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GF1-IR, take 2

V

Vivek

Guest
Jack, How is the dust management without the dust shaker in place?

Could you show a picture of your converted cam (without any lens or body cap on)?

TIA.
 

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
Jack, How is the dust management without the dust shaker in place?

Could you show a picture of your converted cam (without any lens or body cap on)?

TIA.
I'll snap one later. Dust management is now old school -- blower and/or fluid and swabs as needed, but the access is bone simple since the sensor (covered by the IR filter) is right there and the camera has a short and wide throat. Note that Precision did indicate they keep all the parts and can restore this camera to full normal operation if desired. Of course for the cost, it would be cheaper to sell the IR convert and purchase a new visible replacement, but the point is the camera's basic integrity is not compromised.
 

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
Here's a corrected sky version, just did a quick selective hue edit in CS -- speaking for myself only, I prefer the original more cyan version:

 

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
Note: I just updated the original post to include current pricing as well as a direct email to use for IR conversion inquiries.
 

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
Jack,

did they do any E-P1 conversions before?

Uwe
I don't have any idea, sorry. Best to contact them directly at the email address above and ask -- they are very responsive to inquiries and very easy to deal with.
 

DHart

New member
kwalsh, Howard, Jack... thank you all very much for the info. Too bad about the LX3's hot spots.

Howard... you've got some wonderful looks with your G9. Which conversion did you have done? Are your false color images mostly done with no filtration over the lens and your monochrome IR images all done with just one filter over the lens?

I was originally thinking about a monochrome conversion as I hadn't seen that many false color images that I really liked... until I found work by Michael "camboman"

http://www.pbase.com/camboman/zionir

I believe these were done with a 665 IR conversion on a D80. The false color look he has achieved in this gallery, especially, really appeals to me. It seems likely that he does a lot of color work to these images after capture to get the rich intensity that he achieves... especially with his ziorir images. Typically the color richness isn't like this straight out of the camera, is it?

I guess the 665 on the GF1, however, may not be a good way to go. I'm wondering, Jack, if the 715 can get a similar look from the GF1 to what Micheal gets with the 665 in the D80. Any ideas on that?

Lastly, is it asking too much of a single IR conversion to be able to get great false color IR AND great monochrome IR?

Jack... I brought one of your street images above, as an example, into Lightroom to see what could be done with post color work and WOW, I can see that there's so very much that can be done in coloration variations. Really nice. I'm really looking forward to seeing more of what you can do with your GF1! Many thanks for your sharing.
 
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Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
You can indeed do a lot with false color in post. However, the more distinct color you have to begin with, the more you can do, and for sure the 665 conversion allows a lot more green through (actually it allows enough more blue through to render green), so in the end it all depends on what results YOU want to achieve. I am personally not a big fan of the highly saturated look in the gallery you linked to -- in fact they look more than IR conversions as the artist has several images where the same type of tree has a totally different leaf or needle colors, which just doesn't look right to me. I am more likely to do B&W's with the occasional false-color, which is why I settled on the 715. For you, the 665 may be the better choice, but if you want results like the gallery you linked to, I suspect that could be achieved with the 715 combined with aggressive post-process selective coloring. Note that if you do choose the 665, Precision can modify the lenses to achieve infinity focus with the 665 conversions.
 

DHart

New member
Thanks Jack... I appreciate the input! I got a very quick and detailed reply from Mark @ Precision... wow, they really are customer responsive! And they're pricing is well below some of the competition.

Mark personally uses the G9 himself for IR and speaks very highly of it. He said that they do more conversions on the G9 than anything else and there are no hot spots with the G9 whatsoever. Since I have a lonely, unused G9 in the closet... it can find some great utility.

With the incredible conversion to B&W options available in post these days (color enhancements as well), I may go with the 665 in my G9. Perhaps down the road add another GF1 and go with the 715 in that body.

Interestingly, Mark spoke glowingly of the LX3 as a conversion candidate and made no mention of hot spots with it. I think I'll ask him more about hotspots the LX3.

This is so much fun!

Oh... one more question.. to achieve the monochromatic B&W IR look with the 715 (or the 665 for that matter) is it necessary to add filtration to the lens or can that be done about as well in post?
 
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DHart

New member
Jack... have to say that I really love the tracks image... wonderful. And the B&W conversion is my favorite of the variations. I can see you're going to have a great time with that GF1/715IR. I'm envious!
 

