I remember reading a while ago that some people would buy cheaper used DSLRs and remove the filter from the sensor to make dedicated IR cameras. Is this still doable?
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I remember reading a while ago that some people would buy cheaper used DSLRs and remove the filter from the sensor to make dedicated IR cameras. Is this still doable?
Yes! I believe so! Some camera's are easier to get at the internal filters than others, I assume. I believe Olympus is a popular brand for "inexpensive" and "easy" to remove the filter, iirc. There's a few companies out there that offer "conversion services" too — try googling "IR conversion service," looks like some interesting stuff comes up.
I haven't gone that route myself. Kinda prefer the artistic constraints of "working with what i've got" (and I don't have a camera at the moment that I particularly want to devote to conversion).
You can get some pretty wild images with a converted camera, because you can still use fast shutter speeds and get a fully exposed, full-spectrum, sharp image. The results can be quite stunning in part because you get IR mixed in with visible in the end result, so it's a weird kinda hybrid.
With a stock camera and filters, I'm constrained to long exposure times, and the need to do multiple exposures if I want to span the color space. I like it though, it gives a softness and granularity, and so has it's own emotional character.