[matthew]

I bought a new camera. And yes, Pavel, it's a superzoom.



It's a nice little camera, packing a 28-500mm-e zoom. And it has a secret.



That's my new-used Panasonic FZ18, a Hoya R72 IR filter, and the tail light for a bike I don't own.



This camera and I are still getting to know each other. It's had an IR conversion done, and it's nearly my first time using a camera that shoots in infrared without losing ten or fifteen stops of light. One of the immediate differences is that instead of shooting with everything red, I can easily do a custom white balance. I also suspect that this is an "enhanced colour" filter that lets some additional light through. This is what the above photo looked like in the initial raw conversion:



The ability to shoot "colour" infrared is a new and unusual thing, to say the least. There's no way to predict what 'colours' will translate into a bright purple—I can photograph someone wearing a black shirt, black jacket, and black bag, and have one come out white, one blue, and the other black. And sometime the white balance can be tweaked so that there's no difference at all, like the photo below, which could almost have been taken with any of my other cameras.



But the reality of being able to shoot in IR, either exclusively or inclusively, at normal shutter speeds has been remarkable. Action shots are possible, within the constraints of a P&S camera, as is night photography even without a tripod.



The lens is very good, with no fogging or other IR-related problems that even excellent glass can fall victim to. But not everything is perfect. For one thing, a good IR camera is almost by definition a P&S, with all of the performance and design issues that involves. For example, the FZ18 has a dedicated button to change from Auto to Manual Focus, but changing the ISO requires between four to seven button-pushes to delve into the menus. And after getting used to DSLRs, the P&S image quality is a bit of a teddy bear—soft and fuzzy. But some of that may also be due to the IR conversion.



Dust! At some point during the conversion, something unhappy happened to this camera. This photo, uncropped and taken at the full lens extension, has had a lot of work done to stretch the levels. (It was shot during daylight, and hand-held.) These spots don't normally show, and none of these sample photos have been de-spotted, although they're easily visible against an even tone. But, for a camera that cost only a little more than my Lensbaby, I really can't complain.

[Pavel]

Looks like a nice toy, Matthew. The IR conversion alone makes it a worsy purchase. I did not know you have a lensbaby. I will ask you what you think of it. P

[Keith Alan]

Wow, and Holy Crap!

As someone who is missing my former IR ability, do me a favor: Forget about false colors, even when they look amazing.
Every IR photographer I know is caught in that trap of seeing the unpredictable colors and saying to themselves "that's cool!" when in fact the odd colors don't do a damn thing to improve a photo that should have been B&W all along. It's all random and goofy and ugly.
Accidents have their place in photography, but if you didn't plan for the exact color results you got, what's the point? What are you really saying when every color is only a surprise?

The beauty of IR is that the dynamic range is so narrow that unless you screw it up there is plenty of detail in the highlights and shadows, waiting for some smart editing work with levels to make the result sing.
You can process the files so that there is insane contrast with no penalties--black sky and white clouds with everything else falling somewhere in-between.
That's what got me into IR in the first place--a better way to shoot B&W using digital.

[Irma]

Congratulation on your new toy!!!

I envy already the IR feature.... I look forward to your comment about the prints comming out from this one.

[Zig]

Brill! Am all for this: great stuff Matthew; I'd like to get my 350D done at some point. I remember wrestling with Konica and Kodak IR film and impenetrable filters, then the ooh-it's-Christmas times in the darkroom, only to find 1 frame every 30 usable; missed it ever since; am inspired for the future now!
It does a darn fine job, doesn't it?

[matthew]

Pavel, you're absolutely right, just buying the camera OR having a camera converted would have cost as much as this whole package. Its a good deal even with the sensor dust. And I'll happily answer any questions about the lensbaby, but the fact that you didn't know I have one answers a few questions already.

Keith, that's a god point about the false colour. I've been really struck by the effect, feeling that it looks unreal in the literal and figurative sense. While I haven't quite gotten a B&W conversion routine that I like yet, I'm hoping that the colour effect will help me brighten the foliage and other bright purples, while I can darken the oranges of the sky. Shooting through an R72 filter drops the sensitivity by 1/3EV, so the camera's definitely letting in some non-IR light to give the extra latitude than I'm finding.

Irma, thanks—believe it or not, it hadn't occurred to me to print any. Hopefully I'll get something worthwhile soon.

Zig, thanks. I know some people have been quite successful with DSLR conversions, but getting one to behave seems too much like work for me to take it on. So far I've been quite impressed by the FZ18, and wonder what a converted G9 would be like.

Here are a few more photos. (One of the nice things about testing the new camera is that I don't have to worry about quality.)







My apologies for the double-posting of the last one, but the first time I didn't admit that it was shot in IR. Granted, it looks very much like it would shot with a normal camera, but I do feel that shadows and light still have a different feel. There's also Keith's point about the ease of controlling shadows and highlights. (Besides, it was the camera that I had with me.)

I got a chance to shoot some portraits today, so I'm looking forward to seeing how they came out. People aren't usually my strength.