Camera Labs

Hello

Recently I've been drawn by infrared photos and I'm out shopping for a infrared filter to play around with. Although I have a spare camera around but I'm afraid there's no one in my area that modified sensor.

Long story short, I've came across a few filters online and this particular one; "Kenko Hoya Pro 1 Digital R72 Infrared Filter 77mm" is priced at a whopping 220 in usd.

Below are the attached picture with the product. I'm hesitate about the difference I am looking at.



I am not limited by budget, I am only limited by my patience on how long I am willing to save my money before buying something. 220 usd is still within my patience zone and I would love to hear some advice from pros on filter shopping.

Thank you all in advance.

Whatever site you're looking at is keyword spamming - listing as many terms as they can in the hopes of appearing in a search. There is no such product as listed.

I assume they mean the plain simple Hoya R72, which is the nearest thing to a "standard" IR filter. As a premium brand, it does command a high price, not helped by the large filter size. You can save a fair bunch of money if you can limit yourself to using a smaller filter size on suitable lenses.

There are definitely cheaper ones available, particularly on ebay. I compared the Hoya R72 to two random filters I bought from ebay here. Basically, of the two I got, one was very similar in performance to the Hoya, but at much lower cost. The other didn't seem to have as strong a visible block action, letting in too much visible red, as such I wouldn't say it was suitable for use on an unmodified camera. Of course the trouble would be finding which are the good ones and which might not be.

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Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

Hello popo,

I ran a search for "infrared" at first your thread didn't show up

Wonderful thread, I'll definitely give it a read. Thank you so much!

That aside, the site I surf is definitely legit; I've made tremendous amount of deal with them.

Below is the product page.

http://shashinki.com/shop/kenko-hoya-digital-infrared-filter-77mm-p-2381.html

A direct quote from the description.

"The best, highest quality of infrared filter from Kenko / Hoya (under THK Group), the Kenko Hoya Pro 1 Digital R72 Infrared Filter!

This is the PRO 1 D range of filter from Kenko / Hoya, only available in Japan! This is not the normal R72 Hoya infrared filter sold in the market.

Infrared filter helps cut down all other lights except infrared light, which is not visible to human eyes. Kenko Hoya R72 filter permits light of around 700 wavelenght to pass through, which is the most popular infrared filter in the world!"

Ok, that's a new product to me, but they're still using excess terms to describe it (Hoya) probably to get more search hits. It's like being on ebay! While Kenko and Hoya are related companies, it isn't Hoya branded so simply shouldn't be named as such when selling.

Beyond that, so far I haven't turned up any details on that specific filter myself. *if* it was a Hoya, the name would suggest it is coated, but I've not managed to find evidence of Kenko doing that yet.

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Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

Hello again, appreciated your help I will definitely weigh it out before purchasing one, seeing how a unbranded infrared filter perform closely to a more expensive one.

Does anyone do IR photography or Videography ?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzLjC3jH1Xk
http://www.youtube.com/user/outithewood ... bHwV9NpHBM
http://www.youtube.com/user/outithewood ... df-qo8S9ec
Video 1 Mike Dixon Stoneage Bushcraft
Video 2 Mike Dixon Test
Video 3 Just finished building the IR72 Infrared Camera and Illuminator
Which is a modified Broken CCTV camera found in the Skip at work Very Happy
Lucky find that day, after cleaning all the rain water and dirt out of it and changing the Lens to a spare i had in the workshop i then removed the bandpass filter from the Sensor and left it open to every frequency it could detect the QE drops off at 1180nM so its Near IR only (Band A)
but it looks ok for the videos i do.

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If A Picture Speaks a Thousand words then HD Video Screams Millions
DSLR Video the Next step.

Camcorders have Infra Red on them for nightvision, and most owners would use them when filming in the dark, but from a professional point of view, I think it would only be used for things like 'Most Haunted Live', and programs where lighting can't be used for whatever reasons.

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Canon EOS 500D
Lenses: EFS 18-55mm IS, EF 50mm F/1.8 II