Infrared with Canon Powershot?

June 28, 2004 4:58 PM

I have a Canon Powershot s50 digital camera which I dearly love. Is it possible to take infrared shots with it? I had a infrared filter for my old nikon fm slr, which, when used with infrared film, worked very well. I assume there must be some way to mount the same kind of filter on the digital camera, but will the sensor pick up the resultant filtered infrared image?
posted by luriete to sports, hobbies, & recreation (5 comments total)

you can test ir response by pointing a standard IR remote into the lens and checking out the preview screen thing to see if you can see it. It'll probably looks white if it's responding.
posted by Flat Feet Pete at 5:05 PM on June 28, 2004

Searching Google for "powershot infrared" gives plenty of pointers. This page seems to answer your questions. The main answer is "maybe." It depends on the camera.

You'll need something like this to use any filters.
posted by whatnotever at 5:19 PM on June 28, 2004

I'm a huge fan of this site: ECHENG.COM: Digital Infrared Photography


In fact, I should really post it on blue. I just did.

I got the nikon 990, to do just this. I just haven't had the chance to buy the step up rings.
posted by filmgeek at 7:29 PM on June 28, 2004

Heh.
I was just debating this a few days ago with a friend.
AskMe, your Psychic friends Network
posted by Fupped Duck at 8:28 PM on June 28, 2004

I've been using the Congo Blue gel cut to circles in a lens adapter for the Canon G1 and G5 for a while now. I also have been mixing in a few of the IR-passing red gels from the same supplier to remove some of the fuscia color and make it a little more "ghostly". I primarily take pictures of plants, it's amazing how different plants are in this spectrum (most look, not surprisingly, like little bulls-eyes for their pollinators).

I originally got the idea from here which has pointers on how to do it cheaply. I'm going to set up the lenses for the fireworks again this year, fireworks are also awesome in IR (or at least the semi-IR results that you get with this method). It's amazing how many sites there are about since last time I looked, should make for some interesting reading.
posted by milovoo at 4:58 PM on June 29, 2004