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
Thank you, it was a quick grab, but I like it too, other than the pair of seagulls sitting on teh tracks ;) My B&W conversions were all done in Photoshop, using their standard B&W adjustment, no filters on the camera. My point was i you want/need even stronger IR, I can always add a stronger IR filter over the lens.
 

ustein

Contributing Editor
I got quite a few modified IR cameras and this one looks better then all of them.

715nm is the way to go and these cameras are so small that there is no excuse not to have a IR camera with you all the time.
 

Howard

New member
Dhart,

In answer to your several inquiries. I had my G9 converted with a R72 equivalent filter. I do not use any filters to achieve false colors, it is all done in PP. As Jack indicated, some ir photos out of the camera lend themselves to color and others to B&W. It took me a long while to achieve blue sky and in many cases it never looks right. I am hesitant to post any photograph that is not taken with a m4/3 camera in this forum. but you can review my website and see several hundred of my ir photos. Based on ir photos posted by others, it seems as if better ir color is achievable with the 665 or similar filter.

Howard
http://photo.net/photos/howardfuhrman
 

DHart

New member
Thanks, Howard. You've got some great images in your galleries... thank you for the reference to them. I really like your Washington, DC images. Obviously, the G9 makes a wonderful IR machine.

I do equally like the wide-hue, vividly colored IR stuff like this:

http://www.pbase.com/camboman/zionir

as well as the punchy, contrasty B&W stuff that we all know and love so much. And it seems that to do that with one camera, depending on the camera, the 665 will make that possible. I can always put a 720+ IR filter on the lens to really pop the contrast for B&W and/or do so in post. At this point I think I'm going to send my G9 off to Mark @ Precision for the 665 conversion. And then when the GF1 body pricing/availability loosens up a bit, pick up another GF1 body and do just as Jack did with his... convert to a 715.

Jack, finding your thread on the GF1 IR conversion has really opened my eyes and mind to a lot today and I've learned so much from this crash course. (I've hardly left my Mac and researching on the internet for the last 18 hours!) Thanks for sharing your conversion saga and I really look forward to seeing what you do with your GF1 IR as time moves forward.
 

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
DHart, glad you've found it so useful -- that's the whole point of the forum!
 

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
I got quite a few modified IR cameras and this one looks better then all of them.

715nm is the way to go and these cameras are so small that there is no excuse not to have a IR camera with you all the time.
Having owned a few IR cameras myself, I'd have to agree. The biggest issue for me was the "having it with you all the time" problem --- most of my previous conversions were either too large, too inconvenient to use or built on a completely different system than the one I was using. Because of that they never got actually carried unless I thought I wanted to do only IR, which never happened very often. So mostly those cameras stayed in the trunk of the car and never got into my active shooting bag. This particular camera with the kit lens mounted fits in a single lens slot, so I won't have too many excuses for not having it with me at all times.
 

Diane B

New member
That's exactly my case. I had the 10D converted a good while ago--but it was one more camera body to carry--didn't offer a backup in actuality, just a 'third'--and now in the last year when I've mostly carried the m4/3rds, a different system. Whether I shoot with the Canon system or m4/3rds, having a GF1 converted to IR makes sense--small enough to not matter that much as second camera system or included with the other m4/3rds even more lenses to use.

Thanks for sharing the bad--and then the good--about this conversion Jack. I bet it ends up with more conversions for Precision--and good for them that they were outstanding for customer service.

Diane
 

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
Having some fun with a few of the files from the IR maiden voyage.

Here a straight B&W conversion from the in-camera IR, plus some slight curve. I am amazed by the amount of DR you are able to keep in the file during capture:



This one was into the sun, so it ended up very soft. I bumped saturation and contrast quite a bit in post and of course did the R<>B channel swap. This Acacia tree was full of the little yellow flower balls:



This one was heavily tweaked -- channel swap then a bleach-bypass color conversion routine I do in CS which heavily increases contrast, lowers saturation in the high tones and increases it in the low tones, leaving just a hint of colors:

 

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
Thanks Guy -- I like the added drama as well.

Still have a lot to learn about processing these out, but for reference, here is the marsh shot done with the bleach-bypass routine:



And while it clearly won't work for every shot, it can definitely alter the overall mood of the shot -- here is the Acacia tree done in the bleach-bypass:



Dang, I think I'm going to have to write an action for IR bleach-bypass! :)
 
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