Way back in 2003 (I only know as it was printed on the slides thanks Carousel Photo AKA technicare) I bought a roll of Colour IR Film. I didn’t have any filters so this is the full Visible and Infrared spectrums of light here. I have been thinking about getting the Sony A7SII converted into a full spectrum camera and then shooting with different filters depending on the spectrum I want. For example by adding a UV/IR Cut filter I can shoot regular Visible light photos, or by adding a IR Filter I can take photos in the 550nm spectrum range, or whatever spectrum range you choose really you just plop on a different filter.
The conversion is actually quite inexpensive at around $350-$400 depending on where you get it done. But because the Sigma 85mm Lens has a filter thread size of 86 bloody mm I would need to buy 95mm filters for all the spectrums which are freaking expensive!
So with the conversion and just the UV/IR Cut filter it could easily be about $560US (which is about $950Billion CDN Right now) to take a camera that works great at shooting the normal visible spectrum and make it shoot the normal visible light spectrum again.
Why would you do this you ask?
To shoot IR Chrome mostly.
You see years ago when I had wanted to shoot IR film I had seen photos that were actually Aerochrome film.
Aerochrome Film was a color Infrared film that was made by Kodak. It was known for making foliage bright red while keeping the sky blue. It was used by the military in the 40’s to photograph the ground looking for camouflaged planes as camouflage nets wouldn’t show up as bright red like the surrounding follage.
I loved the look of the bright reds and blues while keeping most of the rest of the image somewhat the same as normal film and this is what started me on my quest to shoot the IR spectrum. Sadly Aerochrome hasn’t been made for a long time. (lomography had some old stock for sale 11-12 years ago but that was legit the last of it.)
2003 was in the early days of lomography info on the internet so there wasn’t a tone of information of examples of creating the look of Aerochrome with IR film or with filters on your digital camera. but now we can do it!
You just need to convert a camera to full spectrum and then add an IR Chrome Filter to the lens and you are basically G2G!
So my plan is to send the A7sII in for conversion at some point. Mirrorless cameras work better as they show the image as it is seen by the sensor as apposed to DSLR’s that have focusing issues when you are shooting in the IR Specturm
