I R An Infrared Camera

So people have been asking what surgical procedure I performed on the camera my good ol’ schoolmate Bernard donated to me to make it come up with funky infrared pictures. This is what I did:


From left to right, top to bottom:

  • The Fujifilm Digital Q1, before operation.
  • The front.
  • I opened four screws in the back, and I pried the front cover open. (Don’t touch the big capacitor; it still stores a big electric charge, used for your camera’s flash.)
  • I opened more layers until I reached the back, where the LCD screen was, and the final screws which held the infrared cut filter in place.
  • From the front. Note the black thing in the middle; that holds the infrared cut filter.
  • The 1/2″ CMOS, exposed! (Don’t let dust get on this.)
  • I tried to push out the infrared cut filter.
  • A handy Philips screwdriver, the infrared cut filter and the back plate, in infrared.


Left: Two negatives in front of the lens to block out normal light, and a few layers of negatives on the flash; right: opened, for ‘mixed mode‘ where it gets infrared and normal light.


From left to right, top to bottom: (All shots unedited, just resized.)

  • My first expression when I assembled it back, and it worked! It could see infrared light.
  • Okay, this picture was from before; the camera could never focus properly, being a fixed focus camera with a macro range of 60-120cm.
  • The ‘mixed mode‘ lets in natural colors and a good dose of infrared.
  • Infrared only, but because I removed the infrared cut filter, the camera became shortsighted!
  • I bumped into Asyraf Lee at KLCC during this fashion show, and he hinted at what infrared photography could do…
  • …which wasn’t true. Plus my camera couldn’t focus that far, so yeah, it would take very specific lighting and heat conditions to do what he said infrared photography could do.


Well, at least somebody said, “Hey, I don’t remember wearing that top…

So uh… does anybody know anybody who knows how to cut glass to specific dimensions? I’ll pay to have my camera have good focus range… or, I could salvage the manual focus lens on my infrared webcam and put it on the camera! (The infrared cut filter holder is not the same size, so some hacking and superglue might be necessary…)

17 thoughts on “I R An Infrared Camera

  1. Albert Ng Post author

    Eh, you have an inside man… er woman. So get two old used display models, I’ll mod both, give you one and keep the other as ‘service charge’. 😀

    Reply
  2. Serge Norguard Post author

    the inside man/woman has left the building. anyway, can this be done with those camera with optical zoom (lens that will protrude out) ?

    Reply
  3. Albert Ng Post author

    Serge: Yeah it can be done on any digital camera. (Analog film cannot pick up infrared at all.) I think a camera with manual focus setting will be better because the camera might not be able to autofocus.

    Most cameras, when zoomed, MAY have a white spot in the center due to internal reflection in the lens.

    Reply
  4. Asyraf Lee Post author

    And somehow I have this feeling that whoever the girl in the last photo is so gonna kill me because I teached Albert how to intai anak perempuan orang 😛

    Reply
  5. Syakir Khalid Post author

    Yep, the next news sensation "First intai with handphone cameras, and now infared photography. And the culprit is Albert. OMG!!!!!1111one1!!!!satu"

    Reply
  6. Matthew Post author

    ok, i’ll go home now and toy with my camera, if my mum catches me, i’ll say it’s Albert who taught me. lol.

    Reply
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