one compatible with your camera, but the cheapest way i think would be to get a regular threaded filter of a suitable size and just improvise with mounting. Do have a look around before doing that.
CCD's are very sensitive to IR light, so most digital cameras have a IR elimination filter layered over the CCD so IR light won't mess up the image. You either need to have it removed, or find a camera that doesn't have it to begin with. (very rare) I found one company that replaces the IR elimination filter with a standard IR filter. http://maxmax.com/ IR also focuses at a different point than visible light, so you need to know the focus point offset.
That's probably because the D200's IR cut-off filter is a lot better . You can take fine handheld shots with an R72 on a D40, a D70, and i'd guess (remember, this is just a guess) most DSLRs below the D200's range, also all P&S cameras.
Actually price had nothing to do with IR quality the low pass filter is matched to the sensor no more. The D200 has a very VERY strong low-pass filter, whereas the Nikon D2x and Canon 40D do not. MichaelT the point I was trying to make is that in a P&S camera the low-pass filter is crap making it much more suitable to IR photography than the D200 (which still takes good IR pictures with a tripod even without the expensive and damaging conversion)
